Going to NY next week. Already have tickets to Sweeney Todd. May try to catch one more while we're there.

Any suggestions?

Beetle juice was a lot of fun, not a typical broadway show but really good. Matilda is also good if you have kids.

We saw Six in London and it was a blast.

My daughter is a theater dork and really wants to see Hadestown, haven't seen it myself though.

I haven't seen it, but, if you're my age, "A Beautiful Noise" sounds like a lot of fun.

Six

We drove to NY city for a couple of days after my son's baseball tournament in Cooperstown.
I fully recommend Hadestown on Broadway.

Book of Mormon and Wicked are both great and currently playing.

Wicked is pretty incredible. Hadestown is the top of my list right now. Seeing it im Fort Worth again in a couple of weeks. It's amazing.

Hamilton is an event as well, but you are still paying for it. Not many I wouldn't recommend to be honest.

Hamilton and Book of Mormon. Don't get to the latter if anybody in your group gets offended by anything.

My wife loved Six. I thought it was ok. I loved Death of a Salesman (starting Bunk Moreland), my wife thought it was ok.

If I was going, it would be the understudy's night to star. Always my luck.

I e had several recommend Hadestown.

Sweeney Todd
Hadestown
Six - bonus points for being 80 min with no intermission
Camelot - only downside this one was at kennedy center so not very convenient if wanting to stay close to main part of broadway

I really enjoyed Beauty and The Beast. Lion King was also very good. Wicked was great for me because it had just came out and I didn't know anything about the story, other than it was a prequel to Wizard of Oz.

Enjoy!

We will be spending a good chunk of time in NYC this summer. Here's what I have tickets to see so far:

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - taking my kids to see
Shucked - one of my best friends is in this
The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window - Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnow star (closes Jul 2)
Grey House - any time I can catch Lori Metcalf on stage I do
Parade - beautiful music, very sad story, Ben Platt stars
Days of Wine and Roses - Kelli O'hara, Brian D'arcy James with music/lyrics by Adam Guettel who did Light in the Piazza and directed by Michael Greif.
Sweeney Todd - love this show and Groban and Ashford ought to be phenomenal

Others I'm trying to catch if I can
Fat Ham (if I can catch it before it closes)
New York, New York
Goodnight Oscar
Funny Girl
Life of Pi
&Juliet
Hadestown
Some Like it Hot

I like these other suggestions above but won't be catching them as I've either already seen them or have too much on my list already

Book of Mormon - saw the original cast years ago and agree, absolutely hysterical
Wicked - a fun show no matter who the cast is
Hamilton - I've seen it a couple of times now
Six - this was really fun and I may end up back at it again this time, my son is jealous he hasn't gotten to see it yet but his sister has
BeetleJuice - haven't seen it yet but have heard the music and will see the tour later this year
Camelot - my wife saw this revival earlier in the year and came away saying it was good, not amazing. I don't like the show all that much anyway so if Sorkin couldn't save the book then I'll trust her judgement

Not listed above but can also recommend:

Kimberley Akimbo - just won a bunch of Tony awards; saw it last fall and it was really good
Chicago - fun show and a broadway staple

I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of. I'll try to post back reviews as I make my way through the list over the next month or so.

Wow, great list. Thanks for all the responses.

Hamilton, Hadestown, and Book of Mormon are all in my top 5

Hamilton is just all around great
Hadestown is a darker tragedy with great music
Book of Mormon is hilarious and has surprisingly good music and stage work

I'll add mean girls

I've heard Peter Pan Gone Wrong is very good!

Good call. That's another one that I may end up at with my kids.

Thanks for all the recommendations. Saw some great shows but unfortunately brought back a crummy suvernoir in Covid.

Any way, had a great time.

Shucked - Hilarious. Really, really enjoyed it.

Sweeney Todd - Another great one. Groban is the big name but Analeigh Ashford is a star. She's incredible.

MJ - really cool show. Obviously, not your traditional Broadway show, but the music was great. The dancing was outstanding. Was really blown away with the physicality and knowing that they do 8 shows a week and twice two times a day.

My wife and I are going in December so I'm watching this thread. We have seen Six, Hadestown, and Hamilton which are all great.

We were thinking about these so any thoughts on them?:

Shucked - I really want to see this lol.
Kimberley Akimbo - Thoughts?
Moulin Rouge - For some reason I'm interested

Yeah, Shucked was really really funny. Alex Newell will blow your mind.

Akimbo is getting great buzz. Wish I could have seen it this trip.

Again, I would recommend Sweeney. My son is in theatre and is a Baritone so we have a soft spot for Baritones and hope Broadway gets back to using more Baritone's. Josh's voice is something to behold.

Peter Pan Gone Wrong is funny.

My wife and I were very disappointed in Moulin Rouge. We both like the movie a lot and expected something closer to it. Instead it felt like they licensed as many pop songs as possible just to see how many they could fit into a show regardless of whether the song actually added to the production.

Thanks for bumping this back up! I completely spaced on coming back and adding my reviews of things.

Shucked is really funny. It doesn't take itself seriously and is just an all around good time. Friend of mine is in this so I actually saw it twice as he went on for one of the main characters a week or so after we went the first time. I agree with Macarthur - Alex Newell is worth the ticket even if the show sucked (which it doesn't).

Kimberley Akimbo - I saw it last fall but on this trip my wife took our daughter who really wanted to see it. I enjoyed the show. It's quite good and my daughter loved it. I think it ended up being her favorite.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - I saw this before COVID when it was still in two parts and I liked that better. It felt really rushed in the condensed version. My kids enjoyed it and it still has all of the really phenomenal stage craft for the magic.

Fat Ham - just closed but I enjoyed it. I feel weird saying it but I thought the script needed a little work even though it won the Pulitzer. It will have a life in Regional Theatre so if it comes up in your area and you are at all interested I'd give it a shot. It's not for everyone I admit.

