Posted: 12/9/23 at 4:11pm
Poll: Best and Worst Broadway Show of 2023?
Which of the 35 opened in 2023 do you consider the best? Which the worst?
Posted: 12/9/23 at 4:22pm
My Top 3:
1) Here Lies Love
2) Purlie Victiorious
3) Fat Ham
My Bottom 3:
1) New York, New York
2) Harmony
3) The Thanksgiving Play
Updated On: 12/10/23 at 04:22 PM
Posted: 12/9/23 at 4:42pm
Favorite Play: Grey House
Favorite Musical: Shucked
Least favorite overall has to be Sweeney Todd for me.They sang the heck out of it but overall I was disappointed. (And yes, the absence of the factory whistle played a part in that!) Just my opinion
Posted: 12/9/23 at 5:38pm
Favorite Play: Prima Facie
Favorite Play Revival: A Doll's House
Least Favorite Play: Grey House
Least Favorite Play Revival: The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window
Favorite Musical: Shucked
Favorite Musical Revival: Sweeney Todd
Least Favorite Musical: Bad Cinderella
Least Favorite Musical Revival: Dancin'
Posted: 12/9/23 at 6:07pm
Best of 2023: (for me)
1) Harmony
2) Back to the Future
3) Merrily (could have been much better with a stronger cast and production)
Worst of 2023:
1) Kimberly Akimbo (2022)
2) Some Like it Tepid (2022)
3) Parade
4) Bad Cinderella
5) Here Lies Love
6) How to Dance in Ohio
7) Shucked (2022)
Updated On: 12/10/23 at 06:07 PM
Posted: 12/9/23 at 7:21pm
Best: Purlie
Worst: It twirled.
Posted: 12/9/23 at 8:21pm
Best Play: Prima Facie
Worst Play: The Shark is Broken
Best Musical: Gutenberg
Worst Musical: tie between New York New York & Spamalot
Posted: 12/9/23 at 8:22pm
Favorite Play: Prima Facie
Favorite musical(s): The Sondheim trifecta (Merrily, Sweeney, Here We Are)
Worst: Let's just say it was a turkey
Posted: 12/9/23 at 9:11pm
Worst : it’s actually one of the worst I’ve ever seen : Back to The Future. Everything about that show is a crime.
Posted: 12/9/23 at 9:41pm
PICTURES FROM HOME has gotta be one of the worst things I've seen in any medium over the past year. What a boring waste of artists who I usually love.
BACK TO THE FUTURE is almost offensive to the artform of musical theatre. It had even less charm than things like ONCE UPON A ONE MORE TIME (which at least had a few standout performances).
Posted: 12/9/23 at 10:01pm
Sweeney Todd, Here Lies Love, and Purlie Victorious were all very, very good in my book.
Posted: 12/9/23 at 11:31pm
Favorite Play: Prima Facie
Favorite Musical: Merrily We Roll Along
Least Favorite Play: The Thanksgiving Play
Least Favorite Musical: Bad Cinderella
Most Pleasant Surprise (Play): Peter Pan Goes Wrong. I normally hate slapstick comedies, and did not really like the Play That Goes Wrong. But I found something about this play delightful, for some inexplicable reason.
Most Pleasant Surprise (Musical): Spamalot, for largely the same reasons.
Biggest Disappointment (Play): A Doll's House. Loved Jessica Chastain. Hated the gimmicks. (But I actually liked the minimalism for Sunset Boulevard, so I don't know what to tell you.)
Biggest Disappointment (Musical): Kimberly Akimbo and Here Lies Love. Based on the rave reviews, I was expecting more out of both shows. KA had all the emotional nuance of a '90s Friday night ABC TGIF episode; Here Lies Love was woefully underdeveloped book-wise.
Posted: 12/10/23 at 1:39am
best: merrily
worst: harmony. gosh the first act was painful
Posted: 12/10/23 at 7:29am
BEST
New Musical: Kimberly Akimbo
Musical Revival: Merrily We Roll Along and Parade
New Play: Leopoldstadt
Play Revival: Didn't love any of the play revivals I saw this year
WORST
New Musical: Bad Cinderella and Shucked
Musical Revival: Spamalot
New Play: Grey House
Play Revival: A Doll's House and Purlie Victorious
Posted: 12/10/23 at 9:09am
Worst three:
Purlie
Fat Ham
Here Lies Love
Best Three:
Merrily
Parade
Sweeny
Posted: 12/10/23 at 10:57am
Best musicals:
Parade, Sweeney Todd, Merrily
Worst musicals:
Once Upon A One More Time (offensively bad), Here Lies Love. Can't think of a 3rd one, but I've been so disappointed in new musicals that I deliberately try to avoid seeing Shucked and How to dance in Ohio because I suspect I'll strongly dislike those too.
