#8. The Farnsworth Invention
By Aaron Sorkin
Sorkin, a onetime playwright turned creator of slick, garrulous TV and movie drama (The West Wing, Charlie Wilson's War) returns to Broadway with a slick, garrulous recreation of the battle between one of the inventors of television, Philo T. Farnsworth, and RCA founder David Sarnoff, who may or may not have ripped off his patent. Told in alternating narration by the two protagonists (Jimmi Simpson and Hank Azaria), the brief, cinematic scenes sometimes play like a clip reel of Hollywood biopic clichés (the boy genius dazzling his high school science teacher; the rough-edged entrepreneur who sees the future while everyone else sees futility). But give Sorkin credit for turning a dry subject into surprisingly entertaining stage drama.