This was a great year for women in theater. From Nilaja Sun’s fabulous one-woman No Child … at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City to Clare Booth Luce’s The Women at the Old Globe, a quick check of my list turned up at least a dozen shows in which women play the only – or the major – roles. Many of those were among the best productions of 2008.

Dramas far outnumbered comedies (is that a reflection of the times or of audience appeal?), and we had more notable musicals than usual, including a few world premieres.

Drama: At the top of the dramatic heap are these five:

Terra Nova: A riveting production of Ted Tally’s piece about the ill-fated Scott expedition to the South Pole was Inukshuk Productions’ local debut at 6th@Penn (now Compass) Theatre.

The Pillowman: ion theatre’s haunting production of Martin McDonagh’s play about child abuse and murder.

Madagascar: North Coast Repertory Theatre’s West Coast premiere of J. T. Rogers’ time-warped meditation on memory, guilt and isolation.

Golden Boy: New Village Arts Theatre’s near-perfect production of the Clifford Odets classic.

No Exit: Diversionary Theatre’s terrific production of Jean-Paul Sartre’s classic about damnation and hell as other people.

There were many others I could as easily have slotted into the top five. Here they are, in no particular order: Moonlight Stage Productions’ Driving Miss Daisy; Cygnet’s Fences and A Number; OnStage Playhouse’s Fat Pig; Moxie’s futuristic The Listener and the historic Bleeding Kansas and Bluebonnet Court; Mo’olelo’s Permanent Collection; North Coast Rep’s A Shayna Maidel and String of Pearls; ion’s In a Dark Dark House; La Jolla Playhouse’s 13 Variations; the Old Globe’s Sight Unseen and New Village Arts’ Dancing at Lughnasa.

Comedy: The top honor is split between Marc Camoletti’s fabulous farce Don’t Dress for Dinner at North Coast Rep and Lamb’s Players’ homegrown winner The Hit, written by resident set designer Mike Buckley. But that’s not to slight Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House at San Diego Repertory Theatre, Craig Lucas’ Prelude to a Kiss at New Village Arts or Robert Dubac’s Male Intellect: The 2nd Coming from Miracle Productions.

Musicals: There were lots of fine musicals to choose from this year, including two world premieres, one show set to open on Broadway next year and one road show of a New York hit. My favorites:

Xanadu: LJP artistic director Christopher Ashley brought his Broadway romance – the makeover of the ghastly 1980 film of the same title, featuring a roller-skating muse and the artist she inspires – to La Jolla for the beginning of its national tour. Witty, wacky and fun – and it even has a good score.

9 to 5, The Musical: Another movie-gone-musical, this features a great cast and a score by the inimitable Dolly Parton. This played at the Ahmanson in Los Angeles and is set to open on Broadway in April 2009.

Yank!: The accidental discovery of a soldier’s World War II diary sets up the plot of this funny and poignant show in its West Coast premiere at Diversionary Theatre. Wonderfully cast and staged, it also offers a pointed comment on the absurdity of U.S. military personnel policy.

Les Miserables: Moonlight Stage Productions snagged the rights to the Southern California premiere of the Andrew Lloyd Webber hit and gave it a fine production.

Urinetown: The Musical: This clever tale of greed, corruption and basic human needs got a terrific production from SDSU’s drama students.

Other fine productions included two world premieres: The Daddy Machine, commissioned by Diversionary, and the Old Globe’s Dancing in the Dark (based on the film The Band Wagon); Cygnet Old Town’s A Little Night Music and Lyric Opera’s H.M.S. Pinafore.

Director: Joshua Everett Johnson, Golden Boy (New Village Arts); Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, The Listener (Moxie); Peter James Cirino, Hotel Cassiopeia (SDSU); Marybeth Bielawski-DeLeo, Terra Nova (Inukshuk Productions); Adam Arian, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (UCSD); David Ellenstein, A Shayna Maidel and Madagascar (North Coast Rep); Andrei Belgrader, Pericles, Prince of Tyre (UCSD); Esther Emery, No Exit (Diversionary)

Actor: Joshua Everett Johnson was spectacular as the obsessed Eddie in Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love at New Village Arts, and again as gambler/gunman Eddie Fuseli in New Village Arts’ Golden Boy; Ron Choularton, perfect in the Old Globe’s Sight Unseen; T.J. Johnson, exactly right in both Moonlight’s Driving Miss Daisy and Cygnet’s Fences; Jeffrey Jones, all over the emotional map as a writer under suspicion in ion’s The Pillowman.

Actress: Monique Gaffney was riveting in Diversionary’s No Exit; Linda Libby, phenomenal in ion’s one-person Request Programme; Jessica John, haunting and tentative as the immigrant woman in North Coast Rep’s A Shayna Maidel; Sandra Ellis-Troy, irresistible as Daisy in Moonlight’s Driving Miss Daisy; Amanda Sitton, terrific in New Village Arts’ Golden Boy; Sylvia M’Lafi Thompson, stunning in August Wilson’s Fences at Cygnet; Kristianne Kurner terrific in Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love at New Village Arts.

One-Person Play: Nilaja Sun was compelling and versatile as she morphed into 16 characters in No Child … at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City; Linda Libby, heartbreaking in ion’s Request Programme; Tracy Hughes, poignant in Charlayne Woodard’s Pretty Fire at Lamb’s Players; Hershey Felder entertaining as Monsieur Chopin.

Ensemble Cast: Terra Nova (Inukshuk Productions at 6th@Penn); The Pillowman (ion theatre); Golden Boy (New Village Arts); Don’t Dress for Dinner (North Coast Rep); Bleeding Kansas (Moxie); Driving Miss Daisy (Moonlight); Fool for Love (New Village Arts)

Student Production: There were many fine productions to choose from. Here are my favorites, in no particular order:

Hotel Cassiopeia (SDSU): The acting was fine, but SDSU’s technical team shone in Charles Mee’s play about artist Joseph Cornell, who created collage boxes out of found objects (and also made avant-garde films). With a spectacular set, videocam projections, and terrific lighting, this wildly imaginative technical feast served its fascinating character well.

Pericles, Prince of Tyre (UCSD): A zany kitchen-sink interpretation of this busy Shakespeare play featured shipwrecks, pirates, music from Appalachian folk to vaguely Renaissance and acting styles from Chaplin to Greek tragedy to Pirates of the Caribbean. Great fun.

The Physicists (UCSD): Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s satire on the responsibilities of scientific advancement offered fine acting, a whodunit and a thought-provoking subject.

Tango (UCSD): Freedom, social convention and absolute power are explored in Polish playwright Slawomir Mro?ek’s play, which featured not only fine acting but also a sensational set and costumes.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (UCSD): Fate, free will and the illusion of choice are the topics in this wild Tom Stoppard play, wonderfully interpreted.

It’s been a great year for local theater. May it continue through these trying economic times. We need theater even more now.