All 42 Broadway Shows This Season: Ranked by Someone Who Saw Them All
From ambitious flops to soaring triumphs, here’s how the 2024–2025 season stacked up, according to yours truly.
It’s that time again. I saw every single Broadway show this season—all 42 of them—and just like last year, I’m back with my personal ranking of the full slate. These rankings are mine and mine alone, based on how each show landed with me in the moment and how they held up after some distance.
Some opinions have shifted. Some have solidified. And while I’m not here to declare any kind of official verdict, I do believe in thoughtful criticism, honest reactions, and calling it like I see it.
So here they are. From the basement to the penthouse, every Broadway show of the 2024–2025 season, ranked.
#42. Left on Tenth
Oof. What is there to say about Left on Tenth that I haven’t already said? Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher are at the center, but neither can overcome what I described as AI-generated design and first-draft direction.
#41. McNeal
Robert Downey Jr. makes his Broadway debut in a Bartlett Sher-directed drama about a famous author spiraling over AI—and that should be exciting. Despite a stacked cast and strong designers, this one evaporated as I was watching it. The most vivid part of the experience was the rooftop pre-show margarita I had before walking into Lincoln Center.
#40. Tammy Faye
From Elton John and Jake Shears, this British import wanted to be a campy-satirical-biopic-musical with heart. Katie Brayben gives it her all as Tammy, and Christian Borle and Michael Cerveris show up ready to play. But the songs feel wedged in, the script can’t decide what it wants to be, and despite a rainbow-colored ending, it all left me feeling pretty gray.
#39. Redwood
I appreciated Menzel’s full-body commitment to the material and Tina Landau’s conceptual ambition, but the show felt like it was chasing catharsis it hadn’t yet earned. Earnest, yes—but not fully baked.
#38. The Last 5 Years
People had it out for this revival before it played a single performance, mostly due to Nick Jonas’ casting as Jamie. And yes, Jonas is not great as our favorite narcissistic literary author. But he’s not a complete disaster. Rather, he’s just very much out of his element. Adrienne Warren fares better as Cathy. But Warren is such a ferociously strong actress and singer on stage and Cathy is a professional victim with a light hearted belt, that the Tony winner ultimately feels miscast. But on top of this muddled staging, an ugly design and an intimate show that’s swallowed in the medium-sized Hudson Theater and you have the slowest 85 minutes of the season.
#37. Romeo and Juliet
Sam Gold put a Euphoria spin on the Shakespeare classic. And it worked in attracting young audiences to the Circle in the Square Theater. But the cast was out of their depths with the Bard (including Rachel Zegler as Juliet, who nonetheless looks and sounds gorgeous). The frenetic staging and a design aiming for youthful relevance comes across as try hard…yeah, this one was a miss for me. The saving grace? Kit Connor’s Romeo. Beyond just his pull up, the Heartstopper actor is a natural on stage and with Shakespeare. Oh, and as our dear Liz Lemon would say: “the lighting was really neat.”
#36. Home
I can’t tell you I remember hating this production, the first show to kick off the Broadway season. I just don’t remember anything about it. I remember liking the supporting performances of Stori Ayres and Brittany Inge. Otherwise? It’s a blank.
#35. Smash
I did not hate Smash when I first saw it. I simply did not like it or find it funny. But with each passing day, my dislike of this show has grown and grown. Positives: the music sounds fantastic. The orchestra sounds full and the cast sells the sh*t out of the songs. Unfortunately, more than half of them are cut to shreds. The cast does their best and Robyn Hurder is a genuine triple threat. But she’s sadly stuck with a character that makes absolutely no sense. The less said about the show’s book, the better. Except that the major drama of the show revolves around letting a woman read. This show wants to be satire, but it’s just disheartening.
#34. All In
Offensively bad? No. Watching John Mulaney work an audience for 90 minutes is no hardship. It’s just that this production–four performers sitting in chairs reading short stories from binders–was highway robbery.
