1 KING CHARLES III
Prince Charles ascends the throne at last, and all hell breaks loose. Mike Bartlett’s speculative drama has a sharp grasp of politics, the private lives of public figures and the logical absurdity of the British monarchy. One of the great political plays of our time.
2 HAMILTON
(See right)
3 ARTHUR MILLER
Miller’s centennial year was marked by two outstanding productions: Ivo van Hove’s expressionistic take on A View From the Bridge and the Signature Theater’s powerful revival of the less celebrated Holocaust play Incident at Vichy.
4 THE KING AND I
The Tony-winning revival boasts spectacle, heart and beautiful voices, making a good case for the 1951 show as the best Rodgers and Hammerstein classic.
5 THE CHRISTIANS
The minister of a megachurch has a spiritual revelation and prompts a crisis in the congregation. Lucas Hnath’s knotty play is a rarity: a serious investigation of the nature of faith.
6 THE VISIT
Kander and Ebb’s last collaboration, about a woman who takes revenge on her hometown, was too dark for Broadway–but too good to go unnoticed.
7 CONSTELLATIONS
Nick Payne’s one-act charts a love affair in scenes that keep rewinding and replaying in alternate versions. Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson made this high-wire act fly.
8 JOHN
A couple’s fraying relationship is further tested by the ghosts of an oddball Pennsylvania inn. Annie Baker’s 3½-hour play moves at its own pace but is strangely enthralling.
9 FINDING NEVERLAND
Critics had the hook out, but this spirited and nimbly staged musical about J.M. Barrie and the creation of Peter Pan is a delight.
10 WOLF HALL
The adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s novels about Henry VIII’s court was a model of Royal Shakespeare Company polish and storytelling skill.
Hamilton
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop musical, recounting Alexander Hamilton’s rise from poor immigrant to Founding Father and architect of the U.S. banking system, is now Broadway’s favorite’s sellout.
This appears in the December 21, 2015 issue of TIME.
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