Best Musical 2026?

I was scrolling through the current and upcoming shows and I genuinely have no idea so I thought I'd bring it to this board. 

Does anyone think anything coming soon to Broadway has a good chance of winning the  Best Musical Tony Award next spring? Out of what I've seen so far, I truly have no idea. 

Updated On: 7/29/25 at 04:59 PM

That's very true. Some shows don't come in until march/april. 

Tons of new plays, but only those two musicals you mentioned and Dolly so far. 

There is always a great surprise that comes out of nowhere. i cannot wait to see what next season brings......

EDSOSLO858 said: "Geez, only one new musical this season sofar has announced both a Broadway house and exact dates (rather than a timeframe).

But deep down inside, I hope it's THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON. I'm all for grassroots British musicals and West End starsthriving across the pond.

(And you'd be inquiring about best musical2026, witchoftheeast2.)"
 

Updated On: 7/29/25 at 05:23 PM

WANTED, MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN, Bull Durham, hippest trip, the bedwetter, goddess

Crusty Bagel said: "WANTED, MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN, Bull Durham, hippest trip, the bedwetter, goddess"

I love how you started in all caps, and then transitioned to no capitalization at all. 

Preachers wife, millions, here we are, Galileo, kiss my Aztec, in dreams, secret life of bees, two strangers, ride, Benjamin button, devil wears Prada, burlesque, standing at the sky’s edge, just for one day, destiny of desire, to wong foo, Sinatra, Hercules

I don't think the Tony winner is a production that has been announced yet, and I think that's a bit unusual. If I had to take a guess, I'd say that The Lost Boys, with its pedigree, stands a good chance of taking the prize.

If we listed every show that announced Broadway intentions, we wouldn't even have enough concrete information about the productions to make a judgment call. 

Stranger things have happened, but some of the shows listed above were announced as aiming for Broadway before the COVID shutdown. Like, we have little clues of what could have been--the writer/composer of SuperYou was on some Broadway diversity/composer panels right before/after the shutdown, so an attempt was being made--but we're far past some of these shifting in. 

We know for sure Queen of Versailles is coming in. Did the Lost Boys announce a theater yet? That one seems pretty certain. Wanted and the Dolly Parton musical also seem pretty well set to come in this season.

A lot of the other new shows are potential transfers we don't have confirmation of yet. Will we get Benjamin Button? Two Strangers? Midnight in the Garden? And what brand new little show that could will show up and get pushed, baby bird out of the nest style, onto Broadway to sink or swim after an acclaimed off-Broadway run?

 

EDSOSLO858 said: "But deep down inside, I hope it's THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON. I'm all for grassroots British musicals and West End starsthriving across the pond."

I'm in the minority, but having seen this twice in London (the second time with a friend who did not want to go alone), I remain less enamored of it than most.

I think the synchronicity of the London cast and fairly nonstop movement help mask a somewhat repetitive and bland score,, as well as the overall sameness.  I'd summarize it as an A level performance of a B/B+ level book and score.

But it is a strong audience pleaser and certainly checks some of the boxes often associated with the Best Musical.

 

Updated On: 7/30/25 at 09:55 AM

Again, only three of those have been announced. The rest are simply rumored at this point.

Wonder how much longer Hadestown has. I could see Wanted being a good fit for the Kerr. I also think it might work well in the Nederlander, but I'm not sure they'd want to be off the beaten path when the show is already essentially unknown to the general public, and also in a theater with over 1200 seats. I think they'd be smart to keep it to a house that's about 1000 or less.