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Alec Duffy confesses his fear of young jean lee's "the appeal" at soho rep, aprilRadiohole, finds Young Jean Lee bitchily appealing, and reveals his dark secret about Banana, Bag & Bodice ...

What was truly, truly the most fragrant piece of 2004?

That's an easy pick for me. It was Ben Katchor and Mark Mulcahy's The Slug-bearers of Kayrol Island at The Kitchen over three weeks in March. Believe it -- it's true. Mulcahy, in addition to writing the music, also stole the show playing a number of different characters. It will be difficult to extract from my memory Mark's body wiggling all over the stage to his mix of Caribbean rhythms and straight-ahead American pop. And Mollie Weaver's bell-like voice was a fetch ...

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moon this! julie atlas muz at ps122, november -- photo: julieta cervantesBrook Stowe issues a call to action against the scourge that is the 24-hour play, finds a silver lining in America's cloudy skies, and admires the power of a well-toned sphincter ...

More than anything this time of year with these little wrap-up things, I'm reminded not so much of what I saw and what I liked, but of all the shows I wanted to see and missed, dusted over with the distinct yet elusive certainty that there is something and/or someone really important that I am forgetting.

Overall, 2004 was a crappy, embarrassing, humiliating year to be an American, but a great year to be a New Yorker.

And here's some of the evidence why ...

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Ken Urban appreciates the classicalmac wellman's "antigone" at classic stage, may beauty of Mac Wellman, the solace found in Deerhoof, Hood and Xiu Xiu, and dreams of a better, brighter world where there are no more plays by Neil LaBute ...

2004 was politically a very depressing year, although artistically it had some highs.

Started the year off with a workshop of The Female Terrorist Project when the play was nothing more than a pile of notes and put a group of actors in an awfully cold DUMBO studio with loud neighbors.

(Note to dude in adjoining studio: nobody wants to hear you play "Free Bird," especially when you play it badly.)

Seeing FTP realized at the end of the year in a cold factory in Long Island City ...

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