"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" so opens Charles Dickens' novel, "A Tale of Two Cities," and while this blog post has nothing to do with the French Revolution, we would like to celebrate those "best of times" ... our favorite moments of 2025 theater. So, here goes.
Of course, this is actually the top ten of shows I saw.
New York theatre is miraculous. It is constantly growing, constantly new. Note that I am not talking about Broadway. I'm talking about all New York theatre, including Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway and completely off the map. Under that larger umbrella, there were dozens of shows worth seeing in 2025, maybe even hundreds.
A number of times during the year I had to skip seeing shows because I couldn't fit them in. I also missed some due to health challenges, unfortunately. I would have seen over a hundred shows if I could. In actuality I saw 68 shows, and many of them were wonderful and many others were at least worth while. A handful of shows were seriously bad.
An independent reviewer I can choose among shows I'm likely to enjoy or at least find interesting. If I were a full-timer required to see everything that opened on Broadway and much of what opened Off-Broadway, I suspect my overall impression of New York theatre would be considerably less enthusiastic.
I saw eight Broadway shows, two of them twice, for a total of ten. I saw 36 plays Off Broadway, plus four repeats. I saw five officially Off-Off-Broadway shows, plus a bunch I'm not sure how to categorize: shows at Encores! and the Delacorte; MasterVoices at Jazz at Lincoln Center; a couple of shows out of town; two fabulous readings in town; and so on.
Here are the top ten of the shows I saw, at least according to my opinion at this very minute. They're in alphabetical order. Shows that I reviewed are linked to the review.
BLIND INJUSTICE
CAROLINE
CYMBELINE: A delightful all-femme, all-Asian-American production of Shakespeare's Cymbeline. Beautifully directed, fabulously acted, well-designed, and extremely funny. Most discussions of alternative casting focus on actors getting more opportunities. But alternative casting is also a gift to the audience. There are hundreds of fabulous non-white/non-male actors out there; how nice to get to see some of them. This cast rocked.
EUREKA DAY
GLASS. KILL. WHAT IF IF ONLY. IMP.
PURPOSE: I liked pretty much everything about Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' play. My favorite part, however, was Naz's monologue about being asexual; it was beautiful and mind-opening--and very well performed by Jon Michael Hill.
LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA: My friends and I regularly use an out-of-town production as a MacGuffin to have a little vacation together. We always have a great time, and in the best cases, the production turns out to be great. This was one of the best cases. Emily Skinner made a lovely Margaret, and Sarah-Anne Martinez and Joshua Grosso may be my all-time favorite Clara and Fabricio, respectively, which is not meant to in any way denigrate the other wonderful people I've seen in the roles (including the original Broadway cast).
SEAT OF OUR PANTS: This was my favorite show this year. I ended up seeing it four times. I am a big fan of Skin of Our Teeth, and Ethan Lipton musicalized it with love and respect and fabulous songs, and the direction by Leigh Silverman and the amazing cast made it magical. My two favs: Micaela Diamond brought deep humor and pathos to Sabina, and Ally Bonino made a scary and compelling fortune teller.
TRIPLICITY
WE DO THE SAME THINGS EVERY WEEK
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| Shuler Hensley, Micaela Diamond The Seat of Our Pants Photo: Joan Marcus |
Sandra's Favorite Five Theatrical Moments
Wow! Wendy always impresses me with her theatrical knowledge and the amount of shows she fits in each year. I, too, would see hundreds if I could. Alas, work, family and other obligations keep me away much more than I'd like. I saw 16 shows last year on Broadway, off (See my review of After Endgame) and way off. In no particular order, here are my five favorite theatrical experiences from 2025.
Dead Outlaw: So much to love here: The frolicking score by David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna, the off-beat story of bandit Elmer McCurdy - whose mummified body became a sideshow staple for roughly 65 years - and a slight set that amplified the talented cast's musicality (and Andrew Durand's skill with immobility as a second-act corpse). All provided a lively afternoon that reinforced the importance of respecting human dignity.
Chicago: After seeing this in 1996 with Ann Reinking as Roxie and Bebe Neuwirth as Velma, I possessed no desire to watch it again. But my two theater kids requested tickets during supermodel Ashley Graham's Broadway debut as Roxie, a performance that received mixed reviews. The highlight moment for me came after the bows when my daughter and son begged to visit the stage door to get their programs autographed. Graham spoke so kindly to them - and I appreciated that. She made them feel special and gave us all a sweet memory.
Chess: I loved this musical's score since college when I'd listen to a boot-legged audiocassette of the 1998 Broadway show on my Walkman. To hear Lea Michelle, Aaron Tveit and Nicholas Christopher sing the hell out of "Nobody's Story," "One Night in Bangkok" and "Where I Want to Be" thrilled me - even if the musical's book still remains lackluster.
Liberation: The heart-breaking resonance of this play comes not only from Bess Wohl's meticulous research that she weaves into compelling characters, but the fact that so many of their struggles and challenges still impact women today.
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| Photo by Matthew Murphy/Provided by DKC O&M |
Ragtime: When I first saw Ragtime in 1998, the cast list read like a who's who: Brian Stokes Mitchell, Marin Mazzie, Audra McDonald, Mark Jacoby, Judy Kaye and a pre-"Glee" Lea Michele. I figured nothing could surpass that version. Liz had an extra ticket (thanks Liz) and I arrived at the Beaumont Theater without expectations. But, what a show. The grand scale of this revival offers an epic feel with a 28-piece orchestra and more than three dozen cast members. Yet, the storytelling remains intimate - offering insight into the lives of those on stage: a resonance you feel long after the show ends.