#33. Othello
The most expensive ticket of the season. Hell, probably the most expensive Broadway ticket of all time. And all for what ended up being a lifeless, flavorless production of Shakespeare. If Romeo and Juliet gets points for taking some big swings, but demerits for ultimately hitting itself with the bat, Othello gets points for never injuring itself, and demerits for never picking up the bat at all. What does that mean? This Othello was not incompetent. Just mostly boring. Jake Gyllenhaal proved himself adept at tackling Shakespeare in the role of deliciously vile Iago. And Andrew Burnap’s Cassio stole the spotlight from the two Hollywood headliners, proving his worth as one of our exciting young Broadway actors. But who goes to Othello for the Cassio?
#32. Glengarry Glen Ross
Like Othello, this is a big-ticket production that’s not a total trainwreck, but not nearly special enough to get away from my disdain. Perks: Bill Burr, Michael McKean and Donald Webber Jr. are locked in and deliver standout performances in (not cancelled badly enough) David Mamet’s Pulitzer winning play. Bob Odenkirk also pulls through in the second act, after a shaky first. Kieran Culkin, however, is miscast and misdirected as the fiery and seductive Roma. Considering the pedigree and cost of this production, you expect better. But considering how badly other high profile shows did this year, Glengarry escapes the absolute bottom.
#31. The Roommate
I cannot lie and tell you that the people around me were loving The Roommate. They laughed at all of the zaniness between Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone’s odd-couple-esque situation: an innocent Iowan recluse decides to cure her empty nest-syndrome by taking in a tough New York vegan lesbian as a roommate. The two don’t get along…until they do…and they teach each other a little something about life. It’s harmless. It also did absolutely nothing for me.
#30. Our Town
I adore this play. I did not adore the revival. Similarly to his Othello, Kenny Leon didn’t really have “a take” with this production other than assembling an eclectic cast, which unfortunately led to jarringly opposing acting styles clashing on stage. Not to mention a confusing design that only occasionally created lovely tableaus. Overall, though, it’s still Our Town—and underthought and sped through as this production was, it still couldn’t mar the brilliance of Thornton Wilder’s original masterpiece.
#29. A Wonderful World
This bio musical about Louis Armstrong is as high as it is for four reasons: Darlesia Cearcy, Dionne Figgins, Jennie Harney-Fleming, Kim Exum. End of list.
#28. Swept Away
You can have a lot of great components to your musical: sleek, elegant design; a cast of swarthy singing actors (though an odd performance from John Gallagher Jr.); tight, layered vocal arrangements; poetic staging…but none of it matters if it’s all attached to a script that doesn’t work. John Logan’s libretto is a slog and a half, both convoluted and dangerously simplistic. A shame, as so much of Swept Away is beautifully done. But when you don’t care about the story…90 minutes can feel like an eternity.
#27. Good Night and Good Luck
It’s not that I liked Good Night and Good Luck more than I expected…it’s more that I didn’t hate it as much as I expected. To be clear: there is a lot of dull air in this slavishly faithful stage adaptation of the Oscar nominated movie. As Edward R. Murrow, George Clooney is at his best when his character is delivering his nightly thoughts against tyrannical Joseph McCarthy on the air, his face projected broadly across the Winter Garden stage. And Murrow’s sermons about McCarthyism are timely and invigorating. And though many have jeered that the final montage played at the end of the show is hamfisted, an audience filled with rich patrons eager to see the expensive-ticket and celebrity hounds hungry to look at movie star is the exact right crowd that needs to absorb the play’s message.
#26. Pirates! The Penzance Musical
Handsomely designed and stacked with an extremely talented cast, this isn’t a revival of Pirates of Penzance but a revisal. Rupert Holmes has taken the Gilbert and Sullivan classic and moved the action from England to New Orleans, re-written half of the lyrics, incorporated songs from other G&S operettas, given the score an easy listening jazz swing, put the whole piece in a show-within-a-show framework, and overhauled the ending. And I’m an open minded theater goer who was eager to see what this team came up with. Ultimately, though, after a promising first 30 minutes, Pirates loses its point and never finds it again for the next 2 hours, resulting in a finale so inane it made me want to burn the theater down. A shame. What could’ve been.