The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window - Really well done show. The play is still very relevant despite having been written in the 60s. Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan were brilliant. It closed July 2.

The Life of Pi - really beautiful and moving show. I had never read the book or seen the movie which probably helped my enjoyment of it. The actor playing Pi was quite good. The puppetry was fantastic. I think this runs through August. I have no idea if it will tour but worth seeing if it does.

Grey House - Everything about this should have made me walk away loving it. The cast was brilliant, the design elements were spot on. The script left a lot to be desired. They really underutilized the talent on stage. It was spooky and scared me a few times and there were some good horror tropes, but ultimately it fell short for me. I'm not sad I saw it, but I really think they could have hit a home run but ended up with a double instead.

Days of Wine and Roses - Brian d'Arcy James and Kelli O'Hara are amazing. The score is very chamber music which I would kind of expect from Adam Guettel (he wrote Light in the Piazza for those who don't recognize the name). I'm not sure it will end up on Broadway (it's at the Atlantic Theater Company right now) but it's really well done. And

Primary Trust - this one also just closed but it was amazing. William Jackson Harper (played Chidi on The Good Place) gave a really beautiful performance in this one. He's one I'll add to my list of seeing on stage whenever I can.

Parade - this show was quite good. It's super heavy content but it was done really well. Everything about this one was fantastic. I had seen the original production way back when and this one is so much better. I'm not sure how long this runs but see it if you get a chance.

Sweeney - I did not see yet this trip. We've been juggling kids so my wife went and saw it. She echoed the commentary that Groban's voice is incredible, though she thought his acting wasn't that great. She has very particular opinions on Sondheim so that could be coming into play. I will try and see it before we leave but I'm not sure I'll be able to.

New York, New York - my wife took her mom to this one. She said it was ok, that the production was good and the dancing was amazing but that the script is definitely dated even though they tried to rework it some.

Some Like it Hot - my wife took our daughter to this one. They both really enjoyed it though now that I'm typing I can't recall what specifically they enjoyed.

That's my list for what we've caught on Broadway the last few weeks. If I can I'm going to try to catch The Cottage before we leave too. I've got another friend in that one.

Wow, what a list. Where do you live? Curious how you've pulled all that off.

My son also saw Some Like it Hot and LOVED it. I also agree on Groban's acting. He's not bad, but acting clearly isn't his strong suit.

For a few weeks this summer we are living in NYC. We know a family that runs a sleep away summer camp in Connecticut so while our kids are there we are hanging in the city. We live in Dallas but are both able to work remotely so we can work during the day and catch shows at night. Our time here is coming to an end though so that's why I probably won't get to catch anything else. This is by far the most shows I've seen in NYC in a single trip.

Before kids we tried to do at least one trip a year where we fly up first thing Wednesday morning so we can catch a matinee and then line up a show for every slot we can while we're here. Our record was 9 shows in 5 days because we caught a late night Drunk Shakespeare performance one of the nights we were here. It's a little nuts I know and that was before kids. We also used to be able to write it all off because I was still acting and working in the business producing shows myself.

Now we typically come up for a long weekend once or twice a year. This is the first time we've brought the kids though which I can see limiting the number of shows we see if we make a habit of it.

We both spent a number of years working in the theatre so it's also important to us to support our friends who are still in the business. That effects what we see sometimes. And I'll admit I'm pretty forgiving of a lot because I know what goes into these productions.

Interesting. Did y'all just find a long term rental via Airbnb?

Fascinating

We did yeah. Basically a one month sub lease. We had to do a whole rental application with the property management which I didn't love but it was way cheaper than trying to do a hotel for the length of time we are here.

aggieactor01 said:

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For a few weeks this summer we are living in NYC. We know a family that runs a sleep away summer camp in Connecticut so while our kids are there we are hanging in the city. We live in Dallas but are both able to work remotely so we can work during the day and catch shows at night. Our time here is coming to an end though so that's why I probably won't get to catch anything else. This is by far the most shows I've seen in NYC in a single trip.

Before kids we tried to do at least one trip a year where we fly up first thing Wednesday morning so we can catch a matinee and then line up a show for every slot we can while we're here. Our record was 9 shows in 5 days because we caught a late night Drunk Shakespeare performance one of the nights we were here. It's a little nuts I know and that was before kids. We also used to be able to write it all off because I was still acting and working in the business producing shows myself.

Now we typically come up for a long weekend once or twice a year. This is the first time we've brought the kids though which I can see limiting the number of shows we see if we make a habit of it.

We both spent a number of years working in the theatre so it's also important to us to support our friends who are still in the business. That effects what we see sometimes. And I'll admit I'm pretty forgiving of a lot because I know what goes into these productions.

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PM sent

aggieactor01 said:

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We did yeah. Basically a one month sub lease. We had to do a whole rental application with the property management which I didn't love but it was way cheaper than trying to do a hotel for the length of time we are here.

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Would be interested to hear more about this experience. Pros/cons. Would you do it again? If so would you do it differently etc

Of what is playing now I've seen:

Lion King
Wicked
Boom of Mormon
Chicago

I'd probably do Hamilton, Wicked or Book of Mormon if I was going today.

MJ was really good and kids loved it - not just a guy doing a Michael impersonation - really good
Show and stage sets.

Saw Wicked in Houston a couple weeks ago. A lot better than I expected. Definitely recommend.

Big Al 1992 said:

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MJ was really good and kids loved it - not just a guy doing a Michael impersonation - really good
Show and stage sets.

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I like it a lot. The Thriller sequences were fire.

And as I said, I was just blown away with the physicality of the dancing and how amazing those dancers are that they do that show 8 times a week.