Yogi Berra, one of the all-time great baseball players and an eminent American folk figure, once said it better than anyone else ever has: "It ain't over 'til it's over."

And folks – the 2008-09 theater season is over. What that means is that it's time to unveil the prestigious annual Moscow Times Theater Awards, the only prestigious theater awards I know of in this town that make any sense. True, I'm the one who picks them. In any case, for those who are interested, this is – gulp! – the 17th time we have done this. ...

Sign of the Times: Shukshin's Stories directed by Alvis Hermanis at the Theater of Nations. Slick, professional, light, cute and endlessly crowd-pleasing. This was the hit of the season with spectators who, in a lusty roar of cheers, drowned out my feeble desire for a bit more substance. ...

Inspired Pas de Trois: Choreographer/Director Alla Sigalova, actress Chulpan Khamatova and dancer Andrei Merkuryev in Poor Liza at the Theater of Nations. This hybrid work mixing dance, drama, an 18th-century story (by Nikolai Karamzin) and a 20th-century opera (by Leonid Desyatnikov) emerged as a crisp, moving and timeless tale about a woman who finds the love she was looking for and pays dearly for that privilege. ...