TT: The best of the best

Today's Wall Street Journal drama column is devoted to my best-of-2013 list. Here are some of the items on it:

• Best performance in a play. Sally Eames was hauntingly true to life in "Woman in Mind," Alan Ayckbourn's serious comedy about a brain-damaged woman who mistakes her fantasies of a loving family for the real thing, produced in Chicago as part of Eclipse Theatre Company's all-Ayckbourn season.

• Best performance in a musical. Judy Kuhn and Melissa Errico gave identically gripping performances in John Boyle's small-scale version of Stephen Sondheim's "Passion," mounted to miraculous effect by New York's Classic Stage Company.

• Best revival of a play. Lear deBessonet's gender-twisting production of Bertolt Brecht's "Good Person of Szechuan," which transferred to the Public Theater after a run at La MaMa, introduced New York playgoers to an immensely promising new directorial talent.

• Best revival of a musical. Amanda Dehnert staged "My Fair Lady" in Brecht's deceptively austere manner for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, with results that weren't preachy but intimate and appealing.

To see the rest of the list, including my picks for best play, musical, and company of the year, go here .