Best theater company

"The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts," said Oscar Wilde, "but is also the return of art to life." The Huntington Theatre Company has been bringing art to life for 22 seasons, and is this year's pick for Boston's best theater company. The Huntington has reaped national acclaim for its ambitious productions, resuscitating classics by Chekhov, Shakespeare, Turgenev, and O'Neill, and premiering the finest in contemporary theater. Under the artistic direction of Nicholas Martin, its six-play season -- including Ain't Misbehavin', Butley, As You Like It, Bad Dates, What the Butler Saw, and The Rose Tattoo -- will ultimately draw 150,000 people to Boston University's Huntington Avenue theater. In fact, Ain't Misbehavin' had the highest sales in the 22-year history of the Huntington, and Butley, starring Nathan Lane, boasted its largest pre-sale ever. And the company not only brings art to life, but brings Bostonians to art with programs like "Night Club," which is aimed at theatergoers under 35 with specially priced subscriptions and pre- and post-performance soirees, as well as "Out and About Club," evenings geared toward the LGBT theatergoing community.

This summer, Time magazine hailed the American Repertory Theatre as one of the three best theaters in the country. And Phoenix readers agree: the Cambridge-based ART continuously offers bold, adventurous theater. Many feared that the departure of artistic director and ART founder Robert Brustein, who'd led the company since its inception, would be the beginning of the company's downfall. Not so. With Robert Woodruff at the helm, the ART persists in pioneering inventive, original drama. Dense, engrossing, and explosive, this season includes Snow in June, based on a 13th-century Chinese tale; A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by noted director/choreographer Martha Clarke; and Woodruff's production of Sophocles' Oedipus later this spring.

Huntington Theatre Company, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, (617) 266-0800; American Repertory Theatre, Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge, (617) 547-8300