The top 10
Show Boat: Finally! A production that does justice to both the incomparable glories of Jerome Kern’s score and the sweeping theatrical riches and social conscience of Oscar Hammerstein II’s Edna Ferber-based book. Francesca Zambello’s vital staging of the grandaddy of greatest American musicals at San Francisco Opera — with outstanding performances by Morris Robinson, Heidi Stober, Bill Irwin, Angela Renée Simpson and so many more — was simply unforgettable. The Suit: Blithely comic, deeply moving, unsettlingly cruel and enchantingly musical, Peter Brook, Marie-Hélène Estienne and their Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord’s enchanting adaptation of Cam Themba’s South African tale of adultery and revenge was a polished gem of theatrical storytelling at ACT. Hir: Working in a very different mode from his trademark performance art, Taylor Mac’s Magic Theatre world premiere was a standard family-in-crisis kitchen-sink drama put through a commedia wringer to come out a creatively berserk, outrageous comedy with a tragic undertow, about gender mutability and the shifting sands of sex roles, family stability and the audience’s preconceptions. Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities: Far and away the most exhilarating Cirque du Soleil show in a long time, writerdirector Michel Laprise’s overthe-top magical concoction features a wondrous steampunk-industrial design full of surprises, terrific circus acts, a buoyant 1930s French jazzstyle score and truly funny, inventive clowning by DavidAlexandre Després (runs through Jan. 18). The House That Will Not Stand: Marcus Gardley’s rich gumbo of a play tastily blended elements of García Lorca’s “The House of Bernarda Alba” and Louisiana history in the pre-Civil War family home of free women of color whose French colonial legal rights are being eroded by American racial attitudes, in a piquant, invigoratingly evocative Berkeley Rep world premiere. The Comedy of Errors: A hilarious standout in an outstanding California Shakespeare Theater 40th season ( Jonathan Moscone’s brilliant “Pygmalion” was a highlight as well), Aaron Posner’s six-actor romp through Shakespeare’s mistaken-identity farce sextupled the comedy and exposed the play’s deeper resonances, thanks to sterling The Whale: Nicholas Pelczar’s smartly layered performance, and a first-rate Marin Theatre supporting cast under Jasson Minadakis’ skilled direction, seamlessly turned any initial repulsion into genuine empathy for the protagonist of Samuel D. Hunter’s touching, curiously effective drama of a 600-pound man trying to gorge himself to death and do some good in the process. Six Characters in Search of an Author: Director Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota and adapter Francois Regnault’s engrossing, intellectually bracing, magnetically performed and sexy Théâtre de la Ville-Paris production at Cal Performances was nothing less than a rebirth of Pirandello’s classic as an essential avant-garde drama for the 21st century. Pen/man/ship: A reverse slave-ship voyage, Christina Anderson’s lyrically, metaphysically political drama wove an ever more riveting tale of racial, gender, religious and economic conflicts on a late-19th century ship bound for Liberia in Ryan Guzzo Purcell’s tautly staged and magnetically performed Magic Theatre world premiere. Rapture, Blister, Burn: Feminist theory, contemporary realities and midlife-crisis what-ifs clashed creatively and provocatively in Gina Gionfriddo’s heady, funny three-generational husband-borrowing comedy, a fun-house mirror held up to our times with comic precision by director Desdemona Chiang and a smart Aurora cast.