This list is part of our Best of the Year collection, an obsessively curated selection of our editors' and listeners' favorite audio in 2022. Check out The Best of 2022 to see our top picks in every category.
Audible Theater takes what you thought you knew about going to a play and turns it on its head. With a vast array of extraordinary voices that go beyond the stage (and the book), we're delivering a new vision of what theater can be. Some of the best productions this year were recorded in front of a live audience at our own Minetta Lane Theatre, while others were honed and polished in our studios, created strictly to be heard. Several were courtesy of the Audible Emerging Playwright Fund, while others were revivals or the brainchildren of veteran writers. But each connects the listener with the intimacy of a theater performance, delivering the emotional heft of the stage to any moment you happen to be listening.
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Audible's Audible Theater Title of the Year, 2022
Sarah Page's Audible Original Theater production picks up at the end of Pride and Prejudice, imagining the years directly following Lydia Bennet's disastrous elopement. Austen never showed us this end of the story; her judgment against the Wickhams was swift and decisive. But this marvelous listen teaches us that villains too are deserving of a happily-ever-after. The production is as unexpected as the story, and just so very cool, with a London nightclub beat underpinning the modern dialogue deliciously delivered by UK darlings Jessie Buckley and Johnny Flynn. The Wickhams are undoubtedly the most flawed of all Austen characters, but they also have the most fun. —Emily C.
Originally created and performed by writer and actor Wallace Shawn in 1991, and often staged in private homes by appointment, The Fever still feels depressingly current. This single voice production charts the mental gymnastics of a westerner in the throes of an existential crisis about the nature of capitalism and their unearned place in the world's hierarchy. In this revival, Lili Taylor brings her trademark voice that so perfectly exudes the naiveté, wonder, and confusion of the unnamed protagonist, and though this was performed at the Minetta, listening to it proved even more intimate. The Fever will bring you up short and steal your breath; it’s a rant that's both rambling and entirely lucid, biting and sharp—and pointed right at you. —E.C.
As a Gemini, people-pleasing is in my blood—it’s called validation and I need it! If you’re thinking, "You should work on that," you’d be right. In the meantime, I feel incredibly seen after experiencing Faith Salie’s memoir-based play, Approval Junkie. From body issues to failed relationships to career struggles, she reveals her highly relatable need for approval with vulnerability and courage. Faith is honest and heartfelt, while continually providing comedic relief. Since Approval Junkie was recorded live, you have the bonus of hearing the audience reaction, so with my headphones on, it feels like I’m a part of the experience. —Caitlyn L.
Though Jade Anouka’s poetic and semi-autobiographical performance of her debut play, Heart, is just over an hour long (I listened in one sitting), it recounts a half-decade of personal growth. It maps her journey through the end of a toxic relationship and finding true love with a woman, all while facing the hurdles of her parents’ disapproval and her own internalized biphobia. Punctuated by incredible original music, Anouka’s performance was raw and even intimidating at times. Yet behind each vulnerable line and reverberant musical score is an invitation to the audience to look inward and ask: Who would I be without judgment? —Rachael X.
Cush Jumbo, the British actress best known for her role as Lucca Quinn on The Good Fight and The Good Wife, collaborated with director Phyllida Lloyd (Iron Lady, Mamma Mia!, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical) in this brave and haunting one-woman show that Jumbo wrote and performs. Set in an empty house in northern England, the young woman—a new mother—begins to reminisce about her family’s history while baking in her grandmother’s kitchen. She unravels their dark history of abuse in a whip-smart monologue that includes a creepy-sweet children’s song embedded with emotional landmines. It’s never easy to explore such horrific realities, but Jumbo handles the trauma, suffering, and healing through unforgettable writing and a stunning performance. —Jerry P.
With all of her accomplishments as a singer and performer (West Side Story, Hamilton, Light in the Piazza, Evita ... the list goes on and on), Solea Pfeiffer still has to define herself for others, and the curiosity has nothing to do with her talents. Her features are analyzed; race in America lets her know that her light skin gives her safety that her darker siblings don’t have. In answer to the question, “Where do you come from?” she deftly responds, “I come from everywhere I’ve ever been.” In this remarkable performance, through song and storytelling, Pfeiffer employs humor and wit with precision, and generously shares with the listener just who she is. When she sang Stevie Wonder’s “My Cherie Amour,” it became all hers—no disrespect to Wonder. The same for “You’re Gonna Hear from Me.” When Black people compliment a singer they like a whole lot, we don’t say, “That girl sure can sing.” We say, “That girl can sang.” You got this, Solea. You sure can sang. —Yvonne D.
In Daddies, a dramedy commissioned by Audible’s Emerging Playwrights Fund and set during the first wave of the 2020 shutdowns, playwright Paul Kruse uses the digital lingua franca of our times to craft a queer love story that morphs into a chilling tale about longing and the long-lasting ramifications of our present-day choices. Oscillating between witty humor and anxious bafflement, Daddies explores the dread of our current reality, reaffirming our need to make fulfilling connections no matter what. —J.P.
Joy to my world that Amber Iman has graced me with this one-woman play, which she originally performed and recorded at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre. She walks us through impactful moments in her life and slays the mic with songs that had me singing out loud along with her. Her stories were thought-provoking as much as they were lighthearted, and a much-needed reminder that finding even a small amount of joy can change your life for the better. Oh, and that it’s okay to actually want to be in a relationship despite having to pretend to your friends that being single is totally fine by you. Fingers crossed Iman calls me so we can go find boyfriends together! Until then, this will continue to be my pump-up jam for when I need some inspiration. —C.L.
Song of the Northwoods by Jessica Huang was commissioned as part of Audible’s Emerging Playwrights Fund, but it’s got all of the ingredients of an addictive psychological thriller—an unreliable narrator; atmospheric, haunting sound design; and plenty of twists and turns. Michele Selene Ang (you’ll know her from Netflix’s mega-hit, 13 Reasons Why) leads the multicast as Song Kuan, a true crime-obsessed podcaster who starts picking at old wounds in the form of a missing persons case in the town where she’s hiding out (and trying to lick her own personal wounds). Fans of true crime podcasts will feel right at home, as will anyone looking for an immersive, edge-of-your-seat story. —E.C.
Complicity Island is the absurdist pandemic and Me Too-era dark comedy I didn’t know I needed. Performed by a brilliant cast led by Mandi Masden and Ato Blankson-Wood, Nick Jones’s new play follows ambitious young playwright Ivey Viola as she reluctantly agrees to join problematic star Merlin Spooner on his private island to assist with a project he’s hoping will allow him to re-enter the limelight. Ivey quickly learns that everything on the island, including Merlin’s agenda, is as unclear and full of blurred lines as cancel culture itself. Amid the laughs and shocked gasps, this play poses challenging questions about the reality of second chances and how far one should be willing to go for success. —C.L.
