Posted: 12/15/22 at 6:40pm
I saw several shows this year (most of them on Broadway) and started playing lottery and digital rush for others, but my true highlight of 2022 was getting to reach out to friends / acquaintances all across the industry, while meeting many more sweet people along the way.
Posted: 12/16/22 at 12:01am
Posted: 12/17/22 at 7:23am
I was so happy to see so many shows this year. I spent my theater budget splurging on a few shows and was able to see many more through more low budget options Highlights: Into the Woods at City Center, Kimberly Akimbo, Downstate, Funny Girl (Lea Michele), A Strange Loop, Leopoldstadt, Prayer for the French Revolution, Death of a Salesman, Cost of Living , Company, Parade
Into the Woods: Heather Headley, Sara Bareillis (Moments)
Kimberly Akimbo: Off Broadway & Broadway. Milligan, Clark, Cooley
A Strange Loop: I saw Off Broadway, loved OBC even more with Jaquel Spivey and each Thought.
Downstate and Cost of Living, two of the best plays I’ve seen this past decade.
Company, what a cast! Getting Married Today with Matt Doyle. Patti.
Parade, this production wrecked me for weeks. I hope a larger audience gets to see it with a Broadway transfer.
Posted: 12/17/22 at 3:01pm
muscle23ftl said: "My favorite shows I saw this year were:
1-Funny Girl with LEA
2-Strange Loop
3-Beetlejuice
4-The Music Man
5-KPOP
6-Merrily (not necessarily this production, but love the show)
7-Paradise Square
8-A Beautiful Noise
9-Almost Famous
10-Trevor
"
Muscle - here you go
39 Reasons to Love New York Right now.
https://www.curbed.com/article/reasons-to-love-new-york-2022.html
#10
Because Lea Michele saved the show.
Posted: 12/17/22 at 11:37pm
I only wish I could live in NYC and see the number of shows many of you get to see! For 2022, I was able to see the most shows I’ve seen in a single year, so I’m happy about that. I made two trips to NYC and one trip to London and got to see:
Broadway Spring: The Music Man, Plaza Suite, Mr. Saturday Night, Beetlejuice, The Bedwetter
West End Summer: & Juliet, Back to the Future, Cabaret
Broadway just this past week: A Strange Loop, Merrily We Roll Along, Funny Girl, Some Like It Hot
I don’t know if this is recency bias, but A Strange Loop ended up being my favorite. I wasn’t sure if this straight, white girl from the south would identify with it, but I felt such empathy for this character, and I was impressed by such a raw, honest musical. It made me go ahead and buy tickets to Jackson’s White Girl in Danger for the spring.
Overall, this year will be particularly memorable due to being able to catch so many people I have wanted to see perform live on stage. I saw two more shows in 2022 than I saw in 2021, so I hope I can keep trending in the right direction for 2023!
Posted: 12/18/22 at 12:56am
Hands down: My favorite show of the year has been A STRANGE LOOP. I have seen it 36 times and counting and it’s truly great theatre that I’m crushed is getting the chop. Since ASL falls firmly into a category of its own, I will remove the show from my first ranking.
Top 10 Shows:
1) COMPANY
2) GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY
3) POTUS
4) TOPDOG/UNDERDOG
5) AIN’T NO MO
6) FOR COLORED GIRLS…
7) INTO THE WOODS
8) TAKE ME OUT
9) FAT HAM
10) KPOP
Top 10 Performances:
1) The Entire Company of A STRANGE LOOP (I can’t single one out because they are all unique and have a unique and cohesive dynamic)
2) Corey Hawkins - TOPDOG/UNDERDOG
3) Crystal Lucas-Perry - AIN’T NO MO
4) Kenita R. Miller - FOR COLORED GIRLS
5) Sam Rockwell - AMERICAN BUFFALO
6) Patti LuPone & Jennifer Simard - COMPANY
7) Mare Winningham- GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY
8) Sara Bareilles - INTO THE WOODS
9) Luna - KPOP
10) Julianne Hough - POTUS
Posted: 12/18/22 at 1:54pm
Thanks Robbie! I think I posted about that article on another thread, right?
