Theater

1 METAMORPHOSES A wading pool takes up nearly the entire stage. Ten actors--some dressed in togas, others in modern-day suits--jump in and out of it to re-enact the myths of Ovid. There's Phaeton and his chariot; Midas (in the chair) and his daughter; Orpheus and his underworld voyage. Writer-director Mary Zimmerman's lovely, deeply affecting work (an off-Broadway hit moving to Broadway in March) recaptures the primal allure of the theater--it's fake; isn't it wonderful? Using stage devices that delight with their low-tech ingenuity and a text that modernizes without patronizing, it shows that theater can provide not just escape but sometimes a glimpse of the divine.

2 TOPDOG/UNDERDOG A reformed street hustler, who now makes a living playing Abraham Lincoln in an arcade, shares a seedy room with his brother, who calls himself Booth. No point in trying to figure out the symbolism; just revel in Suzan-Lori Parks' haunting, fractured world of losers and even bigger losers. Jeffrey Wright and Don Cheadle (in an all too short off-Broadway run that could reach Broadway next year) gave riveting performances in one of Parks' strongest plays.

3 THE PRODUCERS Perhaps you've heard of it? Mel Brooks' first crack at a Broadway musical looks like it will run forever. And maybe it deserves to. Of course, the 75-year-old amateur had help from some talented pros, especially director Susan Stroman, who serves up show stopper after show stopper, and Nathan Lane (with Matthew Broderick, left), a Max Bialystock even Zero Mostel would have loved.

4 THE GLORY OF LIVING "He's mean," says the young girl of the man who has kidnapped her. "He is?" replies the man's abused teenage wife and partner in crime. No social critic could express with more eloquence or economy the plight of the white-trash couple Rebecca Gilman chronicles in her deadpan, slice-of-lowlife drama. This 1997 play, having its New York premiere in a fine production directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman and starring Anna Paquin, is a stunner.

5 THE LAST FIVE YEARS Composer-lyricist Jason Robert Brown (Parade) does his best work to date in this melodic and elegantly crafted chamber musical, in which a couple simultaneously tell the story of their relationship--one from start to finish, the other from finish to start. Daisy Prince's inventive production opened at Chicago's Northlight Theater and will face the New York critics early next year.

6 ELAINE STRITCH AT LIBERTY Do we really need another one-woman show in which a crusty Broadway trouper recounts her show-biz war stories while belting out Sondheim and Berlin standards? Yes, if she has enlisted as artful a collaborator as New Yorker theater critic John Lahr and can still perform, at age 76, with as much energy, wit and seen-it-all gumption as Elaine Stritch.

7 KING HEDLEY II August Wilson's brand of big windy social drama is out of vogue right now, but he's still at the top of his game. In this, the eighth of his 20th century cycle, the residents of a ghetto neighborhood in Pittsburgh struggle against the social and economic realities of the Reagan '80s. A great cast, including Brian Stokes Mitchell, right, and Tony Award-winner Viola Davis, luxuriated in Wilson's impassioned language.

8 URINETOWN In a mythical city of the future, an evil capitalist controls the water supply, people have to pee in public toilets, and the cast never lets you forget it's all a put-on. Even with the jokey excesses, this musical by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis--doing a pretty fair imitation of Brecht and Weill--is original, high-spirited fun.

9 42ND STREET Broadway wasn't exactly clamoring for a revival so soon of Gower Champion's 1980 musical, based on the 1933 movie. But with thousands of tapping feet, a score brimming with seemingly every great movie song from the '30s, and the perfect role (finally) for the wonderful Christine Ebersole, this show is sheer joy.

10 THE DRAWER BOY Will anyone pay attention to a quiet, understated play about two middle-aged brothers living on a farm--in Canada? Oh, let's give it a try. Michael Healey's comedy-drama is beautifully paced and written, and the sentiment has some sly and unexpected edges. A popular success in Canada, the play had its U.S. premiere at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater in a little-noticed production that featured two of the year's best performances, by Frank Galati (director of Ragtime) and Frasier's John Mahoney.