#25. Once Upon a Mattress
Some people called this revival “Musical Comedy Heaven.” I called it a “Copy and Paste Job” from the perfectly fine presentation the show received at Encores last season. But at Encores, the simple staging, barely sketched out performances and flimsy design is part of the charm. There isn’t much money or time to spare for thought-through production. But try and pull that crap on a Broadway stage and the charm loses luster. It’s like when a 10-year old tries to get away with the same cute-kid routine they pulled when they were three. It’s just not the same. However, Sutton Foster was at her most game here than she’d been in years and Michael Urie gave a master class in perfecting low hanging, dumb comedy. Mattress wasn’t a bad time at the theater, but if this show wanted to be remembered come Tony time, they really should’ve put more into it.
#24. Job
I’m still not sure how highly I think of the script for this play, but I remained highly impressed with Michael Herwitz’s production and the central performances of Sydney Lemmon and Peter Friedman. A shame they weren’t recognized later this season for their work, as both actors walked the perfect tightrope of anxiety, natural human suffering and high theatricality. If nothing else, Job was worth seeing for their performances, as well as to see the beginning of what will be promising careers for director Michael Herwitz and playwright Max Wolf Friedlich.
#23. Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends
A Stephen Sondheim revue? On Broadway? Groundbreaking. Sarcasm aside, it’s hard to fully hate an evening of Sondheim music as performed by a bunch of Broadway and West End talent. And while producer Cameron Mackintosh has pushed for a lavishly designed production, this uneven revue is also marred by some ODD choices of material. For every classic done like “Losing My Mind” or “Send in the Clowns,” there’s a whole segment of Into the Woods including “Hello, Little Girl” and “Agony,” to say nothing of weird picks from Follies or West Side Story.
And while Bernadette Peters is a living legend, she is not in her best shape here. The best fun is seeing favorites Lea Salonga, Beth Leavel, Joanna Riding and Gavin Lee show their talents with divine turns of “The Worst Pies in London,” “The Ladies Who Lunch,” “Getting Married Today,” and “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid,” respectively.
#22. Gypsy
Listen: You will not find a bigger fan of Audra McDonald, George C Wolfe, and of the musical Gypsy, who is ALSO open to new interpretations of the show than this person right here *points at self with two thumbs*. I have wanted George C. Wolfe to direct Gypsy ever since Arthur Laurents finally gave in to peer pressure and died. But this revival was severely underwhelming for me. I even went BACK a month later to see how it had matured and if my initial reaction was too harsh. And while my issues had softened, they were still THERE.
We will not deny Jordan Tyson’s intensely belted, pissed-the-f*ck-off Dainty June (on the second viewing, my friend Kevin shouted “Jesus CHRIST!” during “Dainty June and her Farm Boys”). Also shout out out Mylinda Hull in two smaller, but memorable roles and Danny Burstein’s solid Herbie. Audra McDonald is a commanding presence on stage, an intelligent actress with a gorgeous instrument, and a goddamn star. Watching her is not a hardship. But her Rose lacked bite and vigor for me. And while her mezzo-soprano is not an ideal match for the usually belted score, what made it more prominently a mismatch was that for a majority of the time Audra WOULD belt the score. And belt it well! But then in the most important moments of her biggest songs (“Some People,” “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” “Rose’s Turn”) keys would be raised and Audra would then sing on her break/passaggio (the passage of the voice, aka the weakest section of any voice) and what is normally sung with a great deal of power, sounds thin.
On top of this, George C Wolfe’s production plays it surprisingly safe. The man who gave us Caroline or Change, The Wild Party and Jelly’s Last Jam is not using that same complicated and “in your face” mentality to race, human nature, and theatricality here. This production is by no means a disaster. A lot of it is perfectly OK. It’s possible I’d rank this higher if I hadn’t gone in both times expecting my DNA to be altered after. But that didn’t happen for me, and it makes me sad. But I will always show up to all things Audra McDonald. Why? Because she’s Audra. F*cking. McDonald.
#21. Stranger Things: The First Shadow
OK, I was told that the script for this Netflix prequel was full-on garbage. That was not the case for me. It’s not great and it is far too long—the show runs almost three hours and could be cut by half an hour easily. But full-on garbage? Not really. And yes, this is very much a spectacle piece with plenty of special effects, jump scares, and tons of money thrown on stage. But directors Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin give Stranger Things far more theatricality and creativity than you’d expect and keep the tone both tense and with a winking eye. That, plus Louis McCartney’s bravuro performance, keeps the piece from feeling completely like a theme park show. It could be far better, for sure. But it’s also far better than you might fear.