Best plays:
August Wilson's A Piano Lesson
Sidney Brustein
Appropriate
Good night, Oscar
Purlie
Worst plays:
Fat Ham
Jaja's African hair braiding
The collaboration
Summer, 1976
Updated On: 12/10/23 at 10:57 AM
Posted: 12/10/23 at 11:54am
I all-out loved Leopoldstadt, Merrily We Roll Along, Parade, and Sweeney Todd.
I liked/appreciated A Doll's House (loved Chastain's performance; hated everything else around her), Life of Pi (gorgeous production design that was criminally under-discussed this season), Fat Ham (a fantastic production thwarted by all-time awful marketing), Harmony (a beautiful and important story with some storytelling issues in its current iteration), and Here Lies Love (major props for its inventiveness and willingness to push the boundaries of Broadway).
I disliked but didn't all-out hate Grey House, How to Dance in Ohio, and Spamalot.
I actively disliked Pictures From Home, Bob Fosse's Dancin', Bad Cinderella, and Back to the Future.
Best Broadway show of 2023: Merrily We Roll Along
Worst Broadway show of 2023: Back to the Future
Posted: 12/10/23 at 12:18pm
Best:
Merrily
Fat Ham
Sidney Brustein
Just for Us
Worse:
Goodnight, Oscar
Posted: 12/10/23 at 2:16pm
Even if I had actually been to Broadway, I wouldn't have voted for a worst show because I don't like that kind of negativity. Just let people like what they like. Live and let live.
Posted: 12/10/23 at 2:25pm
Best musicals: Parade, Merrily, Harmony, Sweeney Todd
Worst musicals: Once Upon A One More Time, Shucked, Dance in Ohio
Posted: 12/10/23 at 2:43pm
Best Musicals
Best Plays
Worst Musicals
Worst Plays
Updated On: 12/10/23 at 02:43 PM
Posted: 12/10/23 at 6:57pm
Gonna steal akhoya87's categories!
Best Musical: Merrily
Best Play: Prima Facie or Just For Us (if that counts)
Worst Musical: Bad Cindy
Most Pleasant Surprise (Musical): Once Upon a One More Time - ok, this musical wasn't good, but I had a TON of fun. It's definitely not one I regret seeing.
Most Pleasant Surprise (Play): A Doll's House - I really didn't think I'd like this one, but I loved it!
Most Disappointing (Musical): Harmony - I wanted to like it so much and there was a lot of good there, but also a lot of meh
Most Disappointing (Play): Purlie Victorious - I did enjoy this one, but not at all to the level that many other seem to. I've seen it on several "Best of 2023" lists, but it falls way short of mine.
Posted: 12/10/23 at 9:31pm
Best Musicals: Sweeney (after opening with Groban), Merrily, Shucked, Kimberly Akimbo
Worst Musicals: Sweeney (in previews without Groban - god that’s bad!), Back to the Future
Posted: 12/10/23 at 9:49pm
BEST: Merrily We Roll Along. I've always loved this show and felt that it worked in many previous iterations as well. But in this production, it worked the best. Glad to see others finally feeling the Merrily love :-)
WORST: The Shark is Broken. I can't fully explain it, but sitting through this play made me angry. Maybe I was having a bad day, but I found this so dull and pointless and inept all at the same time. As a theatre-maker, I usually find a lot I can learn even in shows I don't particularly like, but this one felt like just a complete waste of my time. Would have left at intermission if there was one, and I have literally never done that in all my years of seeing Broadway shows.
I should mention though, that one of the only shows to open on Broadway in 2023 that I missed was Bad Cinderella. After watching the livestream of the second act opener that one time, and all of their television appearances, I have a feeling that if I had seen the whole thing, it may have given Shark a run for its money for last place.
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