The Best of 2019: The Best Musicals I Saw Onstage

Unlike my recent Best of the Decade list of favorite musicals, this one is not exclusive to newly-created shows.

Although I did see a few brand new works that had some nice moments, I didn't get to New York this year and have not seen Hadestown, the latest Tony winner.

And, as opposed to several years, Broadway in Chicago's slate of musicals didn't include any pre-Broadway tryouts.

So it's been a rather lean year for me in terms of "new" musicals, but as a yearly category I've always used this one to celebrate the best musicals of any vintage or level I saw over the previous 12 months.

Any show making my list was quite good and especially in terms of older musicals, I'm really gauging the productions as much as the source material, though the two obviously blend together in terms of my enjoyment.

I believe my Top 6 musicals below were shows I awarded @@@@@ (out of 5) when I posted a review to Seth Saith.

So not a lot separates them, and in terms of rankings, I do give a bit of weight to recent shows, just to celebrate the freshness of something newly terrific.

Nearby is a graphic showing all 25 musicals I saw onstage in 2019, and quite honestly, I enjoyed them all.

Some were better than others, but there was really nothing I didn't like.

Not included for consideration here are several shows I more consider--and were generally marketed as--"plays with music," rather than outright musicals. It's not an easy delineation, especially as some of these were about Nina Simone, The Ramones, Ma Rainey and Cambodian rock music.

But I will soon be doing a post of My Favorite Plays of 2019, and will provide citation there for shows meriting it.

Also not eligible here, but perhaps of note to some, are concerts by Hugh Jackman and Barbra Streisand, which included considerable Broadway music. 

But for whatever it's worth, and however unscientifically determined, here are my picks of:


The Best Musicals I Saw On Stage in 2019:
(Note: All theaters in Chicago proper unless noted; in some cases the theatrical company is cited rather than venue. New shows are denoted with an *)

1. Dear Evan Hansen - Nederlander Theatre / Broadway in Chicago (my review)

2. Come From Away - Cadillac Palace / Broadway in Chicago (my review) 
 

3. Les Miserables - Cadillac Palace / Broadway in Chicago (my review)

4. The Producers - Paramount Theatre, Aurora (my review)

5. West Side Story - Lyric Opera of Chicago (my review)

6. Into the Woods - Writers Theatre, Glencoe (my review)

7. Bright Star - BoHo Theatre (my review) 

8. A Chorus Line - Porchlight Music Theatre (my review)

9. The Music Man - Goodman Theatre (my review)

10. Next to Normal - Writers Theatre, Glencoe (my review)

11. The Band's Visit - Cadillac Palace / Broadway in Chicago (my review)

Honorable Mention
In preference order

- Oliver - Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire (my review) 
- The Simon & Garfunkel Story - Broadway Playhouse / Broadway in Chicago (my review)
- The Light in the Piazza - Lyric Opera of Chicago (my review)
- Matilda - Drury Lane Theatre, Oakbrook Terrace (my review)

- A Bronx Tale - Nederlander Theatre / Broadway in Chicago (my review)
- Head Over Heels - Kokandy Productions / Theater Wit (my review)
- You Can't Fake the Funk - Black Ensemble Theater (my review)
- Falsettos- Nederlander Theatre / Broadway in Chicago (my review)

-- If re-posting lists or highlighting selections, please attribute to: Seth Arkin on SethSaith.com

The Best of 2018: The Best Musicals I Saw Onstage

Other than sensational rock concerts by cherished artists, and perhaps a few transcendent movies, there is no art form I love more than musical theater.

Even without any trips to New York or London this year, I saw 32 "Broadway" musicals in 2018, including several fantastic ones.

With the caveat that in my reviews--a link is provided for each show making my list below--I am really judging a particular production as much as the musical itself, I saw terrific touring renditions of such classics as Hello, Dolly! and Fiddler on the Roof.

While it may seem a bit unfair to gauge big budget national tours--and even the continuing Chicago sit-down production of Hamilton--against local productions, you'll see that several area troupes are well-represented.

All the musicals I saw in 2018

In fact, not making my Top 11 or Honorable Mention below are a few high-profile world premieres--Pretty Woman, The Cher Show, A Taste of Things to Come, Heartbreak Hotel--that I didn't quite love. (The first two cited are currently running on Broadway.)

So I am not so concerned with the budget, scale or pedigree, but primarily what moves me.

As you'll see, I really liked the pre-Broadway Chicago run of Tootsie, and even more so, a stage version of Moulin Rouge that I happened to catch in Boston. It's scheduled to open on Broadway in Summer 2019.