#20. BOOP!
Let’s get one thing straight: BOOP! is objectively a mess. But I had a great deal of fun at it. The script is funny-ish, but makes no sense. There are three stellar numbers (the opening numbers of Act 1 and 2 and “Where I Wanna Be”), but the rest of the score, while tuneful, feels a bit first-draft-y. Those three numbers are also phenomenally staged by Jerry Mitchell and his design team. One thing is consistent all night long: leading lady Jasmine Amy Rogers is giving a genuine Star-Is-Born performance. People have used that term far too much over the years. Any time a cute ensemble member gets to go on for the lead, their instagram followers who wanna sleep with them will shout “A star is born!” No. Jasmine Amy Rogers IS a star and she IS being born right here. If BOOP! were better (listen to my review of the show for my bullet point list on how to improve it), this would fully launch her like Thoroughly Modern Millie launched Sutton Foster. As the show stands, Jasmine Amy Rogers now has a Broadway blue chip that she can use to leg up her career. And we love to see it.
#19. Operation Mincemeat
If you know Broadway Breakdown lore, you know that I first saw this in London the month after they won the Olivier for Best Musical. Half the cast had left and I, mistakenly, saw it the day I landed. I knew nothing about the show or the story (hadn’t watched the Netflix documentary) and, on paper, it had all the things I loved. But…I hated it. A year later, I decided to give it a second shot with the full original cast and no jet lag. And I will say I disliked it a lot less. But I didn’t really love it any more.
So why is it at 19? Well, on first viewing I thought this musical was bad. My second viewing was better, but still didn’t reach me at all. But there is a craft and intelligence to this show. For me to undermine that would be dishonest. Some issues still remain for me (i.e. tonal whiplash and staging that could be more clever and creative), but I’m willing to relent a bit on my former hatred and allow for its success with others. I still hate the Act 2 opener, though.
#18. Real Women Have Curves
Opening just under the wire, this musical came into the Broadway season with little fanfare, only for audiences to scream its praises the moment previews began. So I went in excited to see the show that had, supposedly, thrown a curveball into the Tony race. Similarly to Operation Mincemeat, I came back to the show a second time, where my opinion improved on the show a bit but I still had some issues with it.
Pluses: Real Women…has a very strong score with clever, character-based lyrics and music full of zest and flavor. Justin Machado does a masterful job with a very trickily handled Mom character. And the show has a great deal of heart and humor and doesn’t want to shy away from very real, scary issues with our country and racism and immigration. But there is still some clunkiness here. While the cast is charismatic, no one really reaches Machado’s level of mixing sitcom comedic skills with nuanced humanism, and a few actors suffer from what we call “Disney Channel acting.” Again, we liked this (more on the second time)…with caveats.
#17. Buena Vista Social Club
Similar to Swept Away, this is a show where the book is the least strong element of the production. It’s not a terrible book, it’s just a bit flimsy—held together enough to allow all the other solid elements of this production to soar (the choreography, music, and performances). This is a production with heat and vibrancy that you can’t replicate. It’s not perfect, But some shows get by on vibes and Buena Vista Social Club often flies purely off of vibes.
#16. Just in Time
This is the Jonathan Groff Show masquerading as a bio jukebox musical about Bobby Darin. Director Alex Timbers takes a lot of his tricks from his staging of Here Lies Love and applies it here with a Jersey Boys vibe and aesthetic. This doesn’t exactly lead to an interesting musical about Bobby Darin, but it does allow for a fun night that allows for Jonathan Groff to show off all of his skills. There is some sensory overload (it *is* an Alex Timbers production, after all) and the show can frequently fall into the traps of most bio jukebox musicals. But it’s hard to walk out angry that you spent 2.5 hours with Groff and crew.
