Honorable Mentions:

Fully staging both Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2 is a formidable task for any theatre. And the Marin Shakespeare Company was certainly up to the challenge! Ably directed by Rob Clare and Robert S. Currier, the multi-tasking cast (each performing many roles) took the audience on a nigh six-hour journey. Check them out for more of the Bard’s best in future shows. www.marinshakespeare.org

True West by Sam Shepard received a fine, tightly-performed mounting by the Sidecar Theatre, a more experimental subsidiary of the Boxcar Theatre. Martin Boswell and Peter Ruocco rendered strong performances with solid direction by Nick A. Olivero and Leah Gardner. Keep an eye on this intimate black-box SOMA theatre for many more great shows. www.boxcartheatre.org

The Shaker Chair by gay playwright Adam Bock, produced by Encore Theatre and Shotgun Players, encouraged audiences to get active in righting social wrongs. Terrific ensemble and strong direction by Tracy Ward. www.shotgunplayers.org

BEST OF 2007:

10. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee, was brought to Bay Area audiences by Best of Broadway. Wow! With Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin, the stage sizzled with the relentless flinging of razor-sharp barbs. And on the other hand, also from Best of Broadway, the light-hearted Legally Blonde was filled with laughs, silly songs and a sweetly happy ending. www.bestofbroadway-sf.com

9. Tim Hockenberry sang some deliciously excruciating love songs in a gig in Jazz at Pearl’s on Columbus. His gravelly voice growls with heartrending passion. Very hot. If you can’t make it to a live performance anytime soon, consider his CD titled Mostly Dylan. www.timhockenberry.com

8. Porgy and Bess, George Gershwin’s masterpiece, received a phenomenal concert-style production by the Oakland Symphony Chorus, conducted by Michael Morgan. The audience basked in the gloriously sumptuous sounds. www.oaklandsymphonychorus.org

7. Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen (new translation by Paul Walsh) at the American Conservatory Theatre featured a fabulous performance by Bay Area favorite René Augesen and direction from the brilliant Richard E.T. White. Also wonderful was W. Somerset Maugham’s The Circle. ACT consistently mounts large-scale productions with superlative performers. www.act-sf.org

6. Argonautika by Mary Zimmerman, produced by Berkeley Repertory Theatre, took the audience on the quest for the Golden Fleece. The staging by Zimmerman creatively met the many challenges of mounting this epic tale. Without fail Berkeley Rep takes audiences on spectacular journeys! www.berkeleyrep.org

5. Taming of the Shrew, produced by Cutting Ball Theater and directed by Rob Melrose, received a vivid, visually stunning production of one of the Bard’s more prickly plays. Shrew featured generous jaunts of gender-play, including some steamy girl-on-girl action, and powerful performances from Paige Rogers and David Sinaiko. Also visually dazzling was Melrose’s direction of Woyzeck by Georg Büchner. Cutting Ball always delivers striking stagings of challenging works. www.cuttingball.com

4. Pippin (composer Stephen Schwartz; book by Roger O. Hirson) made magic at Foothill Music Theatre. Jay Manley really knows how to direct a solid musical, and with talented Nathan Bayard and Rudy Guerrero starring, Pippin was a total delight. Check out Foothill’s upcoming shows … you’ll be glad you did. www.foothill.edu/fa/theater

3. Based on a Totally True Story by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa abounded with humor and insights at the New Conservatory Theatre Center. Directed by John Dixon with strong stage pictures and solid psychologies, it received a well-deserved extension (currently playing). Also sweetly satisfying in NCTC’s two smaller theatres were The Dying Gaul, Connie Champagne’s Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road, Holding the Man, Legends, and Wilde Boys. Gay theatre thrives at NCTC! www.nctcsf.org

2. The Elephant Man, beautifully written by Bernard Pomerance, featured the powerful Aldo Billingslea in TheatreWorks’ strapping production. Artistic Director Robert Kelley adeptly helmed the show. Also commendable was the musical romance titled Emma (Paul Gordon’s adaptation of the novel by Jane Austen). Theatre doesn’t get much better than that at TheatreWorks. www.theatreworks.org

1. Take Me Out by Richard Greenberg was a Home Run! Extended again and again, this full-frontal gay dramedy excelled. Great cast and direction by Artistic Director Ed Decker gave audiences frisky pacing and great stage pictures, including a shower scene that would give porn a run for its money. Other excellent shows in NCTC’s big theatre were The Big Voice, Jim Brochu’s one-man Zero Hour, and Farm Boys. www.nctcsf.org