1. "Beauty and the Beast." Eyepopping design, a lush orchestra and sublime performances by title players Rajané Katurah and Nathaniel Hackmann helped make Michael Heitzman's production of this Disney musical at Ordway Center sublime. Jamecia Bennett, Max Wojtanowicz, Thomasina Petrus, Rush Benson and T. Mychael Rambo also had bravura turns.
2. "Merrily We Roll Along." The Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical famously closed on Broadway after 16 performances but director Peter Rothstein's fetching production at Theater Latté Da made "Merrily We Roll Along" one of the year's best. Becca Hart, Charley Kringas and Reese Britts dazzled.
3. "Iphigenia at Aulis." Stephen Epp, Regina Marie Williams and Sally Wingert were just a few of our favorite names in Marcela Lorca's gut-wrenching production of Euripides' tragedy at Ten Thousand Things. J.D. Steele's compositions, directed by Billy Steele, helped "Iphigenia" resonate deeply.
4. "Sweat." Director Tamilla Woodard's staging of Lynn Nottage's 2015 Pulitzer-winning drama at the Guthrie was taut, fierce and achingly beautiful.
5. "Twelve Angry Men." It's only a matter of time before we hear what's next for Theater Latté Da's jazzy world premiere musical, which thrillingly reconfigured the classic story of a deadlocked jury.
6. "Passing Strange." Yellow Tree Theatre's staging of Stew's musical that interrogates identity and the creative spirit sometimes felt like a concert and sometimes felt like a show about an artist searching for his place in the world. Either way, it was tuneful and terrific.
7. "Weathering" and "Parks." Harrison David Rivers wrote both Penumbra Theatre's dramedy about a woman whose friends help her recover from a miscarriage and (with Robin P. Hickman-Winfield) History Theatre's poetic biography of St. Paul-raised Renaissance arts titan Gordon Parks. These distinct pieces share Rivers' belief that humans are complicated, messy and beautiful.
8. "Thurgood." Director Lou Bellamy teamed with longtime collaborator Lester Purry for George Stevens Jr.'s solo show at Penumbra about the nation's first Black Supreme Court justice. Purry marshaled gravitas and razor wit for his magisterial turn.
9. "A Play by Barb and Carl." There was softness but scant sentimentality in Carlyle and Barbara Rose-Brown's autobiographical piece at Illusion Theater about a couple's love after a stroke. Kimberly Richardson, JoeNathan Thomas and Laura Esping kept us leaning in.
10. "Bina's Six Apples." Lloyd Suh's play at Children's Theatre Company about a child's journey of survival during the Korean War was nuanced, layered and moving.
