To stimulate some discussion, here's an article summarising the top theatre (musical or otherwise) as chosen by various publications including The New York Times, Vulture, Wall Street Journal, Town & Country, Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Huffington Post, The New Yorker, New York Theatre Guide, USA Today and Deadline:
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/The-Best-Theater-of-2023-Shows-that-Ruled-the-Year-20231231
The BroadwayWorld article didn't include Playbill's top list (as they're direct competitors), which is here:
https://www.playbill.com/article/playbills-favorite-theatre-moments-of-2023
For UK coverage, I've found these "best theatre of 2023" lists:
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/dec/25/readers-favourite-stage-shows-of-2023
www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/dec/24/3/dec/24/ susannah-clapp-10-best-theatre-shows-of-2023
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/dec/24/clare-brennan-five-best-theatre-shows-of-2023
https://musicaltheatrereview.com/musical-theatre-review-contributors-pick-their-top-shows-of-2023/
As for me, I was fortunate to see a lot of theatre in 2023. Personal highlights include:
Ragtime (Broadway 25th anniversary reunion concert). Ragtime is my second (sometimes third) favourite show, and while I've seen a number of productions, the atmosphere and quality of performance of this long-awaited, much-delayed concert were both electric. If I had to pick one highlight of 2023, this would be it.
Merrily We Roll Along (Broadway). Merrily is my favourite Sondheim show and I was lucky enough to see the original staging of this revival, directed by Maria Friedman, at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2013. It's the best production of this underrated masterpiece I've seen (and I've seen a lot), filled with nuance and feeling. I actually slightly preferred the Chocolate Factory cast, venue (and very much the prices!!!!) over their Broadway equivalents, but the Broadway production is still a 100% must-see show, and I'm not surprised to see it pop up on nearly everyone's "best of" list.
Kimberly Akimbo (Broadway). The last time I fell in love with a musical on first viewing was Fun Home, another small-scale, character-focused show with music by Jeanine Tesori. The production and entire cast was amazing but Victoria Clark was beyond amazing. I would have taken to the streets in protest if she hadn't won the Tony.
Miss Saigon (Sheffield Crucible). Now this is how you do a revival. The current Cam Mack production directed by Laurence Connor is basically a cut-down version of Nicholas Hytner's original with few conceptual departures. On the other hand, this totally new production (directed by Robert Hastie and Anthony Lau), reconceptualises so many elements of the show without verging into artsy fartsy pretention (unlike certain other revivals); and almost all of these changes either work better than the Cam Mack productions or just as well but in different ways. I'm not going to go into all of these in detail for reasons of time and space, but they include having a female Engineer, Chris and Ellen both being black, the way key scenes are staged (including I Still Believe, the Act 1 finale, Bui Doi, the fall of Saigon, and other numbers) the framing device, the characterisation of Kim, the presentation of "ghosts" in the show, the various tweaks to the lyrics and dialogue, but let me just say this. As much as I love Miss Saigon, the ending has never moved me. Until this production. Joanna Ampil (who remains the best Kim I've seen but who played the Engineer in this production) was the reason I flew to the UK, but the whole production made the trip worthwhile.
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (Sydney). I had booked to see the Broadway production of this show, but it was cancelled under very unfortunate circumstances before I arrived. I finally had a chance to see a production of Great Comet in Sydney (not directed by Rachel Chavkin, but designed to fit a much smaller venue and budget), and it's one of the highlights of my year.
Britney Spears the Cabaret (Sydney). I've seen a lot of Australian musicals, and most of them are not great. (To be fair, as Sturgeon's Law dictates, 90% of everything is crap.) Two shows stand out as being able to compete at the same level as the best international shows, and one of these is Britney Spears The Cabaret, a one-woman, one-pianist jukebox musical written & directed by Dean Bryant and starring the luminous Christie Whelan Browne. I liken this show to Hedwig and the Angry Inch - ludicrous at first glance, but a real tour-de-force and emotional roller coaster. I'm not really familiar with Britney Spears songs, but the way they were integrated into this show made it seem like they were written for the musical theatre.
Honourable mentions incude: A Strange Loop (London), Operation Mincemeat (London), Into the Woods (US tour), Beauty and the Beast (Sydney), Here We Are (off-Broadway), Shucked (Broadway), Aspects of Love (London; mainly for Laura Pitt Pulford), Groundhog Day (London; mainly for Andy Karl), Guys & Dolls (London), Next to Normal (London; Eleanor Worthington-Cox is the best Natalie, probably ever), Miss Saigon (Sydney; mainly for Abigail Adriano), 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Sydney), Flowers for Mrs Harris (London), and - as always - Les Miz (in more places that I care to list).
The show I was most disappointed by was Jamie Lloyd's Sunset Boulevard in London. I thought it was pretentious and camp and really didn't care for how Lloyd deliberately sucked any feeling or expression out of the performances (Nicole Scherzinger's Norma aside - but that's where the camp came in unfortunately). I'm also well and truly over the whole black-box-set/live-video-on-stage schtick which I've seen way, waaay, waaaaay too much of over the past couple of decades. That said, the singing and orchestra were both excellent. If they released a cast recording I'd buy it.
I had similar feelings about the Daniel Fish production of Oklahoma! (originally produced in New York) which I saw in London. The whole, constant "let's bring out the subtextual darkness and sexuality through line readings and staging" gimick came across as little (or more than a little) silly a lot of the time, but in the case of Oklahoma I at least respected the aspiration, even if a lot of it didn't work for me. I did particularly like how Fish foregrounded the fact that Curly basically literally gets away with murder (something that's always bothered me about the show), and the shock of violence at the end was quite bracing in the best way. I think Jamie Lloyd must have watched that Oklahoma (as well as any number of Ivo van Hove shows) and took away all the wrong lessons.
What were your musical highlights, lowlights and memorable experiences in 2023? Can be anything - stage, film, TV, cabaret, pro-shots etc.