The Year's Best

THE RIVER NIGER. The hymn-deep, groin-stabbing, laugh-lacerating life of the American black, rendered with love, anger and precision.

MEDEA. In her natal Greece, Irene Papas is known as Mavro Diamond (Black Diamond). Such was her Medea.

EL GRANDE DE COCA-COLA. An effervescent foolscap farce--it's the real thing.

WELCOME TO ANDROMEDA. The hero was almost totally paralyzed, but Ron Whyte's first play quivered with instinctual dramatic life.

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. Lovely to look at, delightful to listen to, this jewel box of a show won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best musical.

UNCLE VANYA. George C. Scott, Julie Christie and Nicol Williamson helped make this the crowning dramatic event of the year. The splendid cast was obviously inspired by the brilliant direction of Mike Nichols and the irreluctable genius of Anton Chekhov.

NICOL WILLIAMSON'S LATE SHOW. An afterhours gig with the matchless Scot singing the blues and lighting up the night with Eliot, Kipling and Beckett.

THE CONTRACTOR. The mysterious art of the commonplace continues to fascinate British Playwright David Storey and his growing band of devotees. With this play he may add fresh laurels to the New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards that he won with Home and The Changing Room.

BOOM BOOM ROOM. All about a go-go girl, luminously played by Madeline Kahn. A flawed work, yet indelibly, poignantly impressive.

GOOD EVENING. Dementia ridicula rules this revue. Peter Cook and Dudley Moore are the laugh-loony culprits.

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