For whatever it's worth, and however unscientifically determined, here are my picks of:



The Best Musicals I Saw On Stage in 2018:
(Note: All theaters in Chicago proper unless noted; in some cases the theatrical company is cited rather than venue. New shows are denoted with an *)

1. Hamilton - CIBC Theatre / Broadway in Chicago (my review)

2. Moulin Rouge* - Emerson Colonial Theatre, Boston (my review) 
 

3. Hello Dolly - Oriental Theatre / Broadway in Chicago (my review)

4. Fiddler on the Roof - Cadillac Palace / Broadway in Chicago (my review)

5. The Book of Mormon - Oriental Theatre / Broadway in Chicago (my review)

6. A Little Night Music - BoHo Theatre (my review)

7. Jesus Christ Superstar - Lyric Opera of Chicago (my review) 

8. Ragtime - Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire (my review)

9. Tootsie* - Cadillac Palace / Broadway in Chicago (my review)

10. The Color Purple - Auditorium Theatre / Broadway in Chicago (my review)

11. Miss Saigon - Cadillac Palace / Broadway in Chicago (my review)

Honorable Mention
In preference order

- Haymarket* - Underscore Theatre Co. (my review) 
- Merrily We Roll Along - Porchlight Music Theatre (my review)
- Women of Soul - Black Ensemble Theatre (my review)
- Striking Out - Annoyance Theatre (my review)

- Company - Mercury Theatre (my review)
- On Your Feet! - Cadillac Palace / Broadway in Chicago (my review)
- Murder for Two - Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire (my review)

As of this writing, Hamilton and Fiddler on the Roof are still running in downtown Chicago, while Women of Soul continues at the Black Ensemble Theatre. 

-- If re-posting lists or highlighting selections, please attribute to: Seth Arkin on SethSaith.com

The Best of 2017: The Best Musicals I Saw Onstage

Obviously, all of my Best of 2017 lists--or those of any other year--are imprecise.

Not only are they based solely on my tastes, whims and often faded memories months down the road--though I do refer to my own reviews and ratings--they are unavoidably as dependent on what I didn't see or hear as what I did.

A wrinkle in this category--The Best Musicals I Saw Onstage--is that I'm really not judging the musicals themselves so much as the particular production and performance I saw.

Of course, any review I write is an assessment that inexactly blends the source material and the rendition.

But it seems worth noting here, given how I truly enjoyed Marriott Theatre's glorious production of The Bridges of Madison County--a musical I hadn't seen previously but which was far from a smash on Broadway--considerably more than a 2017 production of a musical that ranks among my Top 10 of all-time: My Fair Lady. And that was staged under the auspices of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, which has done some outstanding musicals in years past.

The musicals I saw in 2017

Also, as with my Best Concerts of 2017 list, I am not considering Springsteen on Broadway officially part of this category.

Yes, within a Broadway theater, Bruce Springsteen accompanied scripted, biographical storytelling with musical performance, which doesn't make it so different from Beautiful: The Carole King Musical or Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (about Billie Holiday).

And it was phenomenal, not just as a Springsteen concert--and I've been to dozens of those--but more so as theater. In fact, it's making a lot of lists chronicling the Best of Theater in 2017.

But while what constitutes a musical has wonderfully expanded over recent years--without any chorus lines or much choreography, the excellent Fun Home feels more like drama, albeit with songs sung as part of the storytelling--I don't believe Springsteen on Broadway belongs in this category.

Without it, there are 33 productions of musicals I saw in 2017, some new shows, some old, from which I am--unscientifically and imprecisely--selecting:

The Best Musicals I Saw On Stage in 2017:
(Note: All theaters in Chicago proper unless noted; in some cases the theatrical company is cited rather than venue. New shows are denoted with an *)

1. Les Misérables - Cadillac Palace (my review)
2. Hamilton* - CIBC Theatre  (my review)

3. The Bridges of Madison County - Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire (my review)

4. Wicked - Oriental Theatre (my review)
5. Mamma Mia - Marriott Theatre (my review)
6. Rent - Oriental Theatre (my review)

7. The Phantom of the Opera - Majestic Theatre, New York
8. Marry Me a Little - Porchlight Theatre (my review)
9. Beautiful: The Carole King Musical - Cadillac Palace

10. An American in Paris - Oriental Theatre (my review)
11. Billy Elliot - Porchlight Theatre (my review)

Honorable Mention
In preference order
 
- Parade - Writers Theatre, Glencoe (my review) 
- Fun Home* - Victory Gardens Theatre (my review)
- The King and I - Oriental Theatre (my review)

- Newsies - Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire (my review)

- Avenue Q - MTKC Pro, Kansas City, MO (my review in this piece)


As of this writing, Hamilton, Wicked and Beautiful are still running in downtown Chicago, as well as on Broadway in New York. Newsies is at Marriott Theatre through the end of 2017, and in January, The Phantom of the Opera celebrates its 30th straight year on Broadway. The excellent touring production of Les Miserables continues well into 2018.

