Month: August 2026

Liberation is the most recent winner of the Tony Award for Best Play and one of the defining new dramas of the 2025–2026 Broadway season. Written by Bess Wohl, the memory play intertwines humor with emotional insight as it follows a present-day woman revisiting the unfinished feminist ideals of a 1970s women’s liberation group, exploring how each generation inherits, challenges, and reshapes the dreams of those who came before. In a season with seven other new plays and many esteemed revivals, Liberation distinguished itself through its timely themes, inventive structure, and poignant storytelling, emerging as the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner that speaks as powerfully to contemporary audiences as it does to the past.

Purpose opened during the 2024–2025 season alongside thirteen other original plays and was the 2025 winner for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, the play follows a prominent Black political family whose carefully cultivated legacy begins to unravel during a tense family gathering, using humor and emotional honesty to examine power, generational expectations, and the burdens of inheritance. In a season filled with accomplished and beloved new plays, Purpose delivered a gripping theatrical experience, acting as a thematic cousin to Jacobs-Jenkins Tony Award-winning play revival Appropriate from the previous season.

Stereophonic opened during the 2023–2024 season alongside ten other original plays, quickly becoming a critical and commercial sensation through its immersive realism and extraordinary ensemble performances. Written by David Adjmi, with original music by Will Butler, the play transports audiences into a 1970s recording studio, where a rising rock band struggles to complete a career-defining album as artistic ambition, creative tension, and personal relationships threaten to tear the group apart. Exploring the cost of collaboration, the pursuit of perfection, and the fragile nature of success, Stereophonic captivated audiences with its intimate, fly-on-the-wall storytelling and authentic 1970s-inspired rock score, becoming the most Tony-nominated play of all time. 

Leopoldstadt opened during the 2022–2023 season alongside a whopping sixteen other original plays, quickly emerging as one of the season’s most acclaimed dramas through its semi-autobiographical historical context and emotional depth. Written by Tom Stoppard, the play spans more than fifty years as it follows a prosperous Jewish family in Vienna through assimilation, rising antisemitism, and the Holocaust, exploring identity, memory, and heritage across multiple generations. Deeply personal for Stoppard, Leopoldstadt offered a moving examination of one family’s history against the backdrop of one of humanity’s darkest chapters.

The Lehman Trilogy opened during the 2021–2022 season alongside eleven other original plays, captivating audiences with its epic 2 and remarkably inventive theatrical storytelling. Written by Stefano Massini and adapted into English by Ben Power, the play traces the rise and fall of the Lehman family across more than 160 years, charting their journey from immigrant shopkeepers to the founders of a financial empire whose collapse helped trigger the 2008 global financial crisis. Told by just three actors portraying dozens of characters, The Lehman Trilogy transforms the rise and fall of a financial dynasty into an intimate saga about ambition, legacy, and the pursuit of the American Dream.

The Inheritance opened during the 2019–2020 season alongside ten other original plays, earning widespread acclaim for its ambitious and emotional examination of contemporary queer life. Written by Matthew López, the two-part epic follows a group of young gay men in New York as they grapple with love, loss, identity, and the legacy of the AIDS crisis, drawing inspiration from E. M. Forster’s Howards End. Balancing intimate personal stories with larger questions of history, community, and belonging, The Inheritance offers a powerful reflection on what one generation owes the next and the importance of preserving collective memory.

The Ferryman opened during the 2018–2019 season alongside twelve other original plays, bringing a critical chapter of Northern Ireland’s history to the Broadway stage. Written by Jez Butterworth, the play unfolds over a single harvest day in rural Northern Ireland in 1981, where a close-knit family’s gathering is disrupted by the lingering violence and political tensions of the Troubles. Weaving together family drama and political tension, The Ferryman examines the lasting consequences of conflict, revealing how history continues to shape families long after the fighting appears to have ended.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opened during the 2017–2018 season alongside seven other original plays, expanding one of the world’s most beloved fictional universes onto the stage through an entirely new theatrical experience. Written by Jack Thorne from an original story by J. K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Thorne, the play takes place nineteen years after the conclusion of the original Harry Potter series, following Harry’s son Albus and Draco Malfoy’s son Scorpius as they navigate friendship, family expectations, and the consequences of their parents’ pasts. Combining elaborate stagecraft, illusion, and a richly imagined continuation of the wizarding world, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child redefined what the Broadway play can do, becoming the highest-grossing and third longest-running straight play in Broadway history.

Oslo opened during the 2016–2017 season alongside ten other original plays, transforming one of the late twentieth century’s most consequential diplomatic negotiations into a riveting work of political theatre. Written by J. T. Rogers, the play dramatizes the secret backchannel talks that led to the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords, following the Norwegian intermediaries in pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Adapted into a Critics’ Choice Award-winning HBO television film in 2021, Oslo reveals the human complexities behind international diplomacy and the extraordinary risks required to bridge seemingly impossible divides. 

The Humans opened during the 2015–2016 season alongside twelve other original plays, turning an ordinary Thanksgiving dinner into one of Broadway’s most unsettling and evocative family dramas. Written by Stephen Karam, the play follows three generations of the Irish-American Blake family as they gather in a cramped Manhattan apartment, where long-buried anxieties, financial struggles, and personal disappointments gradually surface over the course of a single evening. A finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, The Humans uses grounded dialogue and psychological suspense to capture the quiet fears and fragile relationships that define contemporary American family life.

Schmigadoon! is the most recent winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical and the 2025–2026 season’s most accessible crowd-pleaser. Adapted from the Apple TV+ musical series, with music, lyrics, and a book by Cinco Paul, the show serves as the ultimate love-letter to Broadway’s Golden Age, parodying beloved classics like Brigadoon, Oklahoma!, The Music Man, and The Sound of Music in a laugh-out-loud satirical fashion. In a relatively underwhelming season that produced only six original musicals and four Tony nominees for Best Musical, Schmigadoon! emerged as the safest and most universally appealing choice, offering an entertaining, family-friendly spectacle that all audiences can enjoy.

