Continuing a tradition that dates back to 1920, this annual chronicle of theater in the United States honors 10 new works and also honors three regional plays cited in the Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Awards and Citations competition. With this latest edition, The Best Plays Theater Yearbook continues to build its ongoing theater history project with a comprehensive collection of facts and figures about the year in American theater. The best plays of 2008-2009 were chosen from Broadway, Off Broadway, and Off Off Broadway productions of new plays that opened between June 1, 2008, and May 31, 2009. Individual essays celebrate each work. The 10 New York premieres honored are Becky Shaw, by Gina Gionfriddo; Billy Elliot, by Lee Hall and Elton John; Blasted, by Sarah Kane; The Cripple of Inishmaan, by Martin McDonagh; God of Carnage, by Yasmina Reza; The Good Negro, by Tracey Scott Wilson; reasons to be pretty, by Neil LaBute; Ruined, by Lynn Nottage; 33 Variations, by Moises Kaufman; and Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them, by Christopher Durang. Special Citation: title of show] by Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell.