Top 5 Favorite Plays

Wavy_Blue · Dec 24, 2009

Inspired by the top 5 favorite books thread in the books forum, this is the thread where you can share your top five favorite plays! These don't necessarily have to be plays you've seen. If you've just read the script, I think that'd be acceptable.

Anyway, my top five are:

Noises Off by Michael Frayn
Macbeth by Shakespeare
See How They Run by Phillip King
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring

What're yours?

childeroland · Dec 25, 2009

Cheating a little, but...

[Shakespeare's Major Tragedies and Comedies]
The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde
The Misanthrope, Moliere
A Doll's House, Ibsen
Woe from Wit, Aleksandr Griboyedov

Exir · Dec 25, 2009

Nothing by Robert Wilson yet? Shame.

Ken · Dec 25, 2009

... Hamlet (1948 movie version)
and four by Eugene O'Neil:
- Long Day's Journey Into Night
- Emporer Jones
- The Hairy Ape
- Anna Christie

underthecity · Dec 27, 2009

I can't list five plays.

However, before even clicking on this thread, I was going to say Noises Off. I would recommend anyone who has never seen it to try to find it (the movie of it) on video. It's face-hurting hilarious. I've seen both, the play and movie.

Oh, and Tony and Tina's Wedding. That's a real fun experience.

David Wisehart · Dec 27, 2009

Hamlet
Macbeth
King Lear
Oedipus Rex
Cyrano de Bergerac

DavidZahir · Dec 28, 2009

Twelfth Night by W. Shakespeare
Equus by P. Shaffer
Cloud Nine by C. Churchill
Uncle Vanya by A. Chekhov
In Perpetuity Throughout the Universe by E. Overmeyer

Calla Lily · Dec 28, 2009

Love for Love, Congreve
Cyrano de Bergerac, Rostand
Macbeth
The Orestiad, Aeschylus (cheating a bit, because it's a trilogy)
Arsenic and Old Lace

S.J. · Dec 28, 2009

I can't list five (uncultured or what), but War Horse and Romeo and Juliet are two of my favourites.

Toothpaste · Dec 28, 2009

Always the work of Shakespeare - especially lately the Histories (in particular, Henry IV Part I and Richard II)
Cyrano for sure.
Peter Pan
The works of Robert Lepage - not all of them, but in general I think he's a pure genius and Far Side of the Moon has got to be one of my favs

... gosh this is hard to list just five...I guess my last choice...

I'll cheat again and say many of the plays by Stephen Sondheim (Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods specifically).

Oh damn it all . . . I also love Little Shop of Horrors and Guys And Dolls too. . . and many Oscar Wilde plays . . .

Okay okay. One more. . .choose one more . . .

Here's the list (as of today . . .):

Henry IV Part I
Cyrano
Peter Pan
Far Side of the Moon
Little Shop of Horrors

S.J. · Dec 28, 2009

Toothpaste said:
Little Shop of Horrors

I love that musical, especially the songs. 'Feed Me' and 'Downtown' are awesome!

(I really hope you are talking about the musical - and not an extremely intellectual/cultural play, haha.)

Toothpaste · Dec 28, 2009

Well Little Shop actually began as this small movie that was just a bunch of actors being silly, but then it was turned into the off broadway show we know and love now. So yes, I'm talking about the musical. I think it's a wonderfully constructed little musical, great songs, great story, great satire. Written by the same guys who did The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast.

My fav song would have to be "Dentist":

You'll be a dentist
You have a talent for causin' things pain
Son, be a dentist
People will pay you to be inhumane

. . . but they're all wonderful (btw, the movie ends differently than the play, the play in my opinion is much better for its ending).

eveningstar · Dec 28, 2009

This is hard.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
All in the Timing, the collected short plays of David Ives, particularly Words, Words, Words & Variations on the Death of Trotsky
W;t by Margaret Edson

Honorable mention to Punchdrunk's Sleep No More, which has no words but is still the most brilliant piece of theatre I've ever seen.

Shadow_Ferret · Dec 28, 2009

We go to see A Christmas Carol every December by a local community theater. That's my favorite play.

ChaosTitan · Dec 28, 2009

Rent, by Jonathan Larson
Noises Off, by Michael Frayn
Miss Saigon, by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard
Lost in Yonkers, by Neil Simon

S.J. · Dec 28, 2009

Toothpaste said:
You'll be a dentist
You have a talent for causin' things pain
Son, be a dentist
People will pay you to be inhumane

Who wants their teeth done by the Marquis de Sade?

Exir · Dec 28, 2009

Everything by Robert Wilson. The guy's a genius.

deepprincealain · Feb 8, 2010

eveningstar said:
Variations on the Death of Trotsky

I got the chance to play Trotsky in this in my freshman year of college. What a joy!

As for my own top five, I probably could list them later, but the ones that are coming to mind currently are:

Machinal, by Sophie Treadwell
Medea, by Christopher Durang (Practically anything by Christopher Durang is a scream.)
The Dumb Waiter, by Harold Pinter

Wavy_Blue · Feb 8, 2010

darkprincealain said:
I got the chance to play Trotsky in this in my freshman year of college. What a joy!

As for my own top five, I probably could list them later, but the ones that are coming to mind currently are:

Machinal, by Sophie Treadwell
Medea, by Christopher Durang (Practically anything by Christopher Durang is a scream.)
The Dumb Waiter, by Harold Pinter

LOVE Christopher Durang. I directed a short one-act play he wrote in high school (The Funeral, I think it was called?). I also did a female interpretation of the monologue from The Actor's Nightmare for competition. It was such fun! He's brilliant.

CaroGirl · Feb 8, 2010

Les liaisons dangereueses by Christopher Hampton (based on the French novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos). I saw it in London and was blown away by the actor who played Valmont.
Death of a Salesman
The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill
The Glass Menagerie

I agree that Noises Off is GREAT for a bit of fun.

Top 5 Favorite Plays

Wavy_Blue

Adventure is out there!

childeroland

What happened to my LIFE?!

Exir

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking

Ken

underthecity

Finestkind

David Wisehart

DavidZahir

Malkavian Primogen

Calla Lily

On hiatus

S.J.

Addict? I can quit whenever I want!

Toothpaste

THE RECKLESS RESCUE is out now!

S.J.

Addict? I can quit whenever I want!

Toothpaste

THE RECKLESS RESCUE is out now!

eveningstar

circus girl without a safety net

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

ChaosTitan

Around

S.J.

Addict? I can quit whenever I want!

Exir

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking

deepprincealain

Wavy_Blue

Adventure is out there!

CaroGirl

Living the dream