#15. Dead Outlaw
This was the last show of the Broadway season that I saw, but I *did* get to see it a year ago downtown at the Minetta Lane. A year ago, I absolutely loved this show. But I think that over the past year, I’d built up that love in my head to remember this show as something different than it actually is. It’s still a strong, intelligent score by David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna. It’s still a great cast led by a dynamic Andrew Durand. And it’s still a craftily constructed production helmed by David Cromer. It’s still funny and sometimes even moving. But it’s also sometimes dry. And sometimes slow. And sometimes a bit too weird. I still loved a great deal about it. And it’s smart and original. But a year later and in a larger theater, some of the bloom was off the rose for me.
#14. Elf
I never thought Elf was a bad musical, I just never thought much of it in general. But with Grey Henson’s perfect casting as Buddy the Elf leading the way, this production was so much better than it had any right to be. And yes, it’s not the most lavish production. It was obviously meant to tour. But that doesn’t mean that the director and choreographer didn’t deliver a tonally consistent, cheekily inventive and exceptionally well-cast revival of a sweet holiday musical. I can’t state enough how hard it is to deliver successful comedy. But Grey Henson makes it look effortless, and that success trickles down to all other elements of this insanely delightful revival.
#13. Death Becomes Her
Everyone had said that this was the most expensive drag show of all time and that I would have the Time of My Life. The first time I saw it, I enjoyed it, but didn’t have the Time of My Life. And I’d left it at that until the cast album dropped in April. After two weeks of listening and secretly obsessing over it with friend (and Guncle of the Pod) Adam Elsberry, I realized “Oh, maybe I should see this again.”
My second viewing accidentally ended up being the night of the Tony nominations, so already the energy was electric. Everyone in the company had grown further into their roles, making weirder and even funnier choices, which highlighted how secretly intelligent this musical is with just how Dumb it is. Jennifer Simard still delivers my favorite musical performance of the season (what can’t this woman do?) and while I do still think there’s some more tightening that could happen and there are opportunities for comedic staging that are left on the table, this jumped up in my initial rankings a great deal.
#12. Sunset Boulevard
I love, love, love, LOVE Sunset Boulevard as a movie. And I hate, hate, hate, HATE Sunset Boulevard as a musical. And in so many ways, I should hate this revival. It’s stripped down aesthetically, heavily reliant on screens, and full of directorial choices that only make sense to Jamie Lloyd. It has almost no respect for its source material—granted, neither do I, but when you’re reviving a show, it’s usually best that you LIKE the show. But what can I say? I’ve now seen this production twice and I’ve had fun both times. I can’t say I was moved. I can’t say that I was overwhelmed. But I was never bored and I was frequently impressed. And at the center of all of this is Nicole Scherzinger’s Norma, who embodies everything this production is attempting to do and everything Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical thinks it is and delivers a captivating performance. This production hasn’t changed my mind on the musical (still hate it). But it has challenged my expectations for revivals in the future. Sometimes all the things you hate culminate into something you enjoy!
#11. Yellow Face
A meta-bio satire that messily plays with the fourth wall, David Henry Hwang’s play is a successful harpoon of the Broadway community and the fallacy of the American Dream…until the last 20 minutes, when things get more intense, yet sadly dissolve. It’s still engaging, but is not as held together as the rest of the show. Luckily, the previous hour and 20 minutes are so funny, smart and biting, and the last 20 minutes aren’t weak enough, that this revival holds its high ranking for the season.
#10. Eureka Day
You could call this play “Granola Karens.” A private, progressive charter school in California deals with a mumps outbreak and, thus, has to figure out how to effectively protect their student body while adhering to their “everyone has their beliefs” mantra. Do they enforce a mandate on vaccinating the student body when a large percentage of the school’s parents don’t agree with it? Is that ethical? Can you move forward without breaking a few eggs? Was that a mixed metaphor?
Eureka Day refuses to provide answers. It’s full of questions. Luckily, it’s also full of laughs, insight and a killer cast with Jessica Hecht delivering her best performance in years. Those who’ve seen Eureka Day will likely not forget halfway through the play, a Zoom call that hilariously erupts in chaos and exposes the rot lying in wait among the school’s population.