Liz's Top Theatrical Moments
Happy new year! I’ve measured out the last 12 months less in coffee spoons than in trips to various venues, where I’ve seen a generous handful of productions ranging from sublime to forgettable. I wish I could say that this was an especially spectacular or consistently thrilling year, whether of theatergoing or anything else, but as we are all well aware, 2025 was about as spectacular and thrilling as your standard-issue sceptic tank, and disconnecting from it with a trip to the theater became all the more expensive. Still, here are some high points in a year that was otherwise filled with a lotta lows.
Liberation at the Roundabout (and again at the Booth): Bess Wohl’s “memory play about things I don’t remember” is so funny, heartbreaking, brilliantly constructed and topical that I saw it twice–and laughed and cried as much the second time as I did the first. The show zigzags between now and the early 1970s, touching on various intersections that include Black, Jewish, white, lesbian, straight, bisexual, and male perspectives about American feminism. Its take on all that American women have gained and lost over the past half-century is as complicated and contradictory as the history it covers. I loved the chance to become acquainted with its interesting, complex, deeply human characters, all of whom struggle to feel liberated on their own terms. Liberation is easily one of the best shows I’ve seen all year; it’s also possibly one of the best I’ve seen in my life. And it’s still running! Get yourselves to the Booth, stat, if you haven’t yet. You and your mother will thank me.
Brother Jie, No! at the Taipei Performing Arts Center: What do you do when you find yourself in a country where you don’t speak the language but still want to dip into the local musical theater scene? You go the Cats route, in my case, by choosing a show with a straightforward, jokey plot, and lots of visual appeal, physical humor and references to global pop culture. Bonus points if said show is in a brand-new, absolutely gorgeous performing arts center. Taipei’s is shaped like various foods on offer at the nearby night market; inside are several theaters, a gift shop and a restaurant. Brother Jie, No!, a musical about memes, was inspired by a well-intended PSA about male sexual assault, which was so stiff and ham-fisted that it quickly went viral in east Asia for all the wrong reasons in 2012. Costumes and dance sequences were over-the-top and colorful, and the ample physical comedy made me laugh out loud even when I was unsure what was being said. It helped that I watched the PSA in advance and thus felt more included–like I was in on the joke–than I might’ve had I chosen a more serious or heavily scripted show.
The Gospel at Colonus at Little Island Amphitheater: Oedipus at Colonus has always struck me as the biggest snooze of the Oedipal Cycle: a very old Oedipus journeys home to die; everyone else either helps him get there or just stands around talking about it. Lee Bruer and Bob Telsen’s gospel-steeped adaptation, originally staged at BAM in 1983, allows the performers to emote more deeply than the text alone implies. Performed at dusk by a large cast swathed in blue- and purple-hued tunics and accompanied by a superb band, this revival benefited as well from the amphitheater's proximity to the Hudson River; the stunning views and cool breeze off the water made for comfortable viewing in the stifling July heat. As the sun set on the performance I attended, the cast’s costumes reflected the colors of twilight, adding even more drama to what might otherwise have been a rather plodding treatment of Oedipus's demise.
The Matriarchs at TheaterLab: Liba Vaynberg’s wonderful play opens on six orthodox Jewish tween girls in Teaneck, New Jersey–Miriam, Sara, Tzipporah, Rachel, Leah and Rebecca–who are spending a wintry shabbos afternoon at Miriam’s place, where they giggle, gossip and nosh, despite occasional shouts from the kitchen by Miriam’s mom (“Mrs. H” to everyone else) reminding them to settle down and focus on their shiur (Talmud study). As we watch the girls grow up, their relationships to Judaism, the secular world, and one another change in ways that are fully believable from a contemporary perspective, even as their lives simultaneously reflect those of their Old Testament namesakes. Like Liberation, The Matriarchs is a funny, sad, humane, deeply feminist play that takes its complicated characters seriously, doesn’t condescend to its audience, and makes me wish for more.
Ragtime at the Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center: I’ve seen plenty of productions of Ragtime in my life; at one, my husband and I even got in a snitty little “this is live theater, not the movies, you mofos” tiff with the tourists in front of us, who started tearing into and enthusiastically chewing their crunchy, crinkly, noisy snacks just as the lights went down on act one. But good lord, this is a beautiful, strong, compelling production with a particularly talented cast. While Brandon Uranowitz and Caissie Levy and the rest of the cast are all phenomenal, this is really Joshua Henry’s moment: his Coalhouse Walker is one for the ages; when I saw the show, he brought the house down twice.
Masquerade in an abandoned building: Diane Paulus’s brilliantly imaginative, fully immersive reimagining of Phantom of the Opera, now redubbed Masquerade and set in an old French Renaissance-revival building on west 57th street near Carnegie Hall, is great fun whether you are a fan of Phantom or not (I confess I’ve long been part of the latter category). An incredibly well-choreographed production involving seven different sets of leads who each perform for small groups of spectators who enter in 15-minute intervals, Masquerade is a triumph of organization, even if you don’t much dig the score. Kudos to the whole company for so expertly moving crowds from one place to the next while remaining in character and in good voice. Extra special applause for the performers at the freak show, which serves as the Phantom’s origin story: the firebreather alone was more interesting than any old chandelier, any day.
The Baker’s Wife at CSC: Charming, frequently hilarious, and much deeper than I expected, Stephen Schwartz’s musical, which closed out of town in 1976, finally landed in New York City at the tiny Classic Stage Company, where Scott Bakula and Ariana DeBose led a company that gave warm, cheerful performances. Because CSC did a special matinee for New York City students, my co-instructor and I got to take the 15 undergrads in our seminar about musicals and empathy to see the show; we all ended up in the first or second row, and we all had the best time ever. The world may be particularly rough around the edges these days, but experiences like this at shows like this remind me that I love teaching, that my college-age students are pretty wonderful, and that there’s beauty and joy and hope in the world, after all.
