The Best Theater of 1999

1 THE ICEMAN COMETH For all its faults, Eugene O'Neill's lumbering meditation on the human condition still puts to shame most of what passes for playwriting today. And Howard Davies' beautiful production from London brought it alive for a new generation. Kevin Spacey put fresh sparks into the role of Hickey, the salesman who sets out to rid the denizens of Harry Hope's bar of their illusions. But nearly every cast member contributed to an electrifying evening.

2 CONTACT How to get the ailing Broadway musical off life support? Director Susan Stroman and writer John Weidman have an answer: Cut out the singing. Their exhilarating show is composed of three heartfelt love stories told in dance and dialogue accompanied mostly by a wildly diverse jukebox of pop records and enlivened by the performances of Deborah Yates and Karen Ziemba.

3 THE LONESOME WEST Martin McDonagh continues to astonish. The young London playwright's comedy drama about two brothers fighting over their father's money--the third of a trilogy that includes last season's The Beauty Queen of Leenane--plays at first like a Two Stooges farce. But the laughs thinly disguise a chilling picture of human nature at its nastiest and a rebuke to the romance of rural Ireland.

4 ANNIE GET YOUR GUN/KISS ME, KATE O.K., it's sad that the best musicals on Broadway are so often the old ones, but when you leave the theater on such a high, it's hard to complain. Bernadette Peters frees Irving Berlin's Annie Oakley from the iron grip of Ethel Merman in Graciela Daniele's revisionist production. Michael Blakemore plays it straighter with Kate but gives stars Brian Stokes Mitchell and Marin Mazzie a terrific showcase.

5 SPINNING INTO BUTTER A small Vermont college is the setting for this edgy exploration of racism and political correctness, touched off by some anonymous hate letters. Rebecca Gilman's searching play, given a fine staging at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, shows a keen eye for the culture of academic life but resists the urge to lecture.

6 ARTHUR MILLER At 84, he's hot again. First came an acclaimed new production of Death of a Salesman, with Brian Dennehy putting his bearlike grip on Willy Loman, then a powerful new opera based on A View from the Bridge and an impressive Broadway revival of The Price, Miller's underrated 1968 drama about two brothers coming to terms after their father's death.

7 BASH Three monologues by Neil LaBute, each exposing the dark deeds hidden behind ordinary faces. Though his pessimism is a bit forced, LaBute writes sharp dialogue and has created some juicy roles, two of which gave Calista Flockhart a chance to help us forget Ally McBeal, at least for a little while.

8 CLOSER Patrick Marber's bruising drama about relationships is weakest when it tries most to shock (a cybersex scene). But as a portrait of the way modern urbanites strive and fail to connect, it makes an impact. The Broadway cast of this British import, headed by Natasha Richardson, could hardly have been bettered.

9 SNAKEBIT A fine actor, David Marshall Grant (Angels in America), has been evolving into an even better playwright. With passion and sharp humor, his off-Broadway drama, about a trio of smart and smart-alecky friends trying to shift the course of their lives, digs deep into the souls of characters whose problems are all too universal.

10 JITNEY With all the fashionable cynicism around, August Wilson's warm-spirited embrace of his characters looks almost radical. This early work, given a "definitive" rewrite by Wilson and staged anew in Boston and Baltimore, immerses us in the day-to-day life of a gypsy cab company in Pittsburgh, Pa., and proves once again that Wilson is one of our most accomplished, full-bodied dramatists.