It's regrettable not to find room for Broadway's "Purpose" or the Met's "Moby-Dick" but this list emphasizes surprises...

10. "Pirates! The Penzance Musical" (Broadway). This jazzy update of Gilbert & Sullivan's classic score, trading Penzance for New Orleans, should be an affront -- but it's a fresh, fun triumph.

9. "The Jonathan Larson Project" (Orpheum Theater). A lovingly crafted catalog of unperformed songs by the groundbreaking composer.

8. "Kyoto" (Lincoln Center Theater): The idea of making sizzling theater from the incremental slog of climate-conference diplomacy is so unlikely it deserves recognition -- plus, it's really good.

7. "The Baker's Wife" (CSC): Stephen Schwartz's problem-child musical took 40 years to reach NYC, and though some problems remain, it was worth the wait.

6. "The Porch on Windy Hill" (Urban Stages) and "Beau the Musical" (St. Luke's Theatre): A tie: What are the chances two musician-driven shows about bonding with a long-lost grandfather through music would both make wildly successful theater?

5. Samuel D. Hunter's "Grangeville" (Theater Row) and "Little Bear Ridge Road" (Broadway): Another tie between two funny-yet-deadly-serious dramas about family estrangement and reconciliation.

4. "The Antiquities" (Playwrights Horizons) The brilliantly audacious premise of Jordan Harrison's play -- a deranged memorial of vanquished humanity curated by our AI vanquishers -- was matched only by its exquisite execution.

3. "Endgame" (Irish Arts Center): Among multiple welcome Beckett revivals, this was astonishingly warm and funny yet fully dystopian. (Honorable mention: F. Murray Abraham's "Krapp's Last Tape” at Irish Rep.)

2. "Mexodus" (Minetta Lane Theater): The most electric, unusual creation of the year, by two musicians who grab instruments from around the set and loop their sounds to make a hip-hop history lesson that's a worthy successor to "Hamilton.”

1. "John Proctor Is the Villain" (Broadway): My only 5-star worthy offering of the year -- had I officially reviewed it. Perfectly constructed. And I didn't even see it with original star Sadie Sink; maybe she would have made it 5.5 stars.

(Published: Dec. 29, 2025)