The choice came down to three revisionist interrogations of potent myths: the roots of justice in ancient Greece, homicidal celebrity in the American West and presidential power on the banks of the Potomac. Which powerful and bitterly funny triumph would win the Post-Gazette's nod as the best stage show of the year?

Given such wildly different material, I guess it all depends on how you define "best." For me, it's the show I would most regret having missed, which may or may not be the same as the one I would most want to see again.

And, in surveying the 125 or so shows we reviewed in Western Pennsylvania in 2007 -- itself a fraction of the shows in our listings, since theater springs eternal among these hills and valleys -- I rediscovered the axiom that some shows age better than others. Some memories fade, while others strengthen. What was bothersome can seem challenging in retrospect. Today, it's the retrospective view that matters most, checked against the initial response.

In addition to my reviews, I reread those by Anna Rosenstein, Kate Luce Angell, Samantha Bennett, Karen Carlin and others. But as theater editor, I take responsibility for the final judgements. We invite reader responses for an early January column, for which we already have plenty of opinions submitted over the past few weeks.

Following the guidelines set some four decades ago by my predecessor, George Anderson (if not before then by his, Harold V. Cohen), eligibility for the 10 best theater experiences includes anything performed here, touring shows and all, as long as a PG reviewer saw it. But for next week's retrospective of individual 2007 achievements by performers, designers and others, only productions produced here are eligible.

That battle for No. 1? It came out in the order described above.

The great progenitor of Western drama, Aeschylus' famous trilogy of 458 B.C., is undertaking enough, "project" or otherwise. But under the leadership of Jed Harris, "The Oresteia" turned into a witty four-hour interrogation of the ascent from blood revenge through expiation to the establishment of law. It also became an artful history of the 20th-century theatrical avant garde -- Living Theater to Robert Wilson to Wooster Group, with forays into Grotowskian ritual and styles from Japan. Even the translated texts evolved from poetic to modern idioms of talk show confessional, courtroom farce and stand-up irreverence.

This theater event of the year was staged with breathtaking brio, moving from primal ritual through elegant meditation to ironic debunking. Some of it went clunk, but never for long. A large creative staff worked wonders.

British director Dan Jemmet and a talented cast and crew devised a theater piece out of Michael Ondaatje's 1970 poems on the American outlaw. Artistic director Karla Boos' coup was to bring this renegade play to the North Side's Garden Theater: the porno house was a perfect context for a riff on a famous social pariah and idol. Because Billy the Kid was further mythologized on the silver screen, there was additional resonance in its being in a movie house.

And then, Quantum took the production to the Otono Festival in Madrid -- Pittsburgh culture on the world stage.

David Hare's play brought Shakespearean size and seriousness to the tragi-comedy of civic dysfunction in the ludicrous but sometimes moving process by which he suggests President Bush took the U.S. into war with Iraq. Director Andrew Paul gave it further resonance by pairing it with "Julius Ceasar" and enlisted an astonishing cast, led by David Whalen (Bush), Allen Gilmore (Powell), Larry John Meyers (Cheney), Ric McMillan (Rumsfield) and Doug Mertz (Blair).

Composer Stephen Flaherty, Dormont's own, and partner Lynn Ahrens brought Pittsburgh the world premiere of their chamber love letter to the evolution of comedy, complete with Hall of Fame director Graciela Daniele. A charming entertainment with a big heart, it's still running at Lincoln Center, somewhat tighter than it was here.

Whether you class them primarily as dance, comedy or circus, these shows were decidedly theater, from the expansive razzle-dazzle of "Circus" to the spunky junkyard comedy of "Suitcase" to the sassy personality of "Candy."

Martin McDonagh turns the nostalgic images of the sainted rural Irish and their revolutionary struggles into a farcical conflict between country buffoons and a homicidal maniac with a sentimental heart. The result is a bloody good, bloody bloody comedy, with even a small bloom of love.

Lynn Nottage's fine play is centered on a talented African-American seamstress and her clients, black and white, high and low, at the turn of the 20th century. The title is a metaphor of revelation and covering up, social-sexual-psychological interplay allowing some of the voyeur experience the title implies. But it's no comedy: intimacy isn't always a blessing. A crisp cast was led by Tracey A. Leigh.

In its premiere, Amy Hartman's touching comedy of family dysfunction revealed a capacious sense of the folly and humanity in us all. Tami Dixon led a fine ensemble that had audiences laughing through their tears.

Artistic director Ted Pappas went all out on the production side and then trusted his baby to young Harris Doran, a protean Emcee. They and a cast that included Lenora Nemetz and Daniel Krell steered a route between the bounce and sparkle and satanic vamp and frigid chill that define the show's potential range.

The audience's surprised delight owed something to the CLO's softening the material. But it also paid tribute to the genuine appeal of this musical tale of proletarian gumption and growth.

11. "The Muckle Man," City.

12. "Key to the Field," Bricolage.

13. "Ah Wilderness," Playhouse Rep.

14. "Sarafina!" Kuntu Rep.

15. "Therese Raquin," Quantum.

16. "Loot," Mountain Playhouse.

17. "White Christmas," Pittsburgh CLO.

18. "Avenue Q," PNC Broadway.

19. "Bug," barebones productions.

20. A tie between "Nine Parts of Desire" (PICT) and "Dr. Goddess Goes to Jail" (Three Rivers Arts Festival).

Readers' Favorite: according to my e-mail, it was "Shaken and Stirred," by and starring Virginia Wall Gruenert, at Off the Wall Theatre, Washington.