10 Worst Theater Productions of 2017: From Michael Moore to ‘Amelie’ (Photos)
10 “The Whirligig,” by Hamish Linklater, at Off Broadway’s New Group. Who’s to blame for a young woman’s impending death from drug addiction? Bigger question: who talked such talented actors (Norbert Leo Butz, Zosia Mamet, Dolly Wells) into performing this script?
9 “Amelie,” by Craig Lucas, Daniel Messe and Nathan Tysen, on Broadway. The movie’s whimsical heroine turns into an insufferable annoyance on stage.
8 “Gently Down the Stream,” by Martin Sherman, at Off Broadway’s Public Theater. An old gay man (Harvey Fierstein) not only talks and talks about every atrocity suffered by the LGBT community. He has somehow been witness to them all in this pity party of a play.
7 “Office Hour,” by Julia Cho, at Off Broadway’s Public Theater. Playwrights’ fixation on creating pathetic victims continues with this drama about a dreadful student who should have been flunked out of college long before he created so much trouble in the English department. You will side with Cho’s villain.
6 “The End of Longing,” by Matthew Perry, at Off Broadway’s MCC Theatre. What begins as a sexy, trite sitcom turns into the kind of treacly Alcoholics Anonymous drama that populated the major networks before cable came to the rescue.
5 “The Penitent,” by David Mamet, at Off Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company. A shrink is accused of bigotry because he wrote about homosexuality being “an aberration.” Once again, Mamet writes an argument, posing as a play, with a twist at the end.
4 “The Terms of My Surrender,” by Michael Moore, on Broadway. Just because someone’s against Trump doesn’t make him talented. Moore’s politics have never looked so benign and juvenile. And he can’t ad lib, which is lethal for a show that invites audience participation.
3 “Anastasia,” by Terrence McNally, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, on Broadway. Speaking of Trump, this is a musical perfectly suited to his family, who will find much to admire in this tribute to the excesses of the Romanoffs.
2 “The Portuguese Kid,” by John Patrick Shanley, at Off Broadway’s Manhattan Theatre Club. Two mismatched couples argue up a storm that’s definitely all wet and rarely funny. Most awkward bit in the theater this year: Jason Alexander getting wood.
1 “The Play That Went Wrong,” by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, on Broadway. Then again, nothing goes right in this forced comedy about a very bad production of a terrible play.