The Best of 2016: The Best Musicals I Saw Onstage (with a Hamiltonian caveat)

As I wrote upon seeing Hamilton for the first--and for now, only, though I'm also ticketed for March--time, in October:

"So yes, I have become a full-fledged Hamilton acolyte, don't think any of the hype is overstated--even if the ticketing frenzy and aftermarket pricing seems over-the-top--and, without having seen the show on Broadway, found the Chicago rendition completely sublime, with the only possible diminution being a few instances of vocal timbres not quite equaling those on the original cast recording."

But though I think it can be counted among the best musicals ever created, so too can Cabaret, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Evita, The Producers, Man of La Mancha, Company and Spring Awakening, all of which I saw stellar productions of in 2016.

Certainly, my rankings of the best live musicals I saw this year are based not only on the source material, but the quality of the productions I witnessed. And given that Hamilton isn't just playing Chicago on a National Tour but staying in the Windy City conceivably for years on end (as a "sit-down" production), it has been lavishly staged at full-tilt.

Which is my way of explaining the top of my list below--not that it should come as much of a surprise--even if I still may consider other musicals "better" than Hamilton, including ones I saw in pretty resplendent fashion over the past 12 months.

All told, I saw 31 live musicals, and at least in terms of professional productions, I enjoyed all of them. Including those that didn't quite make the cut here, such as Finding Neverland, The SpongeBob Musical, Bullets Over Broadway, 42nd Street and Heathers: The Musical. But the following were:

The Best Musicals I Saw On Stage in 2016:
(Note: My rankings are based on my enjoyment of the particular productions, but blend in the quality of the source material as well. All theaters in Chicago proper unless noted; in some cases the theatrical company is cited rather than venue. New shows are denoted with an *)

1. Hamilton* - The PrivateBank Theatre  
(my review)

2. Cabaret - The PrivateBank Theatre  
(my review)

3. Company - Writers Theatre, Glencoe  
(my review)

4. Come From Away* - Ford's Theatre, Washington, DC (brief review within this piece)
5. The Sound of Music - Cadillac Palace (my review)
6. Man of La Mancha - Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire (my review)

7. In the Heights - Porchlight Theatre 
(my review)
8. The Producers - Mercury Theatre  
(my review)
9. Matilda - Oriental Theatre (my review)

10. West Side Story - Paramount Theatre, Aurora (my review)
11. Far From Heaven* - Porchlight Theatre (my review)

Honorable Mention
In preference order

Fun Home* - Oriental Theatre(my review)
Wonderful Town - Goodman Theatre (my review)
Sister Act - Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire (my review)

Spring Awakening - Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire (my review)

War Paint* - Goodman Theatre (my review)

Bat Boy - The Den Theatre (my review)
The King and I - Lyric Opera (my review)
Hazel*- Drury Lane Oakbrook(my review)

Mary Poppins - NightBlue (my review)
Evita - Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire (my review)

The Best of 2015: The Best Musicals I Saw Onstage (plus Opera and Dance)

2015 was a rich and rewarding year for indulging my love of musical theater, and also finding delight in opera and dance presentations.

Broadway in Chicago offered its usual stellar slate of national tours of recent Broadway hits--Kinky Boots, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder, Beautiful--and shows heading to NYC, or hoping to: On Your Feet, Gotta Dance, First Wives Club.

I got to New York in late-March, where I caught a legendary re-revival of Cabaret, starring Alan Cumming and Sienna Miller, the initial Broadway staging of The Visit--starring Chita Rivera, and which I had followed since it premiered in Chicago in 2001--and the new Finding Neverland musical that I enjoyed greatly.

No, I didn't see the year's huge Broadway smash, Hamilton, nor the 2015 Best New Musical Tony Award winner, Fun Home, but am slated to in Chicago in 2016. (My Broadway in Chicago subscription cohort, Paolo, did see Hamilton in New York at my suggestion and shares that it was his favorite musical of the year.)

But along with the delight I found on Broadway and in the Loop, it was an abundance of astonishing work done in less glitzy environs that made this such a wonderful year to appreciate the joys of musical theater.

Chicago's excellent suburban and off-Loop self-producing theaters--Drury Lane Oakbrook, Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire, Paramount Theatre Aurora, Mercury Theater and others--mounted truly superlative renditions of Billy Elliot, Les Miserables, West Side Story, La Cage Aux Folles and other famed musicals, but also got into the game of developing new ones.

