Since my theater obsession started fairly recently (2014 to be exact), here's my list:
Hadestown
Matilda
Waitress
Harry Potter
Slave Play
The Great Comet of 1812
Something Rotten!
Band's Visit
King Kong (a flop, but nevertheless epic)
Oklahoma! revival
I'm sure Hamilton would be on this list if I saw it. But I keep applying for the lottery and hoping to see it one day. After so many cast changes, I'm not ready to pay over $200 for a ticket. I love seeing the original cast of every show I see, that's why previews are my favorite way to see theater.
I've included new shows, not revivals, with half plays and half musicals, in no ranking order. I must say, I think it was a much better decade for plays than for musicals, where I had trouble even coming up with five.
Some of this list is going to be based solely on soundtracks, and said entries will be tagged accordingly (also, these are not in any particular order): * American Idiot (soundtrack-based selection)
* Newsies
* Come From Away
* Annie 2012 Revival (soundtrack-based selection)
* Waitress
* Chaplin (soundtrack-based selection)
* Aladdin
* Hedwig and the Angry Inch Broadway Version (soundtrack-based selection)
* Finding Neverland
* Fun Home (soundtrack-based selection)
Honorable mentions go to the Broadway Version of R+H's Cinderella (soundtrack-based selection), Jagged Little Pill (soundtrack-based selection), Moulin Rouge! (soundtrack-based selection), and the 2014 U.S. Version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
For this exercise I'm only counting shows I saw on Broadway. I live in Chicago and make it out to NYC twice a year. If I opened this up to include Chicago shows this would be a very daunting task indeed.
10 Favorite Musicals (New or Revival) of the Decade (in alphabetical order)
Fun Home
A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
Hadestown
Hamilton
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Neil Patrick Harris)
Hello, Dolly! (Bernadette Peters)
Kinky Boots
Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812
Once
She Loves Me
Honorable Mention: David Byrne's American Utopia (not a "musical" by any stretch of the imagination, but one of the most joyous and musically rewarding experiences I have had on Broadway)
10 Favorite Plays (New or Revival) of the Decade (listed alphabetically by title)
Honorable Mention: Hello Dolly, Matilda, Fun Home, The Humans, Doll House Part II, Here Lies Love, Beautiful Things (Public), Disaster!, Glass Menagerie (2015),
Musical The Band’s Visit The Book of Mormon Come From Away Dear Evan Hansen Fun Home Hadestown Hamilton Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 Once The Scottsboro Boys
Play Choir Boy The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time A Doll's House, Part 2 Eclipsed The Humans Indecent The Inheritance Peter and the Starcatcher Slave Play What the Constitution Means to Me
Revival of a Musical The Color Purple Hedwig and the Angry Inch Hello, Dolly! The King and I My Fair Lady Oklahoma! Once on this Island Pippin Spring Awakening Sunday in the Park with George
Revival of a Play Angels in America The Boys in the Band Fences The Glass Menagerie The Normal Heart A Raisin in the Sun Three Tall Women Twelfth Night A View From the Bridge Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
"In theater, the process of it is the experience. Everyone goes through the process, and everyone has the experience together. It doesn't last - only in people's memories and in their hearts. That's the beauty and sadness of it. But that's life - beauty and the sadness. And that is why theater is life." - Sherie Rene Scott
With so much free time -- I am retired -- I gave it too much more time and have concluded that the folloiwng does as good a job of representing my views than my prior list. Clearly, there are things I did not get to see, e.g., Angels revival, Lupone Gypsy, The Inheritance. There are also big hits that I did not like, e.g., Fun Home, Hadestown, Billy Elliott, A Doll's House Part 2 I also disqualified at least one, e.g., the second revival of Cabaret, because it was the same exact show with the same exact male lead as the original revival (else it would have been much higher).
Musicals:
#1: The Producers
#2. Moulin Rouge
#3. A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
#4. Hamilton
#5. Dear Evan Hansen
#6. Urinetown
#7. Bandstand
#8. Kinky Boots
#9. The Scottsboro Boys
#10. Finding Neverland
Musical Revivals:
#1: Oklahoma
#2. Evita at the Asolo Theatre in Sarasota, Fl.
#3. She Loves Me
#4: The King and I
#5. Chess at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA
#6. Sunday in the Park With George (first one)
#7. Merrily We Roll Along at Huntington Theatre, Boston
#8. South Pacific
#9. Ragtime
#10. Sunset Blvd.
Plays:
#1: The Ferryman
#2. To Kill a Mockingbird
#3. Slave Play
#4. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night
#5. OSLO
#6. The Sound Inside
#7. Sweat
#8. Vanya, Sonya, Masha and Spike
#9. Time Stands Still
#10. The Nance
Play Revivals:
#1. The Normal Heart
#2. The Little Foxes
#3. The Crucible
#4. Three Tall Women
#5. The Glass Menagerie (Booth)
#6. You Can't Take It With You
#7. The Cripple of Inashnaan at the Kennedy Center
Dear Evan Hansen Angels In America Once on this Island revival Cabaret revival The Ferryman Significant Other The Wolves Hadestown Fun Home Pippin revival
I’m sure like many of you on this thread, this exercise not only made me homesick for live theater, but also reminded me of the incredible talent that is out there both onstage and off... in no particular order:
Musicals: Hamilton The Color Purple revival Dear Evan Hansen Hedwig (with NPH) Pippin King and I Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 The Band’s Visit Hello Dolly Hadestown
Plays: To Kill a Mockingbird King Charles III Peter and the Starcatcher The Humans Jitney Hand to God Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime Oslo The Sound Inside Angels in America Indecent (I wish I had seen: The Inheritance, Ferryman, Slave Play, Sweat and several others)
Off Broadway: Fun Home Sweeney Todd Ghost Quartet Strange Loop Octet Unknown Soldier Dogfight Little Shop of Horrors Torch Song What the Constitution Means to Me Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven
hon. mentions: Fiddler on the Roof (National Yiddish Theatre); Ghosts (BAM, starring Lesley Manville), My Fair Lady (Lincoln Center), A View from the Bridge (van Hove), Hello Dolly (Broadway, starring Bette Midler)