Posted: 12/18/22 at 10:29pm
I saw my final performance of the year this past Thursday; I was lucky enough to see 49 shows throughout the year. Looking back, here are some of my favorites of 2022 (in no particular order):
The Minutes (Broadway)
Cost of Living (Broadway)
Suffs (The Public)
A Case for the Existence of God (Signature)
Into the Woods (Encores! and Broadway)
Downstate (Playwrights Horizons)
Merrily We Roll Along (New York Theatre Workshop)
Some shows I enjoyed in previous years that I got to revisit this year:
Kimberly Akimbo (saw at The Atlantic in 2021, revisited on Broadway)
KPOP (saw the Ars Nova production in 2017, revisited on Broadway)
A Strange Loop (saw the Playwrights Horizons production in 2019, revisited on Broadway)
Company (saw the reopening performance in 2021, revisited in April with a friend)
Some of my favorite performers/performances of the year:
Gabby Beans (The Skin of Our Teeth)
Sara Bareilles (Into the Woods)
Heather Headley (Into the Woods)
Corey Hawkins and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Topdog/Underdog)
Shaina Taub (Suffs)
Phillipa Soo (Suffs and Into the Woods)
Hannah Cruz (Suffs and Only Gold)
And some of my favorite moments:
Luna singing "Phoenix" in KPOP
The Real Housewives spoof in Ain't No Mo'
Ben Platt and Michaela Diamond singing "This Is Not Over Yet" in Parade
"Now You Know" from Merrily We Roll Along
Posted: 12/19/22 at 9:07pm
I only got to see a handful of shows this year, but I honestly loved everything I saw:
Company
Moulin Rouge
The Prom (White Plains Performing Arts Center)
& Juliet
I’m really hoping to see Into The Woods before it closes, though it doesn’t seem likely at this point.
More importantly, I’m a professional actor and got to be in my first show since the pandemic! After a whirlwind of backstage drama, I ended up as a lead in an off-off-Broadway musical and wouldn’t change that experience for the world!
Posted: 12/21/22 at 12:27am
I saw 20 shows this year.
The list:
Chicago:
Evita at Drury Lane
D.C.:
Hamilton Philip Tour
Broadway:
Birthday Candles
Company
The Phantom of the Opera
POTUS
A Strange Loop
The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera
Take Me Out
Beetlejuice
The Minutes
Chicago
MJ
Into the Woods
The Phantom of the Opera
Chicago
The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera
I have yet to see Phantom since the closing announcement, but I knew it didn't have much time left once Harold Prince died. If the pandemic had not happened, I am sure the show would have closed just months after Prince's death. Something told me to see it as often as I could. I have tickets to see it three times next week and five times in 2023. I'm still very annoyed with Seth's change to the descent into the lair. Every time I see it, I cross my fingers that he comes to his senses and restores the original staging.
It was like a time warp seeing Hamilton again after all of this time. Even though I was in my late 30's when Hamilton premiered, I felt like I was a kid back then so revisiting it was like seeing an old friend after many years.
The shows I enjoyed the least were POTUS and The Minutes. I freely admit I didn't get The Minutes and I was bored out of my mind. I think it was a slow burn and I just was not in the mood for a slow burn. for POTUS, I expected a political satire type of show, and what I got was slapstick humor. I love slapstick humor, but I wasn't expecting lowbrow like that.
Birthday Candles, and especially Debra Messing, was just so comforting. I can't put my finger on what about the show was so endearing but it got me in the feels for sure.
A Strange Loop was inventive, hilarious, shocking, unexpected, and brilliant. That said, I could have done without the extended scene involving let's just say....an act I never expected to see onstage and never want to again. Not because I'm a prude but because it was so unsettling; it was like watching abuse. That *kind of* ruined the show for me. But the again I think the insights into current gay life made it worthwhile.
I went into Company completely cold except for always being harassed by Sondheim fans since I like Phantom. There is definitely a pecking order among Broadway fans and Sondheim peeps are at the top and Phantom phans are at the bottom, I have painfully discovered time and again. However, I loved the show and I would see it again, which is a rarity for me for a new show these days.
