10 Best New York Theater Productions of 2024

From an unlikely Broadway musical featuring music from the Avett Brothers to a campy farce about Mary Todd Lincoln and the assassination of her husband to Audra McDonald scaling the mountain of an American classic, TheWrap critic Robert Hofler ranks the 10 best New York theater production of 2024.

10. “Swept Away” on Broadway

Using Avett Brothers songs, Jordan Logan’s book tells a true and riveting tale of cannibalism on the high seas. And man eating man isn’t even the shocking part. John Gallagher Jr. delivers the year’s best performance by an actor in a musical. Michael Mayer directs.

9. “Jordans” at the Public Theater

In a dazzling stage debut, Ife Olujobi delivers a play that’s funny, bizarre and an homage to “Get Out.” In that Jordan Peele thriller, there’s one Black character named Jordan. In “Jordans,” there are two (Naomi Lorrain and Toby Onwumere) who find themselves in the uncomfortable situation of working in an alien world. Whitney White directs.

8. “Oh, Mary!” on Broadway

Charles Ludlam’s the Ridiculous Theatrical Company lives on in playwright Cole Escola, who also plays Mary Todd Lincoln, a chronic drunk who wants to be a cabaret singer. That’s where Escola’s wild ride of a comedy begins, and their take on Abe Lincoln (Conrad Ricamora) and John Wilkes Booth (James Scully) is even more wonderfully insane. Sam Pinkleton directs.

7. “Eureka Day” on Broadway

Jonathan Spector’s send-up of political correctness at a private school in Berkeley, California has the actors walking on radioactive egg shells. Anna D. Shapiro’s direction turns a series of text messages into one of the year’s funniest scenes in the theater. Jessica Hecht, in a heartbreaking monologue, delivers the best performance by an actress in a play.

6. “Gypsy” on Broadway

Director George C. Wolfe has a wild new take on the classic: Mama Rose’s worst sin is no longer turning her daughter (Joy Woods) into a stripper. Audra McDonald gives the best performance by an actress in a musical.

5. “The Hills of California” on Broadway

Another very determined stage mother has not two but four daughters she wants to make stars to escape her own suffocating existence in Blackpool, England. In Jez Butterworth’s new play, Laura Donnelly plays both the mother and the one daughter who makes it all the way to California. Sam Mendes directs.

4. “The Ally” at the Public Theater

A Jewish professor (Josh Radnor) sponsors a controversial speaker on the campus, and all hell breaks out when words like “apartheid” and “genocide” are applied to the state of Israel. The debates never stop in Itamar Moses’ new play, the best of 2024. Lila Neugebauer’s direction resembles a brilliant chess match at which no one wins.

3. “Maybe Happy Ending” on Broadway

Two obsolete robots (Darren Kriss and Helen J Shen) meet a la Mimi and Rodolfo in “La Boheme,” and then go on a quest to find his owner somewhere on an island in South Korea. Hue Park and Will Aronson make spectacular Broadway debuts as both book writers and songwriters.  Michael Arden scores as the year’s best stage director.

2. “Hold on to Me Darling” at the Lucille Lortel

Kenneth Lonergan’s funny, pathetic, brilliant 2016 play returns to the New York stage with Adam Driver playing the country-western star who wants to return to his roots even though he never left them behind. Driver gives the year’s best performance by an actor in a play. Neil Pepe directs.

1. “Dead Outlaw” at the Minetta Lane

Playwright Itamar Moses takes a true story and delivers the stage equivalent of what Alfred Hitchcock did in “Psycho” when Janet Leigh gets killed 40 minutes into the movie. Even though the year’s best musical is about a mummy, it really sings with foot-tapping songs by David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna. David Cromer directs.  

The post 10 Best New York Theater Productions of 2024 appeared first on TheWrap.