Aunt Gladys. Tyler, the Creator. That sex scene in “The Naked Gun.” These are the things Culture staffers couldn’t stop thinking about this year.

A new London staging of the Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine musical makes the most of its comedic elements and delivers a visual treat.

The lauded play by Samuel D. Hunter is the first production of Scott Rudin’s comeback season. Despite positive reviews, sales have been soft.Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock in “Little Bear Ridge Road,” which is playing at the Booth Theater in Manhattan.

His two-character work won a Pulitzer Prize and had a long Broadway run, but he never replicated its success and struggled to get his later work staged.

Popping up once a year, works like Dickens’s holiday tale, “Amahl and the Night Visitors” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” help us gauge where we are in our lives.“A Christmas Carol” at Perelman Performing Arts Center in Manhattan.