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10 JOURNEY TO THE WEST Mary Zimmerman's adaptation of a 16th century Chinese novel, in which a man and a monkey spirit embark on a pilgrimage across Asia, made for an appealingly uncategorizable sortie--part farce, part children's spectacle, part allegory. A keen eye for visual metaphor united the parts and set the stage aglow in a world premiere at Chicago's Goodman Theatre.
...AND THE WORST
POMP DUCK AND CIRCUMSTANCE With the squeaky cleanup of 42nd Street, Broadway is about to be Disneyized. But should it be Vegasized? This dinner-theater circus, imported from Berlin, charges $150 (plus the drinks tab) for a lavish if mediocre meal amid four hours of shenanigans--spilled soup, humiliated performers, crude insults--that the most ravenous visitor will find indigestible. The show may be ideal for Las Vegas, where it opens in 1996, but in New York it's the ultimate show-biz debacle.