The Best Broadway Debuts of 2022

The past 12 months were filled with terrific Broadway debuts by performers whose work ran the gamut from comedic to dramatic. Here are our picks, in alphabetical order, for the most memorable debuts of 2022, as determined by TheaterMania's editorial staff.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II — Booth in Topdog/Underdog
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has been circling the theater world for a while — with roles in Stephen Adly Guirgis and Baz Luhrmann's musical drama series The Get Down and the Pasek and Paul-scored film The Greatest Showman. But considering his wildly successful (and Emmy-winning) television and film career (including an impending entrée into the Marvel Universe), Suzan-Lori Parks and Kenny Leon ere the only person fit to take on the job of finally getting him to a Broadway stage. Abdul-Mateen makes his debut as Booth (opposite Corey Hawkins's Lincoln) in Parks's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Topdog/Underdog at the John Golden Theatre, and his performance is as sweet as it is staggering in the play's climactic final scene. I suspect we'll be seeing his name again come awards season. — Hayley Levitt

Gabby Beans — Sabina in The Skin of Our Teeth
Following a couple of off-Broadway and regional roles, Gabby Beans made her Broadway debut in Lileana Blain-Cruz's epic revisal (new material courtesy of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins) of Thornton Wilder's wildly imaginative and often inscrutable Pulitzer Prize-winning play, The Skin of Our Teeth. Audiences may have been baffled by the giant dinosaur puppets and biblical themes that joined the actors onstage at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater. But even the show's all-too-brief run proved to be a standout moment for Beans, who earned a Tony nomination for her performance as the seductive maid (and sometimes-character-breaking) Sabina. The role has been previously played on Broadway by legendary actors Tallulah Bankhead, Mary Martin, and Elizabeth Ashley — and Beans earned her place right next to them. — Hayley Levitt

Justin Cooley — Seth in Kimberly Akimbo
In Kimberly Akimbo, Justin Cooley plays Seth, the amiable, anagram-loving friend of a young woman (played by Victoria Clarke) who has an aging disease. We first saw Cooley in the role at Atlantic Theater Company, and his positively charming performance earned him half a dozen theater award nominations. Even when Seth makes obliviously insensitive comments to Kimberly, we know his heart is in the right place, with Cooley compassionately playing a nerdy outsider who is trying to make sense out of his own troubled life. Not only does Cooley win us over with his surfer-dude drawl and sweet singing voice, but he treats us to a tuba solo as well. That by itself makes his debut a memorable one. — Pete Hempstead

Jordan E. Cooper — Peaches in Ain't No Mo'
If any show deserves broader exposure beyond the confines of off-Broadway, it's Ain't No Mo', Jordan E. Cooper's anarchic satire of contemporary American race relations, which has made an unexpected yet triumphant transfer to Broadway. Cooper's riotous series of vignettes are by turns hilarious, heartbreaking, raucous, intimate, and above all provocative — the kind of boundary-pushing art Broadway ought to be highlighting more often. Equally impressive is Cooper himself as a performer, bringing exuberantly campy energy and passion to the Belasco Theatre stage as Peaches, a flight attendant at gate 1619 for African American Airlines's last flight ever from the US back to Africa. Here's to the auspicious Broadway debut of a fresh new theatrical voice. — Kenji Fujishima

Myles Frost — Michael in MJ
There's nothing like watching a star get born right before our very eyes, and that happens every night at the Neil Simon Theatre in MJ. In his very first professional gig, 23-year-old Myles Frost landed in the big time, playing Michael Jackson himself and making our jaws collectively drop from the minute he stepped out on stage. Frost was not doing a mere impersonation; he was channeling Jackson, and there were times when we forgot that we were even watching an actor (let alone an actor who was not even alive when Jackson was at his peak). Frost won this year's Tony for Best Actor in a Musical, a trophy that was extremely well deserved. — David Gordon

Julianne Hough — Dusty in POTUS
Julianne Hough is this year's "Who knew?" performance. Anyone who watched Dancing With the Stars knows she can kick up her heels, but in Selina Fillinger's Broadway comedy POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, Hough proved herself to be just as adept at comedy. Playing Dusty, the president's pregnant paramour, Hough delivered a sly and confident performance that was the real surprise of the evening. Not only that, the blue-tongued (you had to be there) star threatened to steal scenes right out from under fellow comic geniuses Rachel Dratch and Julie White. She seemed to have a great time doing so, and we can't wait for Hough to tread the boards again. — David Gordon

Julia Lester — Little Red in Into the Woods
"Stephen Sondheim wants you to play Little Red," Julia Lester was told by her agent after Sondheim saw Lester's taped audition for the City Center production of Into the Woods. For Lester, this was the stuff of fairy tales, and Sondheim could not have been more astute in his choice. With her nonchalant skip across the stage, bright yet suspicious eyes, and sassy comebacks to the Wolf, Lester had audiences beaming with delight, and when the production transferred to Broadway, she brought the magic with her and charmed us all over again. Following her Broadway debut, we know things now, many valuable things, about Lester's talent, and we look forward to seeing where it takes her. — Pete Hempstead

Jaquel Spivey — Usher in A Strange Loop
For most theater majors, booking any job right out of college would be a big achievement. Jaquel Spivey's first gig is the starring role in the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical A Strange Loop. Anyone who sees the show can see why he got the part: Spivey perfectly embodies the idiosyncratic casserole of angst and audacity that is Usher, the Lion King usher (and aspiring writer) contending with his own thoughts (brilliantly portrayed by the rest of the cast). With just an upward flick of side-eye, he wins over the entire mezzanine, exuding both warmth and sharp perspicacity in songs like "Second Wave" and "Memory Song." Rarely not onstage, Spivey exhibits remarkable endurance in this performance for the ages. You only have until January 15 to catch it, so buy a ticket if you haven't already. — Zachary Stewart

Katy Sullivan — Ani in Cost of Living
To say Katy Sullivan's role in Martyna Majok's Cost of Living is lived-in is an understatement. Sullivan played Ani, a tough-talking, newly quadriplegic woman, at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, and the Hampstead Theatre in London, before bringing her performance to Broadway this fall. Her performance was so nuanced, so devastating, and so funny that it's seared in our heads. Sullivan, a former Paralympian and below-the-knee amputee, blazed a trail this season, and we hope to see her on stage again very soon. — David Gordon

John David Washington — Boy Willie in The Piano Lesson
John David Washington made an extraordinary Broadway debut as Boy Willie, the hungry entrepreneur in August Wilson's The Piano Lesson. Willie wants to sell his most valuable inheritance, an upright piano into which his great-grandfather intricately carved the faces of his wife and enslaved ancestors, in order to purchase the very tract of land on which those ancestors toiled. From the moment he stomps onstage, Washington commands our attention with a performance that is electrifying, carnivorous, and a little bit frightening. He pursues Willie's objective with the tenacity of a T-Rex leaping over an electric fence in Jurassic Park, which makes his inevitable failure even more tragic. If they keep this up, the Washingtons (John David is the son of Denzel) are on their way to becoming the next Barrymores. — Zachary Stewart