--- title: Top 10 Plays and Musicals of 2017: Hello, Dolly, Sweat description: These are TIME's picks for the top 10 plays and musicals of 2017, featuring "Come From Away" and "Sweat." canonical: https://time.com/5033209/top-10-plays-musicals-2017/ author: Eben Shapiro article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-06T17:22:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:19.778Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: The Top 10 Plays and Musicals of 2017 og:description: From 'Hello, Dolly' to 'Sweat' og:url: https://time.com/5033209/top-10-plays-musicals-2017/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt09edf5955d067aa8/6988e6b00a4a227cb99d0ca5/best-theatre-top-10-2017.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Best-Theatre-top-10-2017 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Top 10 Plays and Musicals of 2017 twitter:description: From 'Hello, Dolly' to 'Sweat' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt09edf5955d067aa8/6988e6b00a4a227cb99d0ca5/best-theatre-top-10-2017.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Top 10 Plays and Musicals of 2017 > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Eben Shapiro](https://time.com/author/eben-shapiro/)  ## Eben Shapiro Eben Shapiro is the former deputy editor of TIME Dec 6, 2017 5:22 PM UTC  Joan Marcus; Matthew Murphy; Carol Rosegg; T. Charles Erickson; Photo Illustration by Allison Schaller  by [Eben Shapiro](https://time.com/author/eben-shapiro/)  ## Eben Shapiro Eben Shapiro is the former deputy editor of TIME Dec 6, 2017 5:22 PM UTC The stupefying boredom of forgotten hamlet in the Israeli desert, where the residents are jolted out of their trance-like existence by a visiting band of Egyptian musicians. The inhabitants of a remote rocky island off the coast of Canada warmly [embrace the passengers of 38 jets stranded there in the wake of 9/11.](http://time.com/4703321/come-from-away-musical-review/) A working class bar in a failing factory town is the backdrop for a shocking act of violence and an equally dramatic reconciliation. In this most polarized of years, a number of the best productions celebrate man’s shared humanity and the possibility of even the most entrenched enemies finding common ground and a path forward. ## 10\. Hello, Dolly  David Hyde Pierce and Bette Midler in 'Hello Dolly' on Broadway during a curtain call, New York Gregory Pace—REX/Shutterstock Did the world need another revival of _Hello, Dolly?_ Apparently, yes. [Bette Midler](http://time.com/4606079/bette-midler-interview/) won a Tony for her giddy performance. The Divine Miss M’s connection with her fierce tribe of followers is both extreme and two-way; the frenzied fans bestow highly vocal love on her and the star feeds off the their worship and beams it right back. Her chemistry with co-star David Hyde Pierce is also excellent. The night I saw it, Pierce broke character and burst out laughing when Midler doused his face with salt in a seemingly improvised move. (Bernadette Peters and Victor Garber take over in January.) The show also won a [Tony](http://time.com/4814195/tony-awards-2017/) for Santo Loquasto’s Technicolor costumes, and for scenic design geeks, the painted backdrops of turn-of-the century New York are practically worth the steep price of admission. ## 8 and 9\. Sunday in the Park With George and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street  Left: Hugh Panaro as Sweeny Todd. Right: Annaleigh Ashford during the opening night performance curtain call bows for 'Sunday in the Park with George' Joan Marcus; Walter McBride—WireImage/Getty Images [Jake Gyllenhaal can sing!](http://time.com/4663956/jake-gyllenhaal-singing-reactions/) It was bumper year for Sondheim revivals in New York. Gylllenhaal was intense and tuneful in _Sunday in the Park With George_, opposite the wondrous Annaleigh Ashford. Also first-rate was the Barrow Street Theater’s off-Broadway rendition of _Sweeney Todd_. Barrow Street gets bonus point for transforming itself into a pie shop and serving meat pies before the performance. ## 7\. Hamlet  Peter Friedman and Oscar Isaac in Hamlet, directed by Sam Gold, running at The Public Theater through September 3. Carol Rosegg Oscar Isaac is one of the most intelligent, charismatic actors of his generation, a Pacino for our time. But unlike Pacino, who can get a bit hammy when doing Shakespeare, Isaac’s Hamlet in director Sam Gold’s production at the Public Theater was a subtle, probing performance that mesmerized audiences with his pristine delivery of some of Shakespeare’s most stirring soliloquies. ## 6\. Oslo  Oslo T Charles Erickson J.T. Rogers’s gripping new play _Oslo_ ran the awards table, winning the Tony and most of the New York theater world’s other prizes for best play. A remarkable accomplishment given that the it’s subject is the seemingly dry secret, behind-the-scenes