Maybe Happy Ending opened in the 2024–2025 season alongside thirteen other original musicals, yet quickly emerged as one of Broadway’s newest fan-favorites. Featuring lyrics and a book by Will Aronson and Hue Park, with music by Will Aronson, the show beautifully follows the lives and developing relationship of two retired helper-robots, Oliver and Claire, in a futuristic Seoul as they discover what it means to be human. Exploring themes of love, mortality, and memory, Maybe Happing Ending brings a small cast with a big heart to the Broadway stage like nothing before and is still currently running, recently becoming the longest-running production to play at the Belasco Theatre.

The Outsiders opened in the 2023–2024 season alongside fourteen other original musicals, immediately gaining popularity due to its immersive staging, thrilling choreography, and name recognition. Adapted from S. E. Hinton’s 1967 classic, with a book by Adam Rapp and Justin Levine, and music and lyrics by Jonathan Clay, Zach Chance, and Levine, the show reinvigorates the story of The Outsiders in a powerful way, staying true to the heart of the story while taking liberties to strengthen the material. Currently still running, The Outsiders has become one of the biggest new musicals on Broadway with a legacy that is still continuing to be built.

Kimberly Akimbo opened in the 2022–2023 season alongside eight other original musicals, delivering a heartfelt and comedic coming-of-age story about mortality, family dysfunction, and adolescent self-discovery. With lyrics and a book by David Lindsay-Abaire and music by Jeanine Tesori, the musical follows Kimberly, a teenager living with a rare genetic condition that causes her body to age at four times the normal rate, creating the unusual opportunity for an older actress to portray both the struggles of adolescence and the weight of a shortened life. With a total run of 644 performances over seventeen months, Kimberly Akimbo made a relatively short but powerful impact on Broadway with its original storytelling, winning over now long-running commercial hits like & Juliet.

A Strange Loop opened in the 2021–2022 season alongside eight other original musicals and is the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical exploration of Black and queer identity that was unfortunately hindered by a post-pandemic season of rebuilding. Featuring music, lyrics, and a book by Michael R. Jackson, the show explores themes of identity, self-perception, and faith through Usher, a young, queer, Black Broadway usher attempting to write a musical about a young, queer, Black Broadway usher writing a musical. While A Strange Loop received widespread artistic and critical acclaim, it struggled to compete with blockbuster newcomers such as SIX and MJ, closing after just 314 regular performances over nine months.

Moulin Rouge! The Musical opened in the 2019–2020 season alongside just three other original musicals, temporarily closing less than a year after its premiere with every other Broadway production due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on Baz Luhrmann’s acclaimed 2001 film of the same name, with a book by John Logan and music and lyrics by various artists, the musical has become one of modern Broadway’s defining smash hits, captivating audiences with its iconic jukebox soundtrack, lavish spectacle, and electrifying performances. While the material may have been strengthened by a stunted season, Moulin Rouge! became the only musical from its season to recoup its $28 million investment, and after seven years on Broadway, it has announced a closing date for August 30, 2026. 

Hadestown opened in the 2018–2019 season alongside ten other original musicals and has since become a defining work of the Broadway canon, celebrated for its haunting folk and jazz-inspired score and its raw, modern retelling of ancient Greek myths. Featuring music, lyrics, and a book by singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, the musical reimagines these timeless stories through poetic storytelling, a striking atmosphere, and powerhouse performances that allow an array of unique ranges and styles to be on display. With its recent record-breaking live stage-capture film debut, Hadestown has continued to reach new audiences, cementing its place as one of the most influential and enduring musicals of its generation.

The Band’s Visit opened in the 2017–2018 season alongside six other original musicals, distinguishing itself from its flashier, IP-driven competitors with an intimate, understated, and deeply human story. Adapted from the 2007 film, with a book by Itamar Moses and music and lyrics by David Yazbek, the show follows an Egyptian police orchestra stranded in a remote Israeli desert town, using its atmospheric score and quiet storytelling to explore themes of loneliness, cultural understanding, and human connection. Though it never became a mainstream commercial phenomenon, The Band’s Visit proved that subtle, character-driven storytelling could resonate just as powerfully, sweeping the Tony Awards’ “Big Six” categories and running for 589 regular performances over eighteen months.

Dear Evan Hansen opened in the 2016–2017 season alongside twelve other original musicals,  distinguishing itself in a remarkably strong season with its emotionally resonant exploration of mental health, loneliness, and the complexities of human connection in the digital age. Featuring a book by Steven Levenson and music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the musical helped redefine contemporary Broadway by following a deeply flawed protagonist and pairing its timely themes with a soaring pop-rock score that produced modern standards such as “Waving Through a Window.” Dear Evan Hansen has since become one of the most influential musicals of the past decade, inspiring countless recent regional productions, spawning a feature film adaptation, and running for 1,672 regular performances over nearly six years.

Hamilton: An American Musical opened in the 2015–2016 season alongside eleven other original musicals after becoming an immediate sensation during its Off-Broadway run, transferring to Broadway with an unprecedented $27.6 million in advance ticket sales. With music, lyrics, and a book by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the musical revolutionized Broadway through its groundbreaking fusion of hip-hop, rap, R&B, and traditional musical theatre; its color-conscious casting of historical figures; and its extraordinary cultural impact far beyond the stage. Widely regarded as one of the most defining works of 21st-century musical theatre, Hamilton continues to shape the art form more than a decade after its Broadway premiere, reaching millions through its live productions, its acclaimed live stage-capture, and its best-selling cast recording.