Best Original Show

Politics and theater can make boring bedfellows. The result is usually a bunch of soapboxing badly disguised as art. Of course, if you're Brian Jucha and you want to write about the horrors of 9/11, the whole world -- including any usual standards about what happens when art and politics mix -- gets turned upside down. Certainly that was the case earlier this year when Jucha and the brave hearts at Infernal Bridegroom Productions put on the most original and provocative production of the entire theatrical season. Jucha's strange synthesis of pop music, modern dance moves and dialogue taken from actual tapes of the air-traffic controllers turned into an astonishing collage of images and sound that illuminated much about the culture in which we live. (Everything from "Free Winona" T-shirts to skate punks to phone sex got a moment on stage.) The utterly inspired night of showmanship was gorgeous to watch, painful to think about and should not have been missed by anyone who loves theater.