diplomacy that led to the 1993 peace accords between Israel and the PLO. Yet it’s a highly dramatic, big, ambitious play, nearly three hours in length. Audiences responded strongly to the notion of shared humanity and common ground sought between antagonists. (For those that missed it in New York, it moved to London this fall.) ## 5\. Doll’s House, Part 2  Chris Cooper and Laurie Metcalf in A Doll's House, Part 2. Brigitte Lacombe “From below, is heard the reverberation of a heavy door closing.” That most famous bit of stage direction, of a door being slammed shut, ends Ibsen’s _Doll’s House_, a blistering meditation on marriage and the high cost of personal fulfillment. The audacious sequel by Lucas Hnath’s begins with a knock on the same door and proceeds to explore those same questions, which unsurprisingly, persist, with verve, a stellar cast and a surprising degree of humor. ## 4\. Come From Away  The cast of Come From Away Matthew Murphy In the history of musical theater, air traffic control post-9/11 has to be one of the most unlikely topics for a feel-good hit show. Yet ripped from history’s footnotes, [_Come From Away_](http://time.com/4703824/justin-trudeau-ivanka-trump-come-from-away-broadway/)is set in Gander, Newfoundland, immediately following the 9/11 attacks, when 38 jets were grounded on this remote island. The local town folk were initially overwhelmed by the diverse, visiting hordes, but then rally and show remarkable compassion in caring for their stranded, anxious guests. It’s a deeply moving, optimistic show about [helping each other that arrived on the scene](http://motto.time.com/4703397/justin-trudeau-ivanka-trump-broadway) at exactly the right moment. ## 3\. Indecent  Max Gordon Moore, Adina Verson, Richard Topol, Katrina Lenk, Mimi Lieber and Steven Rattazzi in INDECENT. Carol Rosegg Paula Vogel’s _Indecent_ is a profoundly moving exploration of intolerance, the power of art, love and sex, and the cruel march of history. Based on a true story, the complex play within a play, follows the fate of a controversial Yiddish play involving prostitution and a passionate lesbian love affair. It was brilliantly staged, with a large splendid cast which fluidly played mutiple roles. A filmed version of the Tony-nominated production recently aired on PBS’s Great Performances series. ## 2\. The Band’s Visit  Tony Shalhoub and Katrina Lenk in The Band's Visit Matthew Murphy The Band’s Visit was a film, an off-Broadway show and now a full-fledged Broadway delight. Starring Tony Shalhoub and one of New York’s most exciting new(ish) actors, Katrina Lenk (she was also excellent in _Indecent_), it’s an enchanting musical about an Egyptian band getting stranding in a remote Israeli town. The presence of the outside artists stir and awakens both the deeply bored residents and the traveling musicians. Showing how art wells up when it’s needed, it was yet another of this year’s best shows that rejoices in the shared humanity of strangers and even foes. ## 1\. Sweat  Michelle Wilson, James Colby and Johanna Day in "Sweat," at the Public theater in New York, Oct. 16, 2016 . Sara Krulwich—The New York Times/Redux In awarding Lynn Nottage the Pulitzer prize this year, the board called Sweat, “a nuanced yet powerful drama that reminds audiences of the stacked deck still facing workers searching for the American dream.” Set in a bar, the gritty story was deeply informed by Nottage’s research in Reading, Pa., and was widely hailed for its sympathetic portrayal of the working class. Where a lesser writer might have gotten preachy, instead Nottage presciently explored of the forces that led to the election of the 45th president in a welcome demonstration of the power of art to elucidate sesmic historical shifts as they unfold in real-time. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5033209/top-10-plays-musicals-2017/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5033209/top-10-plays-musicals-2017/"},"headline":"The Top 10 Plays and Musicals of 2017","datePublished":"2017-12-06T17:22:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:19.778Z","description":"A number of the best productions celebrate man’s shared humanity","url":"https://time.com/5033209/top-10-plays-musicals-2017/","keywords":["Theater","top-10-2017"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt09edf5955d067aa8/6988e6b00a4a227cb99d0ca5/best-theatre-top-10-2017.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eben Shapiro","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eben-shapiro/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt09edf5955d067aa8/6988e6b00a4a227cb99d0ca5/best-theatre-top-10-2017.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Best-Theatre-top-10-2017","caption":"Best-Theatre-top-10-2017","creditText":"Joan Marcus; Matthew Murphy; Carol Rosegg; T. 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