10  The Ruby Sunrise
Big ideas often yield messy plays, and Ruby was, in many ways, no exception. But Rinne Groff's conflation of such hot-button historical themes as feminism, McCarthyism, and — improbably — the invention of television was too ambitious to ignore. The period piece-meets-memory play began in a 1927 Indiana barn (Ruby toys with test tubes and shy student Henry) and traveled to a 1952 New York studio (Ruby's daughter toys with teleplays and shy screenwriter Tad), propelled by raw-edged emotion. If Groff's at the keyboard, we'll take messy any day.

The Worst

1  In My Life
To paraphrase an actual line from this misbegotten musical: We needed this show like we needed sand up our butts. The characters included a Tourette's-stricken hero, a Goth gay angel, a baseball-cap-clad supreme being, and dancing skeletons. The score, by ''You Light Up My Life'' composer Joe Brooks, featured a brain-tumor ballad and a Dr Pepper jingle. Toward the end, the stage was practically swallowed up by a giant lemon. As apt a metaphor as there ever was.

2  Lennon
Imagine there's no Broadway/It's easy if you try/Nothing new or different/Just jukebox Beatles, Yoko-fied/Imagine it's pretentious/And over-full of scorn/Oo-hoo!/You may say I'm a dreamer/ But I saw the ticket price/A hundred bucks for karaoke/Come on: He wasn't Jesus Christ.

3  The Blonde in the Thunderbird
In Suzanne Somers' one-woman therapy session, er, show, the American Graffiti alum donned a cardboard car costume. That was a high point. Hauling out a truckload of ThighMasters? A very, very low point.

Originally posted Dec 23, 2005 Published in issue #856-857 Dec 30, 2005 Order article reprints
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