Theater on-and off-Broadway, started out quite strong in 2025, but the promise of an exciting fall never really materialized, with a few key exceptions, and instead the biggest box office hit of the Broadway season, so far, is a dismal and disappointing revival of Waiting for Godot, directed by Jamie Lloyd, who gave us the best revival of last season with his spectacular Sunset Blvd! Of course, Lloyd will redeem himself once his fabulous Evita finally makes it across the pond.
Both Chess and Ragtime have many redeeming elements—especially the incredibly talented ensembles singing their lungs out—but neither could completely recover from flawed books.
Matt Rodin helped make Beau The Musical much more than just another gay coming-of-age story.
Jean Smart captivated in Call Me Izzy.
The cast of Meet the Cartozians had audiences spellbound.
Nicholas Barasch managed to steal all his moments in Pirates!, despite the starry cast.
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) managed to be pleasurable, if not so memorable once you left the theater.
Kristen Chenoweth’s return to Broadway after a decade absence in The Queen of Versailles, proved incredibly misguided, but she certainly had spunk! Ditto, Idina Menzel in Redwood.
Here are the 13 shows I felt were most worthy of attendance in 2025, in descending order.
13. Heathers The Musical
The current musical revival of Heathers is doing smash business at New World Stages and, although it’s been slightly sanitized, it still packs quite a punch and features a game and gifted cast led by the wickedly wonderful Casey Likes (Almost Famous, Back to the Future).
12. We Had a World
Joshua Harmon’s haunting, exquisite memory play opened off-Broadway at New York City Center and boasted amazing work by Andrew Barth Feldman, Jeanine Serralles and Joanna Gleason. The personal piece is about a dying culture that no longer nurtures artists and a world on the brink of destruction. Nothing too timely.
11. The Picture of Dorian Gray
Succession’s Sarah Snook set the stage ablaze, earlier this year, in a theatrical tour de force, playing all 26 roles, and winning a deserved Tony Award in Kip William’s reworking of Oscar Wilde’s classic, The Picture of Dorian Gray. It was one of those truly memorable stage triumphs.
10. Operation Mincemeat
The madcap musical madness of London’s Operation Mincemeat has blossomed into quite the success here. Blending irreverence with an actual lunatic WW2 story, the comedy troupe, SpitLip, comprised of David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts wrote the show and deliver on the promise of both entertainment and a wacky history lesson. Robert Hastie directs with breakneck speed and precision. And Tony-winner Jak Malone steals it all with his, ‘Dear Bill’ number.
9. Boop! The Musical
TikTok’s repeated clip, “We could see BOOP!” couldn’t help save Betty’s musical from closing, which is a damn shame because it was a ravishing and inventive production, directed by the fabulous Jerry Mitchell, with wonderful numbers and two dynamic lead performances: Tony-nominee Jasmine Amy Rogers (currently in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at New World Stages) and Ainsley Melham (back in Aladdin on Broadway). I can see many regional theaters clamoring for this one.
8. Marjorie Prime
Second Stage Theater’s revival of Jordan Harrison’s Marjorie Prime, currently running at the Hayes, is timelier than when it debuted at the Mark Taper Forum in 2014, and scarily less sci-fi. There was also a terrific film adaptation in 2017 starring Lois Smith and Jon Hamm. This latest incarnation, directed with eerie precision by Anne Kauffman, succeeds so well thanks to deeply affecting work by Cynthia Nixon, Danny Burstein, Christopher Lowell, and especially, 96-year-old June Squibb. See it…if only for the most-extraordinary final scene.
7. Punch
James Graham’s potent play, Punch, just completed a West End run, after transferring over from Broadway, after moving from off-West End. This energetic, thought-provoking work was made all the more captivating by Will Harrison’s fantastic lead turn. The Manhattan Theatre Club production had a limited run, but Harrison’s performance needs to be remembered come Tony time.
6. Ghosts
Lincoln Center Theater’s emotionally devastating production of Ibsen’s Ghosts ran off-Broadway and should have been given a transfer. This was the unsung jewel in LCT’s crown this past year, masterfully directed by three-time Tony-winner Jack O’Brien and featuring powerhouse performances by Lily Rabe, Billy Crudup and Levon Hawke. Now, if we could just get these thesps schedules to mesh…
5. Liberation
Easily the best new Broadway play of the season so far, Liberation, Bess Wohl’s poignant look at a group of groundbreaking feminists, asks many urgent questions without providing solid answers. There are too many superb performances and so much food for thought wrapped in one hilarious show, directed by Tony-nominee Whitney White (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding).
Liberation runs through February 1st. Link for TICKETS
4. Purpose
A trio of fantastic female performances dominated Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ enveloping play, Purpose, which won the Best Play Tony Award. LaTanya Richardson Jackson plays the devious and manipulative matriarch. Kara Young won her second Tony for embodying the kooky best friend of the protagonist. And newcomer Alana Arenas delights and then detonates on the dysfunctional family she married into.
3. Oedipus
The best compliment I can pay Robert Icke’s absolutely riveting, modern re-envisioning of the Greek tragedy, Oedipus, is that it made me want to go back and reread The Theban Plays (the Sophocles trilogy that includes Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone). You know what’s coming and you hold your breath for two hours and watch a perfect ensemble play out the tragic events. Oh, and Lesley Manville’s searing, stirring, Olivier-winning interpretation of Jocasta is a master class I will not soon forget. Run to see this before it closes February 8th.
2. Dead Outlaw
The best musical of the year won no Tony Awards and closed shortly after the Tony broadcast. Dead Outlaw was too smart, clever and daring for Tony voters who preferred to give their top musical trophies to a safe, comfortable rom-com. A damn shame. But many of us who saw this brilliant show off and/or on Broadway, experienced a truly original creation. The profound book (Itmar Moses) and songs (David Yazbek & Erik Della Penna) were complimented by deft direction by David Cromer (all worked on The Band’s Visit) and were led by the mesmerizing lead performance of the incomparable Andrew Durand.
1. John Proctor Is the Villain
The most electrifying, essential piece of shake-me-up-out-of-my-seat theater this year was Kimberly Flower’s radical John Proctor Is the Villain. The play centers on an initial quartet of female high school juniors in a small conservative town in northeast Georgia at the height of the #MeToo movement in 2018 who want to start a feminist club, guided by their adored English teacher. Then certain truths come to light and the piece turns incendiary. Danya Taymor’s dizzyingly direction should have won her a second Tony. And this play should still be running on Broadway.
