Elizabeth Stanley and Raúl Esparza in Company.    (Photo: Amy Arbus)

4. John Doyle’s Revival of ‘Company’
It may not have gotten the blood pounding the way Sweeney Todd did a year ago, or been as much fun as The Drowsy Chaperone, but John Doyle’s spare, harrowing revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Company proved to be the best musical of the year. Doyle once again rejected realism, having his fourteen actors play musical instruments. By leaving so much to the audience’s imagination, the show grows in memory: Long after you’ve gone home, it’s easy to picture Raúl Esparza’s luminous Bobby mired in Sondheim’s chilly, emotionally ambiguous New York.