#9. Purpose
Similar to Eureka Day and Yellow Face, this is a tight ensemble of actors, well directed by Phylicia Rashad, swimming in a meaty play with a great deal of nuance, laughter and thought provoking questions…that ultimately could use one more draft. Brandon Jacobs Jenkins has proven himself to be a playwright worth visiting every time. And Purpose, for which he won a Pulitzer, is worth a visit. The first act is almost perfect, if heavy on narration. The second act loses the thread a bit, mostly due to bloat. But with another look, I’m confident Jenkins could easily shave off 15-20 minutes from it and Purpose will take off like a rocket. As it stands, the second act deflates a bit too much in comparison to its tight-as-a-drum first act. But the excellent ensemble (special shout-out to Alana Arenas, the only performer not to be Tony-nominated) and Jenkins’ mind are enough to highly recommend this.
#8. Cult of Love
Cult of Love does not go as deep as Purpose. It doesn’t ask as many insightful questions as Eureka Day. And it’s not quite as biting a satire as Yellow Face. But it is ultimately a better and, more importantly, tighter play. Like the previously mentioned productions, Cult of Love is also blessed with a pitch perfect ensemble of actors–special shout out to Molly Bernard’s wine swilling Rachel. While it may be guilty of using straw man arguments for some of its most important scenes, that doesn’t keep it from bravely exploring the toxic mentality of family dynamics and how being beholden to those you love can often feel imprisoning.
#7. Floyd Collins
If you’re a straight man who got into musical theatre between 2000-2012, chances are this musical is part of your Holy Trinity (The Last 5 Years and Ragtime usually being the other two). I’ve only ever known this show for Adam Guettel’s score—which is phenomenal—and had read a few early reports from previews that were not favorable. And I get it. The show is too long and should be 100 minutes with no intermission (surprise, Tina Landau isn’t the best librettist). And yes, the expansive Vivian Beaumont stage is a double-edged sword for what should be an intimate production. Sometimes it’s distancing, sometimes it’s stunning. But the highs of Floyd Collins are so high for me (“The Call” is one of the biggest highlights of the season), that any of the lows (which aren’t even real lows) hardly matter. It’s not perfect, but it’s often beautiful.
#6. The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde’s famous novel about youth, beauty, and the monstrosity of narcissism has been turned into a modern presentation that’s part movie (camera crews abound and a giant screen remains) and part one-woman marathon by Sarah Snook. The production, adapted and directed by Kip Williams, is much like Snook’s performance: constantly impressive, endlessly inventive and artistically clever. But rarely, if ever, moving. There’s a bit of a human component that is missing from everything that keeps you always a bit at arm’s length and, thus, you’re always engaged but rarely enraptured. Still, what’s happening at the Music Box is a tour de force of theatricality and endurance, with Snook landing arduous mental gymnastic feats, one after the next.
#5. John Proctor is the Villain
This is absolutely the # 1 I’m-eating-my-hat show of the season. I have said multiple times on mic how the premise of this play (Gen Z sits around talking about how The Crucible is problematic) sounded like my worst nightmare. So what happened? Well, first: the bylines about this play in all press releases aren’t completely accurate, but also Kimberly Bellflower’s script is surprisingly funny, insightful and nuanced. During the resurgence of the Me Too movement, a group of Alabaman high schoolers have to confront the fact that some of their most trusted allies could in fact be predators (while reading The Crucible in class). But believing victims is easier when the accusations aren’t being thrown at the people closest to you… John Proctor… tackles weighty subjects like gender politics, sex, abuse, youth, hyopricy, female solidarity with a nuanced, humane perspective that often keeps the material from being pandering or preachy.
And not for nothing, but Bellflower might be the first mainstream playwright to accurately capture Gen Z culture and dialogue. Expertly helmed by Danya Taymor (who is now 3 for 3 with me) and a tight-knit cast (with an especially exceptional performance by Fina Strazza), John Proctor is the Villain is a piece I’m proud to say how wrong I originally was about it. If there’s one complaint I have, it’s that the third act turns a bit more simplistic than its more complex first two acts. But not so much that it dumbs down what Bellflower has been exploring throughout. And the final 5 minutes prove to be a cathartic outlet for many audiences who similarly feel like shouting these days.
