The Best Theater of 2020: With Broadway Dark Due to Covid-19, an At-Home Curtain Call

Posted December 16, 2020

Arms For Web

By Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal

Terry Teachout recently included APT's Arms and the Man in his best (largely virtual) theater of 2020. We're so humbled to be included among these other amazing productions and theater companies, and our primary wish for 2021 is that we all return to our stages, healthy and ready to play. In the meantime, check out Mr. Teachout's summary of this unprecedented, and surprisingly hopeful, theater season below.

"What productions have impressed me most? I haven’t seen a bad show, or even a mediocre one, but in addition to “A Touch of the Poet” and “St. Nicholas,” I’d be remiss not to single out Syracuse Stage’s “Amadeus,” American Players Theatre’s “Arms and the Man,” the Mint’s “Conflict,” Park Square Theatre’s “The Diary of Anne Frank, ” Wilma Theater’s “Heroes of the Fourth Turning,” American Shakespeare Center’s “Othello,” TimeLine Theater’s “To Master the Art,” American Conservatory Theater’s “ Toni Stone, ” and the Alley Theatre’s stage version of “1984.” Taken together, these shows, which originated in theaters all over America, prove that theater at home, even when viewed with earphones on a laptop, can be almost as exciting as the kind you go out to see. Yes, it’s a stopgap, and certain kinds of plays work less well than others—I have yet to see, for instance, a comedy taped in an empty theater that was truly satisfying—but you don’t have to wait until a Covid-19 vaccine is widely available to rediscover the incomparable pleasure of watching a really good show."

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