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:
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.
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...
Angels in America (2018 Berkeley Rep production)
Come From Away
Groundhog Day
Ghost Quartet (Seattle production)
Fun Home
Hadestown
Hamilton
Head Over Heels
Hello Dolly revival (touring production)
Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future (Ars Nova)
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
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.
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)
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.