The Best Plays Theater Yearbook

 

Welcome to the official website of The Best Plays Theater Yearbook, the annual chronicle of United States theater founded by Burns Mantle in 1920. The 2005–2006 edition of the Best Plays series is now available in bookstores and at online merchants such as Amazon.com. Read the Introduction (in PDF format) for free now. We also list all members of the Theater Hall of Fame (also in PDF format).

 

If you are a theater lover, librarian, practitioner, critic or historian, the annual Best Plays book is the most comprehensive tool available to help track United States theater—in New York and around the country. The editors encourage queries regarding subscription to the series, which is now in its 87th consecutive year of publication.

 

Headlines from The Best Plays Theater Yearbook

August 30, 2007: Best Plays Theater Yearbook 2005–2006 Book Release

 

June 29, 2007: The Best Plays of 2006–2007!

 

October 26, 2006: Editorial Board Changes

 

August 15, 2006: The Best Plays of 2005–2006!

 

July 19, 2006: Best Plays Theater Yearbook 2004–2005 Book Release

 

July 21, 2005: The Best Plays of 2004–2005!

 

June 8, 2005: Best Plays Theater Yearbook 2003–2004 Book Release

 

June 24, 2004: The Best Plays of 2003–2004! (PDF version)

 

May 5, 2004: Best Plays Theater Yearbook 2002–2003 Book Release (PDF version)

August 21, 2003: The Best Plays of 2002–2003!

June 23, 2003: The Best Plays Theater Yearbook 2001–2002 Book Release (PDF version)

January 20, 2003: Al Hirschfeld Dies at 99

June 19, 2002: Announcing The Best Plays of 2001–2002

May 7, 2002: Stritch and Lahr awarded 2001–2002 Best Plays Special Citation

April 30, 2002: The Best Plays of 2000–2001 Publication Announcement

Former editors include such eminent theater critics as our founder, Burns Mantle, John Chapman, Louis Kronenberger and Henry Hewes. Our most recent and longest-serving editor was the distinguished former critic and arts editor of the New York Herald Tribune, Otis L. Guernsey Jr. Mr. Guernsey served as editor of Best Plays from 1964 to 2000, overseeing 36 volumes of the book and making an unparalleled contribution to the body of knowledge on theater in the United States. For his outstanding work on behalf of United States theater, Mr. Guernsey was inducted to the Theater Hall of Fame on January 29, 2001. He died suddenly on May 2, 2001.

Some Best Plays pages are in PDF format, which may be viewed with Acrobat Reader. Click here to download a FREE copy of Acrobat Reader. It will help you enjoy this and other Web sites more easily.

To view other Best Plays pages, click below:

The Best Plays of 2001–2002

The Best Plays of 2000–2001

Jenkins Named Editor of Best Plays Series

From the Best Plays Photo Archives

Founding Editor Burns Mantle

Former Editor John Chapman

Former Editor Otis L. Guernsey Jr.

Editor Jeffrey Eric Jenkins

The following links provide information of interest to Best Plays readers.

Members of the Theater Hall of Fame®

Essays by the Best Plays editor

Contact Best Plays Theater Yearbook:

Jeffrey Eric Jenkins
Best Plays Theater Yearbook
825 President Street
Brooklyn, New York 11215
Phone: 718-789-5553
editor@bestplays.org