This year, the New York theater industry struggled to regain its pre-pandemic financial strength and appeal to a diverse assortment of theatergoers despite political tensions, challenging economics, and evolving expectations over what audiences want to see.
Despite these challenges, there were many great productions this year, especially innovative revivals of well-known musicals.
1. City Center Musicals: The top award for the year should go to City Center, which presented a uniformly strong Encores! season made up of “Once Upon a Mattress” (which transferred to Broadway), “Jelly’s Last Jam,” and “Titanic,” followed by a stunning gala presentation of “Ragtime” in November. Here’s hoping that the 2025 Encores! season (which includes “Urinetown,” “Love Life” and “Wonderful Town”) will follow suit.
2. Gypsy: A fresh and lavish Broadway revival of the classic 1959 musical (which is considered one of the greatest musicals ever written) opened just a few days ago, in which six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald gives an emotionally raw, full-bodied performance as the relentless stage mother Rose Hovick.
3. Sunset Boulevard: You’ve probably never seen anything like the deliriously over-the-top, fever-dream Broadway revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1993 musical adaptation of the 1950 Hollywood film, which stars Nicole Scherzinger (The Pussycat Dolls) as the faded silent screen diva Norma Desmond and features towering video projections and live filming (including an unbelievably intricate sequence at the top of the second act that takes place both backstage and around Times Square).
4. The Who’s Tommy: Thirty years after directing the groundbreaking original Broadway production, Des McAnuff returned to the rock opera with a new production that had the same sensory overload feel but with different designs, more movement, and an emphasis on politics, depicting the adult Tommy in a futuristic, threatening environment. It’s a shame it did not run longer.
5. Cats: The Jellicle Ball: The long-running 1980s musical, which originally featured performers in elaborate cat bodysuits and makeup dancing around an oversized junkyard, was meticulously reconceived through the lens of underground drag Ballroom culture in an immersive production at the newly-opened Perelman Performing Arts Center in Lower Manhattan. One hopes it will eventually come to Broadway.
6. Oh, Mary!: The surprise Broadway hit of the year is Cole Escola’s irreverent and unhinged camp comedy starring Escola as an alcoholic, foul-mouthed, self-obsessed, perverted, needy, and dim-witted reinvention of 19th-century First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. Betty Gilpin will take over as Mary beginning Jan. 21.
7. Prayer for the French Republic: Joshua Harmon’s long-winded but powerful drama depicted a Jewish family in Paris during World War II and in 2016, as concerns over rising anti-Semitism cause the family to consider whether it is still safe in Paris. Compared to its Off-Broadway debut in 2022, it felt more urgent following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
8. Dead Outlaw: This unlikely musical by the team behind “The Band’s Visit” (which will transfer to Broadway in the spring) is inspired by a true story about an early 20th-century criminal whose dead body somehow became mistaken for a dummy at carnival sideshows.
9. Maybe Happy Ending: This lovely musical fairy tale imagines two outdated helper robots (played by Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen) in South Korea who fall in love. The production, directed by Michael Arden, is technologically innovative yet emotionally intimate.
10. Our Town: Kenny Leon’s Broadway revival of Thornton Wilder’s 1938 American drama reflects the play’s turn-of-the-century New England setting and contemporary America, with a diverse 28-member cast led by Jim Parsons as the narrating Stage Manager. While the direction is often self-conscious, it is an accessible, poignant, and gorgeously-designed production.
Honorable mentions: “Eureka Day,” “Mary Jane,” “Yellow Face,” “The Hills of California,” “Here There Are Blueberries,” “Patriots,” “Doubt,” “The Connector,” “Days of Wine and Roses,” “Romeo + Juliet,” “The Outsiders,” “Water for Elephants.”
