I've included only new shows but opened it up to off-Broadway. There have been some incredible works in the past decade! Here are ten that knocked me out:
Taylor Mac’s 24 Hour History of Popular Music
An Octoroon
Scottsboro Boys
Hamilton
Indecent
The Inheritance
Guards at the Taj
Waitress
born bad
What the Constitution Means to Me
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/31/18
Musicals
1. Great Comet (Broadway)/Six (London Cast)
2. Preludes (Southwark Playhouse)
3. Hamilton
4. Fiddler on the Roof (Menier)
5. Ghost Quartet (4th Street)
6. The Bands Visit
7. Come From Away
8. Book of Mormon
9. Gentlemen's Guide to Murder
10. Hadestown
Plays
1. Yerma
2. Streetcar (St Ann's)
3. The Father
4. The Humans
5. View From The Bridge
6. Amy & the Orphans
7. Small Island
8. Torch Song
9. Angels in America
10. The Crucible
Featured Actor Joined: 3/16/15
In no particular order...
Dogfight
Yerma
Here Lies Love
Fun Home
Next To Normal (Mazzie)
Great Comet
Three Tall Women
The Scottsboro Boys
Heisenberg
The Band’s Visit
Honorable Mention...
Queen Of The Mist
Octet
Sons Of The Prophet
Lady Day
On The Town
Featured Actor Joined: 1/4/11
I haven't seen as many plays to justify a Top 10 list. Here are my list of musicals original & revival:
ORIGINAL MUSICAL
1. Fun Home
2. The Band's Visit
3. Hamilton
4. Ghost Quartet (Off-Broadway)
5. A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
6. The Book of Mormon
7. The Scottsboro Boys
8. Once
9. Matilda
10. Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
MUSICAL REVIVAL
1. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
2. Cabaret
3. Sunday in the Park with George
4. Follies
5. Little Shop of Horrors (Encores!)
6. A Little Night Music
7. My Fair Lady
8. She Loves Me
9. The King and I
10. Falsettos
HONORABLE MENTIONS
The Lion
Octet
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
Hadestown
Dear Evan Hansen
Rags Parkland Sings The Songs Of The Future
Edit: I forgot about Cabaret! Cabaret ranks No.2 and pushes everything down one place. Off-Broadway Sweeney Todd out.
Yerma
The Ferryman
Hamilton
Sweat
Slave Play
Three Tall Women
Venus in Fur
My Fair Lady
Oklahoma!
Skylight
The Band's Visit
Ack! I forgot about Yerma! What an extraordinary event that was.
PLAYS:
MUSICALS:
Broadway Star Joined: 1/12/17
Swing Joined: 9/13/18
MUSICALS/PLAYS
The Color Purple (2015 Revival)
Hadestown
Hamilton
Tina! The Tina Turner Musical
Dear Evan Hansen
Come From Away
The Inheritance
Slave Play
The Crucible (2016 Revival)
Little Shop of Horrors (2019 Revival)
Stand-by Joined: 7/30/16
Hamilton
The Color Purple Revival
The Band’s Visit
Hadestown
To Kill a Mocking Bird
Les Miz most recent revival
Hello Dolly Revival
DEH
CATS Revival (yes, CATS)
Once on this Island
My Fair Lady
This list is heavily slanted towards the last few years. I fell out of watching theater for a while, but then got back into it with a vengeance in 2017. (I blame the falling out on my graduate program - I had neither time nor money!)
In no particular order...
Honorable mentions: Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, The Book of Mormon, The Prom, Octet, The Ferryman, What the Constitution Means to Me, The Band's Visit, Weightless (American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco), Waitress
Updated On: 11/27/19 at 12:49 PMUnderstudy Joined: 3/29/19
In the order that they came to mind:
Bonus: Assassins (Signature Theatre, DC)
Ledaero said: "^ "No particular order" and then you rank them lmao"
That wasn’t an actual ranking. That was me just counting out the shows as I typed. But sure, go off, sis.
I'm sure I will want to delete/add some things later, but this is off the top of my head. Broadway only.
The Band's Visit
The Ferryman
The Glass Menagerie (2012)
Hadestown
Hamilton
Hello, Dolly!
Oklahoma!
