Best New Showtunes of 2025 - Literally!

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 12/27/25 at 4:37pm

It's around that time of year where "best-of" lists are compiled and published. 

In 2025, we had many new musicals that premiered in NYC and all over the world - and with it, some brand-new songs. Let's list our favorites below, but the twist for this thread is, they have to have been performed for the very first time in a fully-staged production at some point in 2025, OR they were newly written for a 2025 mounting.

For example:

• Anything from OPERATION MINCEMEAT and DEAD OUTLAW - does not count.
• No jukebox musicals or revivals, obviously.
• Any new songs that were written for the Broadway mountings of REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES, THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES, and REDWOOD count. Thus, do not include "Still" but feel free to add "Daydream," for instance.
• World premieres absolutely count, from regionally to the UK and beyond. (This should probably make up the bulk of this thread.)

Let's hear it!

[steve.sometime]

Posted: 12/27/25 at 5:08pm

Santa Cruz (Night Side Songs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F05rhTkF0Mo

Crush (Beau)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWv0q7HZOOA

Digging (Mexodus)
https://m.soundcloud.com/brian-quijada-913852263/black-and-brown-instrumental

Childish Thing (Milions)
https://www.adamguettel.com/millions

Edited to add notes: Both Beau and Mexodus have had productions before 2025. 2025 is the year they premiered in New York. You could argue that previous productions are developmental and the NY ones are the finished version. But I understand if they don't qualify.

Updated On: 12/27/25 at 05:08 PM

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 12/27/25 at 5:38pm

I’ll chime in:

• ”The Stars” and “In the Leaves” - REDWOOD
• ”A Woman Knows” - REGENCY GIRLS
• ”Keep Up” and “Dawn Patrol” - THE HEART
• “What’ll It Be” - TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK) (New orchestrations and mostly new lyrics first heard in Boston make me sorta-kinda count this.)
• “The Explorer and the Bear” and “Marmalade” - PADDINGTON

And a special shoutout to the bridge of “Here and Now” from 13 GOING ON 30, one of the better MT bridges I’ve heard in the last several years. 

[steve.sometime]

Posted: 12/27/25 at 8:41pm

I went through all the musicals I saw this year, and here are a few more nominations:

Not That Kinda Gal (Schmigadoon!, this is a new song)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kzXoY5ZTNjU

Stuff It Down Inside (The Seat of Our Pants):
https://www.tiktok.com/@publictheaterny/video/7569375421091908895

Big Tree Religion (Redwood, not sure if this song is new for Broadway or not)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anC5NYQ-Z0E

I Got the Stuff (The Oscar Micheaux Project, technically this one is a workshop production, but it sold tickets and played 6 performances)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BdS3lswC0k

Pieces, Together (All the World's a Stage)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q7a2C_7o5I&t=48s

Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which (A Wrinkle in Time)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jxsRyfFTrU

Updated On: 12/27/25 at 08:41 PM

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 12/27/25 at 8:59pm

steve.sometime said: "I went through all the musicals I saw this year, and here are a few more nominations:

Not That Kinda Gal (Schmigadoon!, this is a new song)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kzXoY5ZTNjU

Stuff It Down Inside (The Seat of Our Pants):
https://www.tiktok.com/@publictheaterny/video/7569375421091908895

Big Tree Religion (Redwood, not sure if this song is new for Broadway or not)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anC5NYQ-Z0E

I Got the Stuff (The Oscar Micheaux Project, technically this one is a workshop production, but it sold tickets and played 6 performances)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BdS3lswC0k

Pieces, Together (All the World's a Stage)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q7a2C_7o5I&t=48s

Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which (A Wrinkle in Time)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jxsRyfFTrU"

"Big Tree Religion" was in fact new for Broadway, having replaced the inferior "A Little Bit Wild" from the La Jolla iteration of REDWOOD.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/28/25 at 12:52pm

God, this is a depressing thread. 

[The8re phan]

Posted: 12/28/25 at 2:30pm

"Normal" (Dead Outlaw)

Honorable Mention --- "Why Look Around the Corner" (Boop!) - say whatever you like about the show, but this song literally lived in my head rent-free for WEEKS after seeing it

Updated On: 12/28/25 at 02:30 PM

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 12/28/25 at 2:31pm

The8re phan said: ""Normal" (Dead Outlaw)"

Doesn’t count, it first featured in a 2024 production. 

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 12/28/25 at 2:54pm

This thread has a lot of rules.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/28/25 at 4:40pm

“Boop” also doesn’t count since it premiered in 2023. 

My point on this being a depressing thread is just how few (if any) great scores we get nowadays. It wasn’t really that long ago that you could have a serious discussion over WHICH new score was the best, not were there ANY great scores.