Your Top 10 Shows This Decade

Significant Other

Bring it On

Hamilton

DEH

Once On This Island revival

Six

The Color Purple revival

Hadestown

JLP

Boys In The Band

Updated On: 11/30/19 at 06:13 PM

If it's a list of shows from this decade I personally enjoyed the most my list would probably include shows like Bonnie & Clyde and Doctor Zhivago because I enjoy them immensely in spite of their failure to captivate a larger audience. If you want something more substantive, then yes, Bette Midler in Hello, Dolly! was probably the greatest thing I've ever seen and will ever see. Not just Bette Midler but Gavin Creel, Kate Baldwin, David Hyde Pierce, the scenery, the costumes, everything... perfection.

I have to separate the plays from the musicals. And I haven’t watched Inheritance yet so my plays may change but I think my top 10 musicals are set in stone already.

MUSICALS

1. Sunday in the Park with George (2017 Revival)
2. Fun Home
3. Kinky Boots
4. Once on this Island (2018 Revival)
5. Into The Woods (2015 Fiasco Revival)
6. Hamilton
7. Falsettos (2016 Revival)
8. Waitress
9. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2014 Revival)
10. Oklahoma! (2019 Revival)

PLAYS

1. Angels in America (2018)
2. Torch Song (2019)
3. Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (because of Audra)
4. The Boys in the Band (2018)
5. The Iceman Cometh (Nathan Lane & Brian Denehy Revival at BAM)
6. The Ferryman
7. The Jungle
8. Significant Other
9. Life Sucks.
10. Uncle Vanya (Hunter Theater Project 2018)

I only started attending circa 2015 but definitely would watch these again periodically if given the chance -

Book of Mormon

School of Rock

Les Miserables

My Fair Lady

Dear Evan Hansen

Fiddler On the Roof

Oslo

Hello Dolly

Beetlejuice

She Loves Me

Edit: Okay I have to cheat and put an 11th since I put another play above:

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Updated On: 11/26/19 at 10:28 PM

1. Next to Normal with the replacement cast (2010)

2. Hello, Dolly (2017)

3. La Cage Aux Folles (2010)

4. Pippin (2013)

5. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2014)

6. She Loves Me (2016)

7. Hamilton (2015)

8. Dear Evan Hansen (2016)

9. Come From Away (2017)

10. The Humans (2016)

Honorable mention to the Spring Awakening revival, because it gave the show a new meaning and for the first time in my life I cared for Melchior. The show just isn't my cup of tea (not the best book/lyrics), but I loved the production overall.

I'm almost sure the 2014 The Glass Menagerie revival and Hadestown would've made it to the list if I had been able to watch them. I might still watch Hadestown, but I'll always be biter about missing what appears to have been one of the most glorious and perfectly-cast productions of this Tennesee Williams classic.

Updated On: 11/26/19 at 10:40 PM

Plays (In Decent Order):

The Ferryman

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Sound Inside

A Streetcar Named Desire (Blanchette production)

The Normal Heart

Slave Play

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night

The Crucible (Van Hove Production)

King Charles III

Three Tall Women

(Note: I was unable see Angels in America, which probably would have made the list, based on my past view of the work, and the loud praise the recent production received)



Musicals (In Decent Order):

Oklahoma

Moulin Rouge

Hamilton

The King and I

Dear Evan Hansen

A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Bandstand

Hello Dolly

The Great Comet

She Loves Me

(Note:a production of Evita that I saw in Sarasota would have ranked third, and a production of (of all things) The Sound of Music would have ranked in the middle, probably right after Bandstand. I have never liked SOM live, but this production was just outstanding and made a strong case for SOM being much better than I thought, and definitely worth reviving with the right director. Similarly, a production of Merrily We Roll Along which I saw in Boston 2 - 3 years ago would have been somewhere in the middle of the list).

I did not see the revival of Angels in America.

My least favorite Play: Gary, wirth honorable mention to A Doll'sHouse - Part 2 (not because it was bad; I thought the concept was really stimulating, but the execution really was a let-down...to me, it was an idea for a play, not a play. IMO it should have been much more fleshed out.

My Least Favorite Musical: Tootsie (but i did not see things like Amazing Grace, Disaster, Getting the Band Together, Head Over Heels, and the show about the Rabbi at CITS).



I note that the top of both lists favor the past 2 seasons. I have not forgotten prior seasons, in fact -- being anal-retentive -- i went back to remember what opened each season on Broadway, and guessed that the Blanchette Streetcar was early the time period. I would also pointout that, looking back, that a couple of early seasons in the past decade were to me pretty uninteresting.

Updated On: 11/27/19 at 11:18 PM

In no particular order:

The Band's Visit

Come From Away

Venus in Fur

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2012)

The King and I (Marin Mazzie)

Something Rotten!

Pippin

The Sound Inside

The Winslow Boy

All The Way



Honorable Mention:

Fun Home

Fiddler on The Roof (Both Danny Burstein production and Yiddish production)

Oslo

Waverly Gallery

Anything Goes (2011)

Once

And 4 Off Broadway gems:

Jesus Hopped the "A" Train at Signature NY

Athol Fugard's The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek at Signature NY

Harry Clarke with Billy Crudup

Sweeney Todd (Barrow St. Theater with Hugh Panaro and Carolee Carmello)

And yes, I would have included Hamilton but I figured it already had more than enough votes from everyone else.

Updated On: 11/27/19 at 06:36 AM

I'm not sure how I forgot to include The Prom on my list, what an unexpected, joyful surprise that show was. I loved it.