#4. English
Yet another Pulitzer winner of the season (super deserved) and one of four Best Play nominees you’ll find in my top five. This play is pure delight from start to finish and, unlike some wonderful works this season, doesn’t lose its thread in the last 10 minutes but actually brings everything together beautifully.
Though it may seem like a simple premise–a group of Iranian people take classes to learn English–Sanaz Toosi actually tackles identity. What is yours, what is given to you, what you can gain and what you might lose…all because of learning a new language. I’m so glad it came to Broadway and that the Tony Awards recognized it appropriately. If I could make one request of the nominations, it would’ve been to include Ava Lalezarzedah in Featured Actress (her dissertation on Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” will remain with me forever). But hey: I’m just happy I got to experience this show.
#3. Maybe Happy Ending
What can I say about this musical that hasn’t already been said in my review or all over the Broadway internet? It’s the underdog success story of the season and, at the moment, the frontrunner for Best Musical. And deservedly so. Another deceptively simple love story between two robots in the future (you know, that old chestnut) that actually deals with loneliness, mortality, the desire to be wanted, and connection. Its score is somehow both lush and quirky, its book economical and sweet while also funny and charming, and its physical production is elaborately designed (think Bunny Christie’s Company set meets The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime) though never overwhelmingly overproduced. At the center of it all are the pitch perfect performances of Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen, who both manage to be endearing without being cloying. It does feel sometimes like the last 15 minutes have multiple endings (*maybe* multiple happy endings?), and you might deal with some sightline issues depending on where you sit, but overall this is one of the most interesting and fulfilling new musicals to arrive since Broadway’s reopening.
#2. Oh, Mary!
The biggest hit of the season and Cole Escola’s masterwork. I would not be surprised (or mad) if Oh, Mary! ended up winning all five of its Tony nominations as it’s just been that big of a hit. THE hit of the season, really. What else can I say that hasn’t been said about Oh, Mary!? Nothing. There’s nothing I can add. You know what this is. Moving on.
#1. The Hills of California
I first saw this play in London last year with absolutely no context for what it was about. All I knew was that it was three hours and it was the same playwright of The Ferryman (really enjoyed) and Jerusalem (really confused). The first two hours, I was gobsmacked by how fantastic it was. And then the final hour was when the Jez Butterworth who wrote Jerusalem came out I was somewhat underwhelmed. But wouldn’t you know it…Butterworth felt the same and did a rewrite of the third hour.
The Broadway production ended up being 20 minutes shorter than in London, with a great deal of fat cut out of the final act and a greater focus on the torn relationships of the four main sisters (Helena Wilson, Leanne Best, Ophelia Lovibond and Laura Donnelly in dual roles), as well as their healing. Aided by a gorgeous design and delicate direction by Sam Mendes, The Hills of California is one of those rare cases where a gifted creative team took their already solid work and *improved* it, pushing their final efforts to the very top of my list. Laura Donnelly, who was already wonderful in London, was even more incredible here playing both the grown up version of the fourth sister, Joan, as well as the past version of the sisters’ mother, Veronica.
Some were disappointed that the show wasn’t as experimental a work as some of Butterworth’s other endeavors. Others felt the plot was too slow and shallow for a full evening of theatre. To those people, I say: art is subjective but shut up, you’re wrong. The Hills of California is, in many ways, a classic kitchen sink drama centering around family members and their baggage. But the layers of that are numerous and how this play explores those themes is haunting. I know that I’ll never forget the added-for-Broadway staging of Donnelly as grown up Joan trepidatiously approaching the staircase that would lead to her character’s greatest trauma, only to stop before she can reach the first step…confronting the ghost of the girl she was before that terrible event occurred (her younger self expertly played by Lara McDonnell). Yeah. This one was special.
There you have it: all 42 Broadway shows from the 2024–2025 season, ranked. You don’t have to agree with me (and I’m sure many won’t), but hopefully you found a few new ways to think about what this season had to offer. For a deeper dive into why I placed things where I did—and a few tangents that didn’t make it onto the page—you can listen to both full podcast episodes on Broadway Breakdown here: Rankings Part 1 + Rankings Part 2.
I will forever be thrilled by your #1.