MJ was a fun Michael Jackson concert reenactment and gave me lots of nostalgia for the 80's/early 90s. I was so worried about the audience being rude and disruptive from hearing stories on here, but the show was so loud that the people around me could have been screaming FIRE and I wouldn't have heard. The book scenes absolutely dragged and you could feel the audience growing restless between production numbers.
Chicago was a freshly polished gem and I felt so guilty that I waited so long to see it after the pandemic ended. I just love everything about it and have yet to see a bad performance from the ensemble and non-celeb leads.
Well, next week, I'm seeing Phantom 3 times, Chicago once more and The Piano Lesson because I teach it to my juniors every year and I won't let a Pittsburgh cycle play be on Broadway without seeing it, even if it means giving up a Phantom slot. Then next year, two more Phantom shows in February, and then the final three in April, and then i think I am going to take a break from Broadway for a while. The more I think about Phantom closing, I think the worst part of the whole thing will be seeing the set being loaded out, knowing how FINAL that is. Everything has been right where Maria Bjornson left it in 1988, and soon it'll be scattered to the wind, but first it'll probably get photographed in pieces all over West 44th Street.
Updated On: 12/21/22 at 12:27 AM
Posted: 12/31/22 at 12:52am
As of tonight, I saw 100 unique productions this year -- a good mixture of Broadway, Off-Broadway, and London with a smattering of other regional shows in the mix for good measure.
Here are my favorite things from the year (but if you ask me tomorrow, they may be different)
Top Musicals
1. Oratorio for Living Things
2. Kimberly Akimbo
3. A Strange Loop
4. Into the Woods (NYCC)
5. Parade
6. Caroline, or Change
7. Don't Stop Me
8. A Man of No Importance
9. Titanique
10. Merrily We Roll Along
Honorable Mentions: Anyone Can Whistle, The Bedwetter, Cabaret (London)
Top Plays
1. You Will Get Sick
2. The Burnt City (London)
3. Confederates
4. The Skin of Our Teeth
5. A Case for the Existence of God
6. Fat Ham
7. Cost of Living
8. Wit (Seeing Place Theatre)
9. Mary's Seacole (London)
10. I'm Revolting
Honorable Mentions: Ain't No Mo', English, POTUS, Topdog/Underdog
Top Ten Performances (Unranked)
The women of Into the Woods, especially Heather Headley, Sara Bareilles, and Stephanie J. Block
The whole cast of Kimberly Akimbo, especially Victoria Clarke, Justin Cooley, and Bonnie Milligan
Joaquina Kalukango in Paradise Square
Katy Sullivan in Cost of Living
Micaela Diamond in Parade
Gabby Beans in The Skin of Our Teeth & I'm Revolting
Lindsay Mendez in Merrily We Roll Along
Jaquel Spivey in A Strange Loop
Crystal Lucas Perry in Ain't No Mo'
J. Harrison Ghee in Some Like it Hot
Honorable Mentions: Tonya Pinkins (A Raisin in the Sun), Sara Porkalob (1776), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Between Riverside & Crazy), Sharon Browne (Caroline, or Change), Rob McClure (Little Shop of Horrors), Julie Benko (Funny Girl), Jeremy Pope (The Collaboration), Brendan Uranowitz (Leopoldstadt), Linda Lavin (You Will Get Sick)
Posted: 1/2/23 at 10:27am
I haven’t seen a lot of of people mentioning Ohio State Murders…any thoughts on that show?
Posted: 1/2/23 at 4:02pm
Only got to NYC twice this year, but saw a bunch of shows.
I loved 1-7 to varying degrees, but then there's a big gap between those and 8 & 9. I've never regretted seeing a show, but I won't be looking to see either one of those again.
In LA, the best thing I saw was The Lehman Trilogy at the Ahmanson, right after its Broadway run.
Other highlights were King James at the Mark Taper, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Geffen. Also enjoyed Power of Sail and Trayf at the Geffen. The touring version of Hadestown was good, but it works so much better for me at the Walter Kerr.
Looking forward to more theater in 2023!!
