Theater Fans Had Much in Which To Delight in 2024, the Year of Second Chances

For many theater fans, 2024 was a year of second chances, as plays and musicals that had earned acclaim off-Broadway during the early months — or in some cases in 2023, such as the Tony Award-winning “Stereophonic” and “Job” — received additional, often higher-profile productions. It was also a promising year for musical theater, as several imaginative new works joined the usual stampede of pop hagiographies and fluffy movie adaptations on offer in and around Times Square.Highlights also included plays inspired by Vladimir Putin, Thomas Jefferson (and his slave and mistress, Sally Hemings), and a celebrated playwright’s personal and creative trials. Below, roughly in order of arrival, our critic recalls 15 of the year’s most entertaining and moving Broadway and off-Broadway productions.‘Our Class’Tadeusz Słobodzianek’s wrenching account of a 1941 massacre of Jewish villagers in Poland, and its fallout through decades, made its New York premiere in January at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Director Igor Golyak led a superb ensemble through a harrowing but also playful and ultimately uplifting production that emphasized resilience. It transferred to Manhattan’s Classic Stage Company in September. ‘Illinoise’Sufjan Stevens’s sonic feast of an album, 2005’s “Illinois,” was the basis for this rhapsodic fusion of dance and musical theater, conceived by Justin Peck, an acclaimed choreographer who also directed. With Pulitzer Prize winner Jackie Sibblies Drury, Mr. Peck crafted a narrative without spoken words, stressing the transcendent expressive powers of song and movement; the show glittered both at the Park Avenue Armory and on Broadway.A scene from ‘Illinoise’ at the Park Avenue Armory. Stephanie Berger‘Dead Outlaw’Not many musicals, it must be said, feature a corpse as a protagonist. Yet this pitch-black musical comedy — based on a true story, with a score by David Yazbek (featuring some of his best work to date) and a book by Itamar Moses, served with expert direction by David Cromer — made this bleakest of stories sing, hilariously.‘Teeth’The creator of the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning “A Strange Loop,” Michael R. Jackson, teamed with composer Anna K. Jacobs, his co-librettist here, on this deliciously profane adaptation of the 2007 cult film, about a teenage girl whose strange powers are rooted in a misogynistic legend. Two off-Broadway productions showcased a giddy, gifted young cast, with a couple of Broadway stars — Steven Pasquale last spring, then Andy Karl in the fall — adding bravura comedic turns. ‘Sally & Tom’Another Pulitzer winner (and two-time finalist), Suzan-Lori Parks, addressed one of American history’s most controversial relationships, and the challenge of judging history through a contemporary lens, in this incisive, absorbing play focusing on Jefferson and Hemings as well as a pair of cleverly constructed modern counterparts. ‘Patriots’Playwright Peter Morgan, creator of “The Crown,” traced Putin’s rise, and the rise and fall of an oligarch who tried to vain to thwart him, in this gripping work, helmed with characteristically stylish theatricality by Rupert Goold and featuring a bone-chilling Will Keen as the Russian president.‘Mary Jane’Known for her quietly piercing plays and adaptations of Ibsen, Amy Herzog drew on harrowing personal experience for this witty, wrenching account of a single mother raising a gravely ill child, first produced in 2017. This year’s production marked the play’s Broadway bow, as well as that of Rachel McAdams, who was deeply affecting as a woman who learns both the power and the limits of love. Rachel McAdams in ‘Mary Jane.’ © Matthew Murphy‘Home’Director Kenny Leon, a prolific champion of both beloved and underappreciated Black artists, revived Samm-Art Williams’s invigorating tale of a man whose faith is cruelly tested but ultimately affirmed just one month after its creator, best known for his television work, died. The result, buoyed by a potent trio of actors and radiant scenic design (by Arnulfo Maldonado), was an exuberant eulogy.‘The Welkin’This breathless thriller by Lucy Kirkwood (“Chimerica,” “The Children”) surveyed women bound and turned against each other by virulent sexism in late 18th century England. Sarah Benson helmed an electric cast, including Sandra Oh as a feisty but haunted midwife, with vigor and empathy.‘The Beacon’Kate Mulgrew, who has been delighting both TV and theater audiences for decades, made a triumphant return to the latter forum in this stirring entry by Irish playwright Nancy Harris, following an accomplished artist with dark secrets — revealed in one of the season’s most stunning final scenes. ‘The Hills of California’The latest collaboration from playwright Jez Butterworth, director Sam Mendes, and actress Laura Donnelly to cross the pond was just as epic as their last, 2018’s “The Ferryman,” and even more stunning. Chronicling a stage mother and her daughters — Ms. Donnelly played the former and one of the latter as an adult, magnificently — inspired some of Mr. Butterworth’s most bracing and richly nuanced writing yet.From left, Lara McDonnell, Laura Donnelly, and Sophia Ally in ‘The Hills of California.’ Joan Marcus‘Yellow Face’David Henry Hwang’s 2007 farce, tracing the acclaimed dramatist’s brush with political correctness on steroids, finally made its Broadway debut, with a vibrant company thriving under Leigh Silverman’s brisk, knowing direction.‘Hold on to Me Darling’Adam Driver fans had a chance to see the film star in the flesh — shirtless, in fact — as he brilliantly tackled one of Kenneth Lonergan’s flawed, funny, beautifully drawn protagonists: a country music and movie idol who decides to return to his humble roots. Mr. Driver’s hilarious, moving performance was matched by those of his lesser-known cast members in this revival, impeccably guided by Neil Pepe, the play’s original director.‘Maybe Happy Ending’Every decade or so, a new show arrives that reaffirms the viability of fresh, thrilling musical theater on Broadway. In 2024, this whimsical, soaring look at robots in love — crafted by a pair of Broadway newbies, Will Aronson and Hue Park — was the one.‘Elf’Few musicals adapted from movies have shown as much comic imagination or joyful energy as this holiday treat, and Scrooge himself could not have resisted this year’s buoyant revival, featuring a transcendently quirky Grey Henson in the title part and a delightfully mischievous Sean Astin as Santa. Grey Henson and Sean Astin in ‘Elf the Musical.’ © Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade‘Cult of Love’Rising screenwriter Leslye Headland graced Broadway with an entry from her “Seven Deadly Sins” play cycle, focusing on pride and a colorfully dysfunctional family. Critical but compassionate, sardonic but never cynical, the comedy ultimately encouraged faith — in other people.

Theater Fans Had Much in Which To Delight in 2024, the Year of Second Chances

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