Best Theater of 2025: Another Year End, Another List

Hello hello and it's time for another year-end round up of my favorites of all the theater I saw in 2025. I've been thinking this month about what a shame it is that the Fall season brings us so many strong pieces of theater, many of which don't survive past the new year for one reason or another (if it's a star-studded play, it's often a limited run anyway), and can therefore be forgotten come awards season, even if they're remembered fondly for these end of the year Best-Of lists. But then, I wonder if the weightedness of the Spring season representation at the Tonys et al is mirrored for the year-end lists. Do Spring shows that burned brightly but briefly make the cut? (Not to brag, but it looks like my list is almost evenly divided between first half of the year and second half. Go me!)

This is just me musing. I haven't run the numbers. But hey, speaking of numbers, this year I saw 128 pieces of theater with 9 repeats, leaving 119 unique pieces of theater. Of those 119, 70 were plays, 39 were musicals, and 10 were streaming.

In order of appearance, these ones stuck around in my brain, my heart, and/or my gut.

The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy [redux] (Theater in Quarantine/NYTW/Lucille Lortel Theatre, Off-Off-B; watched January)

Joshua William Gelb as Egon Tichy. Photo source.

Deep Blue Sound (Clubbed Thumb/The Public, Off-B; watched March)

Crystall Finn, Maryann Plunkett, Arnie Burton, and Miriam
Silverman as Mayor Annie, Ella, John, and Mary.
Photo by Maria Baranova.

We Had a World (Manhattan Theatre Club, Off-B; watched March)

Jeanine Serralles, Andrew Barth Feldman, and Joanna Gleason
as Ellen, Joshua, and Renee. Photo by Jeremy Daniel.

Operation Mincemeat (Golden Theatre, B; watched March)

The cast of Operation Mincemeat. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.

John Proctor is the Villain (Booth Theatre, B; watched April)

The cast of John Proctor is the Villain. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.

Canaan Unremembered (Theatre East, Off-Off B; watched April)

Cathryn Shelton Jones and Joseph Dean Anderson as Jenn
and Matt. Photo by Ewan Rasmussen.

Bus Stop (Classic Stage Company, Off-B; watched May)

Cindy Cheung and Delphi Borich as Grace Hoylard and 
Emma Duckworth. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

Eurydice (Signature Theatre, Off-B; watched May)

The cast of Eurydice. Photo  by HanJie Chow.

Next to Normal (Donmar Warehouse, Off-West End; streamed on PBS May)

Caissie Levy as Diana. Photo by Marc Brenner.

Viola's Room (Punchdrunk/The Shed, Off-B; watched July)

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Ensemble Shakespeare Company/The Flea Theater, Off-Off-B; watched July)

Matisse Ratron-Neal, Katie Pelensky, Susannah Hoffman,
and Gerrard Lobo as Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and
Helena. Photo source.

Let's talk about anything else (The Other Side of Silence/The Flea Theater, Off-Off-B; watched September)

The cast of let's talk about anything else. Photo by Mikiodo.

Masquerade (Off-B; watched September)

Kyle Scatliffe and Eryn LeCroy as the Phantom and Christine.
Photo by Oscar Ouk.

This Much I Know (59E59, Off-B; watched September)

Firdous Bamji, Dani Stoler, and Ethan J. Miller. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

The Honey Trap (Irish Repertory Theatre, Off-B; watched November)

Foreground: Doireann Mac Mahon, Annabelle Zasowski, and
Daniel Marconi as Kirsty, Lisa, and Young Dave.
Rear: Michael Hayden as Dave, watching his memory.
Photo by Carol Rosegg.

Oedipus (Roundabout/Studio 54, B; watched November)

Jordan Scowen, Olivia Reis, Mark Strong, Lesley Manville,
James Wilbraham, Anne Reid, and Bhasker Patel as Eteocles,
Antigone, Oedipus, Jocasta, Polynieces, Merope, and Corin.
Photo by Julieta Cervantes.

Seat of Our Pants (The Public Theater, Off-B; watched November)

Ruthie Ann Miles, center, as Mrs. Antrobus, with other refugees
from the flood. Photo by Joan Marcus.

The Baker's Wife (Classic Stage Company, Off-B; watched November)

Ariana DeBose and Scott Bakula, center, as Geneviève and 
Amiable, with the cast of The Baker's Wife. 
Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman. 

Ragtime (Lincoln Center/Vivian Beaumont Th, B; watched November)

The cast of Ragtime. Photo by Matthew Murphy.

Honorable Mentions to the following shows, which made my initial longlist, but I felt like I needed to whittle it down to under twenty: The Antiquities, Dead Outlaw, 七月半遗愿清单 Of Ashes and Souls, The Archduke (Wilma Theater production), The Picture of Dorian Gray, Nine Moons, Passengers, Call Me Izzy, Nothing Can Take You From the Hand of God, Weather Girl, When the Hurlyburly's Done, Queens, Meet the Cartozians.