Best in theater for 2012 | Charles McNulty

Bruce Norris constructed a provocative history of the house that the African American Younger family is heading to at the end of Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun.” An impeccable ensemble, under the direction of Pam MacKinnon, helped this Pulitzer Prize-winning drama capture the Tony Award for best play after the production went on to Broadway. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Dec. 15, 2012 10 AM PT

Sheer ecstasy for musical theater aficionados of a Sondheim bent. The side dishes alone (Elaine Paige singing “I’m Still Here,” Jayne Houdyshell belting “Broadway Baby”) are pièces de résistance by any showbiz standard. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

'Krapp's Last Tape,' Kirk Douglas Theatre

John Hurt’s performance in this two-character piece (the aged Krapp and his recorded younger voice on tape) was a tour de force of Beckettian acting in which slapstick and poetry united to scale our common abyss. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

Entertainment & Arts

Best in theater for 2012 | Charles McNulty

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