Once on This Island
Three Tall Women
Venus in Fur
in no particular order
The Inheritance
Follies (National Theatre)
Spring Awakening (Deaf West LA)
Hamilton
Jagged Little Pill ( ART)
Moulin Rouge! (Boston)
The Glass Menagerie (Broadway)
Slave Play
The Ferryman
Hello Dolly (Bette)
1) Hamilton
2) Come From Away
3) Hello Dolly
4) War Horse (revival) - London
5) Harry Potter And The Cursed Child - London
6) The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night -Time - London
7) The Book Of Mormon
8) American In Paris
9) Something Rotten
10) School Of Rock
Wish I could have made room for Sweat on my list.
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/2/15
From the shows that I’ve seen (on Broadway) this decade my top 10 would be:
Hello Dolly
Next to Normal
Moulin Rouge
Come From Away
To Kill A Mockingbird
Oklahoma revival
Newsies
Billy Elliot
Color Purple
Dear Evan Hansen
PLAYS:
-Angels in America
-The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
-Fairview
-The Father
-John
-People, Places, and Things
-Three Tall Women
-A View From the Bridge
-Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
-Yerma
MUSICALS:
-The Band's Visit
-Cabaret
-Fun Home
-Hamilton
-Hello, Dolly!
-Octet
-Oklahoma!
-Pippin
-Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
-Sunset Boulevard
Updated On: 11/27/19 at 07:51 PM
Broadway Star Joined: 9/19/09
henrikegerman said: "Wish I could have made room for Sweat on my list."
Just add it! I think it is interesting to read the lists and nobody is counting to ten.
Broadway Star Joined: 9/19/09
Interesting project and enjoying reading people's lists. I'm doing separate lists as others have for musicals and plays - turns out I liked a lot more plays than musicals as I was considering this. In chronological order as I saw them - not in particular order of how I liked them.
Musicals:
Billy Elliott
Anything Goes
Pippen
Cabaret
Hamilton
Shuffle Along
My Fair Lady
Hello Dolly
Plays:
Let Me Down Easy
Orphans Home Cycle
War Horse
Other Desert Cities
One Man, Two Guvnors
The Exonerated
The Piano Lesson
Golden Boy
All the Way
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
Master Harold and the Boys
Sweat
The Ferryman
To Kill a Mockingbird
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/26/16
henrikegerman said: "Wish I could have made room for Sweat on my list."
Sweat and The Flick were the last two I took off as I tried to keep my honorable mentions list to 10 as well.
Oh gosh this is really hard, but I'm gonna go with (not completely in order)
-Come From Away
-Hadestown
-Dear Evan Hansen
-The Band's Visit
-Once On This Island
-Hamilton
-Great Comet
-Pippin
-Fun Home
-Anastasia
Honorable mentions to Waitress, Head Over Heels, and The Prom, and for plays, Choir Boy and What The Constitution Means to Me
Swing Joined: 10/20/17
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
Candide (Mary Zimmerman)
One Man, Two Guvnors
Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812
Silence! The Musical
Hand to God
Into the Woods (Fiasco)
Groundhog Day
Hello, Dolly! (Jerry Zaks)
The Inheritance
Honorable Mentions:
Let the Right One In
Matilda
Angels in America
Noises Off
Bartlett Sher Revivals (Golden Boy, King and I, My Fair Lady)
Oklahoma! (Daniel Fish)
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/30/15
I limited myself to shows I actually saw. I didn't see Hamilton, Dogfight, Heathers, Violet, Bridges, Hedwig, etc. In no particular order...
Original Shows
Waitress, Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, Shuffle Along, War Paint, If/Then, Doctor Zhivago, Fun Home
Revivals
The Color Purple (Cynthia Errivo), My Fair Lady (Laura Benanti), Oklahoma!, Hello, Dolly!, Once on This Island, The King and I, A Little Night Music
Off Broadway- Original
Daddy Long Legs, Hadestown, The Band's Visit, Bella: An American Tall Tale, A Strange Loop, First Daughter Suite, Pondling, Futurity, Sell/Buy/Date, Company XIV Cinderella
Off Broadway- Revival
Little Shop of Horrors (Gyllenhaal, Ellen Greene), On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (Irish Rep), Do I Hear a Waltz, The Marvelous Wonderettes, The Robber Bridegroom, The Secret Garden (concert), Brigadoon, A Midsummer Night's Dream (SITP), Fiddler on the Roof (Yiddish)
Cutting it all the way down to a top 10: Waitress, Great Comet, My Fair Lady (Laura Benanti), The Color Purple (Cynthia Errivo), A Little Night Music, The King and I, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (Irish Rep), Bella: An American Tall Tale, Daddy Long Legs... and honestly I think I prefer the shows I mainly know through the cast album/clips to anything else I could add to this list. This decade has featured a lot of great theatrical moments but not great shows in my opinion.
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