#9. Eurydice
By Sarah Ruhl
Ruhl, author of a somewhat overpraised satire of suburban class conflicts, The Clean House, shifts gears admirably in this retelling of the Orpheus myth from the perspective of the bride whom he travels to the Underworld to save. Lyrical, lovely, antic (Hades is a giant shower room, where Eurydice arrives in a down elevator, carrying a suitcase and umbrella while the rain pours down) and ineffably sad, Ruhl and director Les Waters gave the myth an entirely fresh visual and emotional life in this off-Broadway production, which should be showing up in regional theaters for years to come.