Though each could likely use a bit of refinement, Beaches at DRO, October Sky at Marriott, Shining Lives at Northlight in Skokie, Ride the Cyclone at Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Baritones Unbound at the Royal George were all the more impressive for being world premieres or recent works continuing their gestation locally, while Mercury's Chicago premiere of Ring of Fire: The Johnny Cash Musical was right on the money.

So too were outstanding small-house takes on The Producers, which NightBlue Performing Arts Company presented in repertory (i.e. rotating with another show) at Stage 773, and Next to Normal, which MadKap Productions wonderfully squeezed into the Skokie Theatre for just a few weekends.

Porchlight's production of the Sondheim on Sondheim revue was sublime, and along with a blissful Grant Park concert helmed by the composer's longtime conductor, a wonderful Northwestern University staging of Into the Woods and DRO's terrific West Side Story, my eternal regard for the genius songsmith was further enhanced.

As was my regard for the magnificent Mueller family from Evanston, which performed at a Sarah Siddons Society benefit gala honoring Jessie Mueller, a Tony winner as Carole King in Beautiful, a role I would see her sister Abby play on the national tour.

All told I saw 33 musicals, of which I rated 32 at least @@@1/2 (out of 5), with seven earning perfect @@@@@ scores, thirteen coming close with @@@@1/2 and eight more deserving @@@@. So only one musical failed to at least be sufficiently enjoyable: First Wives Club, which needs serious work but at least boasted some stellar old & new songs by Motown legends Holland-Dozier-Holland.

Hence, several shows that failed to crack my Top 11 merited abundant admiration and strong recommendations.

I also saw four excellent operas, two wonderful Joffrey ballets and the resplendent Ballet Folklorico traditional dance extravaganza in Mexico City, which I'll separate from the traditional musicals.

As I tried to reference above, the musicals I liked best in 2015 varied considerably in production size, level and stage in their life-cycle, with some performances seen officially being previews. So my rankings should not be taken as an apples-to-apples comparison, or arbiter of technical merit, but simply my unscientific gauge of what gave me the most pleasure--among many extraordinary theatrical experiences.

And now, finally, here are...

The Best Musicals I Saw On Stage in 2015:
(Note: My rankings are based on my enjoyment of the particular productions, but blend in the quality of the source material as well. All theaters in Chicago proper unless noted; in some cases the theatrical company is cited rather than venue. New shows are denoted with an *)

1. Cabaret - Studio 54, New York 

2. Billy Elliot - Drury Lane Oakbrook (my review)

3. Les Miserables - Paramount Theatre, Aurora (my review)

4. West Side Story - Drury Lane Oakbrook (my review)

5. Sondheim on Sondheim - Porchlight Theatre Co. (my review)

6. Beautiful - Oriental Theatre (my review)
7. The Visit - Lyceum Theatre, Broadway 
8. The Producers - NightBlue Performing Arts Co. (my review)
9. Finding Neverland* - Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, New York 

10. Baritones Unbound* - Royal George Theatre (my review)

11. Ride the Cyclone* - Chicago Shakespeare Theatre (my review)

Honorable Mention 

Carousel - Lyric Opera of Chicago (my review)

On Your Feet!* - Oriental Theatre (my review)
Next to Normal - Skokie Theatre (my review)

Mamma Mia! - Cadillac Palace (my review)
Into the Woods - Northwestern University 

Kinky Boots - Cadillac Palace (my review)
La Cage Aux Folles - Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire (my review)
Million Dollar Quartet - Apollo Theatre (my review)

Seussical - Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire (my review)

Shining Lives* - Northlight Theatre (my review)

Beaches* - Drury Lane Oakbrook (my review)
October Sky* - Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire (my review)
Pippin - Cadillac Palace 
A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder - Bank of America Theatre (my review)
A Christmas Story: The Musical - Paramount Theatre, Aurora (my review)
Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash - Mercury Theater (my review)
Anything Goes - Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire (my review)

Special Events 

1. Sarah Siddons Society Gala honoring Jessie Mueller - Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire (my review)

2. A Sondheim Celebration - Grant Park (my review)
3. Hooray for Hollywood - Park Ridge Senior Center

Opera

1. The Passenger - Lyric Opera of Chicago (my review)
2. The Merry Widow - Lyric Opera of Chicago (my review)
3. The Marriage of Figaro - Lyric Opera of Chicago (my review)
4. Wozzeck - Lyric Opera of Chicago (my review)

Dance

The Nutcracker - Joffrey Ballet (my review)
Unique Voices - Joffrey Ballet (my review)
Ballet Folklorico - Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City (my review)