It’s hard to top the heady success of Chicago’s 2007 theater season. In particular the mercurial ascent of Tracey Letts’ August Osage County, which garnered a few prizes, like a Pulitzer, and a clutch of Tony Awards. 

Nonetheless, 2008 had its memorable moments. Tracey Letts was in fact back with Superior Donuts, so was Shakespeare in a handful of productions, both traditional and postmodern, and Caroline Or Change proved to be a smash success for Court Theater. Eight Forty-Eight’s dueling critics Jonathan Abarbanel and Kelly Kleiman review more of the developments in the theater world this year.