2013 was the year of Shakespeare, and cross-dressing, and people getting naked in tubs on stage. It was a year full of solo performances and celebrity Broadway debuts and shows that sound on paper so inert as to be self-parodies:

Ten people try to keep one of their hands on a truck for four days.

Three people work in an old movie theater over the summer, mostly sweeping the aisles

A group of archaeologists dig up artifacts in Illinois

Below are some of the top New York theater stories of 2013 – many of which turn out to be the weirdest theater stories of 2013. They are offered chronologically, and paired with my favorite articles I wrote this year.

January: Disabling Discrimination

Settlement in Attorney General suit against Theatre Row for discriminating against disabled in ticket purchasing

My story: Social Media On Stage: Theater Meets Twitter,Facebook,Youtube, Tumbler, Soundcloud…

February: LaBeouf Orphaned

Shia LaBeouf, who was to make his Broadway debut, departs “Orphans,” the production announces, ”due to creative differences.”On Twitter, Shia LaBeouf (‪@thecampaignbook) publishes e-mails that imply that his “creative differences” were with Alec Baldwin

In fact he was fired.

Ben Foster replaces LaBeouf.

(When Orphans opens in April, critics are largely unimpressed with the results.)

My story: Adele, Rufus Wainwright and Lady Gaga: Wanted on Broadway

March: Flick You

Playwrights Horizons Artistic Director Tim Sanford writes a letter to subscribers after many walkouts and complaints about the three-hour plus length of Annie Baker’s “The Flick”

*He said he didn’t know the play was going to be so long, and didn’t expect it to be so polarizing.

*He applauded those who disliked the play, saying he preferred a work to evince passionate dislike than a dispassionate shrug.

*He said the theater would not cut a single second out of the play.

My story: Alan Cumming says he’ll say “Macbeth” in the theater, despite the curse of “The Scottish Play.”

April: Disgraced…Not a Disgrace

Disgraced wins the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama in April. It was Ayad Akhtar’s first play

My story: Theater Access for the Deaf, Blind, and Autistic: New Technology, Changing Attitudes

May: Smash, Bash

Smash is canceled

Actors Equity turns 100

National Review contributor and theater critic Kevin D. Williamson is kicked out of “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.”Williamson snatched a cell phone from another theatergoer and threw it on the floor.

Producer Scott Rudin Attacks Patrick Healy of the New York Times IN the pages of The New York Times

My story: Our Town in Sing Sing Prison

June: TONY, Weirdness

The Tony Awards are presented. The Tonys may finally include Off-Broadway, because starting in 2014, for the first time the regional theater Tony award can now be given to a theater in New York City.

June was a month for weird theater news:

In a comment at the bottom of an online review, playwright Neil LaBute called drama critic David Cote a portly eunuch for not liking his play “Reasons To Be Happy.”

The NYC Department of Transportation told Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, now in its 17th season, that from now on it would have to pay a parking fee to use the municipal parking lot for its performances, and also get auto insurance.

In Times Square one night, the guy with the “I Need Money for Weed” sign stabbed his rival with the “I Need Money for Beer” sign in the head with a pen.

In a lawsuit being tried in federal court, a woman was demanding millions of dollars because she suffered loss of income and a diminished sex life after 25 pounds of light blue M&Ms fell on her in the Times Square Toys R Us.

My story: Girls Just Want to Have Fun — and So Does Raymond J. Lee, Broadway Actor, Music Video Director

July: Sucks To Be Me + 10

Avenue Q celebrates its 10th anniversary

My stories:

She Loves Me, The Musical That Changed Our Lives

Broadway’s Best Dance Numbers

August: Julie Harris, 1925-2013

Julie Harris, sometimes called the first lady of the theater, dies at the age of 87

My stories: First-ever recording of August Wilson’s entire American Century Cycle

Broadway’s Answer to Justin Bieber and One Direction: Smells That Sell

September: State of New York Theater

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