TimeOut New York Rates Our Town and Les Éphémères Among "Best Theatre" of 2009

By Ernio Hernandez
18 Dec 2009

Our Town director-actor David Cromer
Our Town director-actor David Cromer
Photo by Carol Rosegg

TimeOut New York magazine has chosen its "Best (and Worst) Theater" of 2009. Off-Broadway's Our Town and Lincoln Center Festival's Les Éphémères were among the works that appears on the "Best" lists.

Theater editor David Cote and writers Adam Feldman and Helen Shaw selected their own top ten productions (and also two they didn't care for). David Cromer's version of Our Town and Le Théâtre du Soleil's six-hour-plus epic Les Éphémères placed among the highlights for all three.

Here is a rundown of the Best and Worst for each contributor:

David Cote:
The Best:
1. Ruined
2. Our Town
3. Les Éphémères
4. The Lily's Revenge
5. The Shipment
6. Fela!
7. The Norman Conquests
8. Circle Mirror Transformation
9. Stunning
10. The Starry Messenger

Worst:
1. Impressionism
2. The Philanthropist

Adam Feldman:
The Best:
1. The Lily's Revenge
2. Les Éphémères
3. Lipsynch
4. Our Town
5. The Winter's Tale
6. Next to Normal
7. Becky Shaw
8. A Streetcar Named Desire
9. Next Fall
10. The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side

Worst:
1. Bye Bye Birdie
2. An Evening at the Carlyle

Helen Shaw:
The Best:
1. Les Éphémères
2. The Winter’s Tale
3. Vieux Carré
4. The Bereaved
5. Idiot Savant
6. La Didone
7. Family
8. Mary Stuart
9. Crime or Emergency
10. Our Town

Worst:
1. Orgy of Tolerance
2. Up for Anything

To read the writer's take on his or her choices, visit newyork.timeout.com .