The 5 Best Broadway Shows of 2025

5. Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Two Strangers is that rarest of delights, a completely original musical comedy. It’s about the sister of the bride and the son of the groom transporting a wedding cake from Flatbush to TriBeCa—and all the mischief that accompanies this endeavor. Writers Jim Barne and Kit Buchan pack the script with laugh lines and memorably kooky lyrics, all beautifully delivered by the show’s two actors, Christiani Pitts and Sam Tutty, who are giving two of the most electrifying performances of the year. Their will-they-or-won’t-they chemistry powers the story, which is all about unexpected connections—the kind that people move to cities hoping to find. It’s an absolute charmer, and it made me fall in love with New York all over again.

4. Oedipus
Writer-director Robert Icke has adapted one of the oldest Western dramas into a contemporary political thriller set on election night. Oedipus is about to win office, but will his past catch up with him first? Fully embodying a great leader with a secret so dark he isn’t even aware of it, Mark Strong stars in the title role opposite a beguiling Lesley Manville as Jocasta. She holds the audience at Studio 54 in the palm of her hands for over 10 minutes as she delivers one of the most extraordinary monologues I’ve ever heard from a Broadway stage. In an audacious flex, Icke has placed a countdown clock onstage, ostensibly for when the polls close but really marking the moment when Oedipus and Jocasta realize that their fates are sealed. We see it coming a mile away, but it is no less devastating. Icke brilliantly forces an audience full of people who can afford the price of a Broadway ticket to contemplate the powers of the universe that are beyond their control.

3. Dead Outlaw
The team behind The Band’s Visit reunited to create this unlikely musical about Elmer McCurdy, a would-be train robber who died in a shootout, only to have his unclaimed body traded from mortician to carnival operator to film producer until it became little more than a prop. It’s a darkly hilarious tale of the exploitation that awaits us all should we trip and fall in the rat race, set to a rollicking score by David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna. It also featured a remarkable physical performance by Andrew Durand, who maintained an unsettling mannequin-like stillness through the second half of the show. I’m convinced that if Maybe Happy Ending hadn’t opened last season (it topped my 2024 list), Dead Outlaw would have won the Tony for Best Musical. Sadly, it closed in June not having found its audience. But I know that new fans will discover Dead Outlaw through its excellent cast recording. This musical is destined to become a cult favorite.

2. Purpose
This year, Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins solidified his reputation as the most exciting playwright on Broadway with this searing drama about a politically powerful Black American family on the verge of a crack-up. Chock-full of howl-inducing one-liners and breathtaking confrontations, it’s the kind of meaty domestic drama great actors love to sink their teeth into. Directed by Philicia Rashad, the Broadway production featured unforgettable performances by Jon Michael Hill as our neurodivergent narrator, Glenn Davis as his psychologically wounded older brother, and LaTanya Richardson Jackson as a mob boss disguised as a housewife. The always brilliant Kara Young won her second Tony Award as an unexpected house guest initially dazzled by her proximity to Black excellence—until she realizes what that truly entails. Purpose won the Tony for best play just a year after Jacobs-Jenkins won in the revival category for Appropriate, his Broadway debut. That makes him 2/2. I’m hoping Broadway gets a revival of Gloria next.

1. Ragtime
For devotees of the big Broadway musical, there is no better ticket right now than the Lincoln Center Theater revival of Ragtime, a sweeping tale of American life in the early 20^th century set to a gorgeous score by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. The cast is stacked with A-list talent, including a quietly powerful Caissie Levy as Mother, an effervescent Brandon Uranowitz as Tateh, and Joshua Henry as Coalhouse Walker Jr. (his soaring duet of “Wheels of a Dream” with Nichelle Lewis regularly has the audience on its feet in the middle of the show). They’re backed by a 28-piece orchestra, larger than any other band currently on Broadway. It is so satisfying (and increasingly rare) to hear real brass and lush strings coming from a Broadway pit. Ragtime is the kind of show that turns people into lifelong Broadway fans, and this staging from director Lear deBessonet presents it in its very best form. It’s unmissable.

Watch Zach discuss his picks below: