Year in review: Top Broadway theatre highlights of 2024

Revisit key moments in the Broadway and Off-Broadway theatre landscape, major wins at the 2024 Tony Awards, and fast facts about this year's lineup of shows.

How do you measure a year in the life of Broadway? With dramas, and musicals, and star turns, and Tony Awards. And that’s just part of what made 2024 such a memorable year in New York theatre.

It was a year when breakout phenomenon Cole Escola wrote their own ticket to glittery stardom, two Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals got revelatory revivals, and The Outsiders became the ultimate insider on Broadway’s biggest awards night — just to name a few highlights.

Look back on 2024 in theatre with our year-in-review roundup of fast facts, memorable moments, major wins, and more.

Get tickets to Broadway shows on New York Theatre Guide.

2024 on Broadway: Facts and stats

What a year! Revisit 2024 with these mile-a-minute metrics about the Broadway shows that premiered this year.

44 shows opened on Broadway.

Twenty-three of these productions opened in the spring to form the second half of the 2023-24 season, while the rest made up the first half of the 2024-25 season.

Days of Wine and Roses, which began performances on January 6, got the new year off to a dramatic start, while All In: Comedy About Love by Simon Rich, began performances December 11 to end it on a light note.

Alongside the traditional plays and musicals, Ben Platt: Live at the Palace was a limited-run concert that showcased the Tony Award-winning actor off to the max as he reopened the newly renovated Palace Theatre after nearly six years.

5 shows transferred from London's West End.

Patriots put recent Russian politics – and Michael Stuhlbarg – center stage. The Hills of California was an Olivier Award nominee in London for Best Play and Best Actress for Laura Donnelly, who reprised her role on Broadway.

A mix of musicals also made the trip across the pond. In Elton John’s Tammy Faye, Olivier winner Katie Brayben reprised the title role of an infamous televangelist. Then there were two seven-time Olivier-winning productions: Sunset Boulevard paved the way for Nicole Scherzinger’s first Broadway close-up, while Cabaret placed the Kander and Ebb classic in an immersive club setting. Willkommen, indeed.

15 new musicals debuted on Broadway.

A robotic romance, a shipwreck, coming-of-age aches, corporate climbing, and women’s rights respectively beat at the cores of Maybe Happy Ending, Swept Away, Illinoise, The Heart of Rock and Roll, and Suffs. All are tuneful reminders that musicals tell all sorts of original stories.

Musicals that began as books or movies, in contrast, include Death Becomes Her, The Great Gatsby, The Notebook, The Outsiders, Water for Elephants, and Days of Wine and Roses. All found found fresh ways to make the tales sing.

Additionally, Hell's Kitchen, A Wonderful World, and Lempicka respectively mined the lives of Grammy winner Alicia Keys, artist Tamara de Lempicka, and Louis Armstrong.

14 revivals took fresh looks at old works.

Revivals of the musicals Cabaret, Sunset Boulevard, The Who’s Tommy, and Gypsy offered imaginative concepts and staging choices for familiar shows.

The classic Henrik Ibsen drama An Enemy of the People came with a stripped-back staging and invited audience engagement between acts, while Shakespeare’s love story Romeo + Juliet was tailored to Gen Z audiences (and gym rats who love doing pull-ups).

Samm-Art Williams’s Home returned to Broadway 44 years after its premiere there, while David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face made its debut 17 years after its Off-Broadway premiere. Doubt, Elf The Musical, Our Town, Once Upon a Mattress, The Wiz, and Uncle Vanya rounded out the revivals category in diverse and starry fashion.

More than 50 stars shone bright on Broadway.

Hollywood celebs like Robert Downey Jr., Rachel McAdams, Steve Carell, and Shailene Woodley made their Broadway debuts this year, while seasoned theatre pros returned to the stage.

There are many more stars to look forward to in 2025, including Succession Emmy winners Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook, plus more A-listers like George Clooney, Denzel Washington, and Jake Gyllenhaal. As we await their arrivals, look back at the stars on stage in 2024. Shows that are linked below are still playing, so click to get tickets!

• All 14 cast members of All In: Comedy About Love by Simon Rich
• Adam Driver in Hold On to Me Darling
• Anthony Edwards in Prayer for the French Republic
• Audra McDonald in Gypsy
• Bill Irwin, Jessica Hecht, and Thomas Middleditch in Eureka Day
• Charli D'Amelio in & Juliet
• Cole Escola, Conrad Ricamora, and James Scully in Oh, Mary!
• Daniel Dae Kim in Yellow Face
• Darren Criss in Maybe Happy Ending
• Eddie Redmayne, Gayle Rankin, Adam Lambert, and Auli'i Cravalho in Cabaret
• Grant Gustin in Water for Elephants
• Grey Henson and Sean Astin in Elf The Musical
• Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada in The Great Gatsby
• Jeremy Strong, Michael Imperioli, and Victoria Pedretti in An Enemy of the People
• Jessica Lange, Jim Parsons, and Celia Keenan-Bolger in Mother Play
• Jim Parsons, Zoey Deutch, and Katie Holmes in Our Town
• Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher in Left on Tenth
• Katie Brayben, Christian Borle, and Michael Cerveris in Tammy Faye
• Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James in Days of Wine and Roses
• Kenneth Branagh in King Lear
• Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler in Romeo + Juliet
• Liev Schreiber and Amy Ryan in Doubt
• Marisa Tomei in Babe
• Maryann Plunkett and Dorian Harewood in The Notebook
• Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone in The Roommate
• Megan Hilty, Jennifer Simard, and Michelle Williams in Death Becomes Her
• Michael Stuhlbarg in Patriots
• Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Krakowski, Debra Messing, and Constance Wu in Shit. Meet. Fan.
• Nicole Scherzinger in Sunset Boulevard
• Peter Friedman and Sydney Lemmon in Job
• Rachel McAdams in Mary Jane
• Robert Downey Jr. in McNeal
• Shailene Woodley, Zachary Quinto, Barbie Ferreira, and Mare Winningham in Cult of Love
• Sutton Foster, Michael Urie, and Ana Gasteyer in Once Upon a Mattress
• Steve Carell, Alfred Molina, Alison Pill, Anika Noni Rose, and William Jackson Harper in Uncle Vanya
• Wayne Brady and Deborah Cox in The Wiz

The 2024 Tony Awards

The Tony Awards are Broadway's biggest night of every year, celebrating the best of theatre each June. Here are the highlights from the 2024 ceremony, held for the first time at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center.

The Outsiders wins Best Musical.

S.E. Hinton’s 1967 book about troubled teenage gangs got the musical treatment this year, and the show became the night’s big winner by taking home the coveted prize for Best Musical. Up for 12 awards, the show also won for direction, lighting, and sound. The musical continues to “stay gold” in its Broadway run.

Get The Outsiders tickets now.

Stereophonic makes history.

Going into Tony night, David Adjmi’s drama about the dynamics of a Fleetwood Mac-like band in the 70s earned 13 nominations, the most ever for a play. One of its nods was for Best Orchestrations, which a play had never been nominated for. Ultimately, Stereophonic won five Tonys, including Best Play.

Get Stereophonic tickets now.

Merrily We Roll Along makes a grand comeback.

Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s musical about friendship told in reverse had a short-lived Broadway run in 1981. More than 40 years later, after various productions tried to "fix" the show, director Maria Friedman’s take starring Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, and Lindsay Mendez earned four Tonys, including Best Musical Revival.

Hell’s Kitchen gets two heavenly acting wins.

Hell’s Kitchen is all about Alicia Keys, whose famous hits and original songs motor the musical. On Tony night, the spotlight beamed bright on two more women. Maleah Joi Moon, who plays the Keys-inspired teenager Ali, won a Best Actress Tony for her Broadway debut. On the flip side, veteran Kecia Lewis, as Ali’s piano teacher, won a Featured Actress Tony some 40 years after her Broadway debut.

2024 theatre highlights

Little-known shows and performers became breakout hits. One longtime hit defied gravity to become a Hollywood blockbuster. Classic shows got fresh facelifts. All this and more happened in 2024 — relive major moments from the past year below.

Two Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals shine anew.

Cats: The Jellicle Ball, seen in the summer off Broadway, reimagined the feline-forward musical in the world of queer ballroom culture. Directors Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch’s show got glowing reviews for its eye- and ear-opening focus on community, personal identity, and resilience.

Immediately afterward, in the fall, British director Jamie Lloyd’s stark, film noir-inspired Broadway revival of Sunset Boulevard seamlessly blended elements of musical theatre and cinema to spotlight Hollywood’s magnetic and destructive pull. Equally notably, Nicole Scherzinger made her Broadway debut reprising her Olivier-winning role as actress Norma Desmond.

Get Sunset Boulevard tickets now.

The Wicked movie turns Hollywood — and the world — pink and green.

Since opening on Broadway in 2003, the musical prequel to The Wizard of Oz has become a global sensation. Now, it’s a very popular movie starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as witches and college roommates Elphaba and Glinda, whose evolving bond provides the show’s beating heart. The film's Part 2, out in 2025, can’t come quick enough.

Get Wicked Broadway tickets now.

Maybe Happy Ending earns universal raves.

Theatre critics often don’t agree, but when it came to this irresistible new musical by Will Aronson and Hue Park they were unanimous in their enthusiastic praise. Believe the hype about director Michael Arden’s marvelous production, starring Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen as robots who forge a game-changing connection.

Get Maybe Happy Ending tickets now.

Oh, Mary! launched Cole Escola’s breakout.

Previously known mainly within LGBTQ+ comedy and downtown theatre circles, comedian Cole Escola has ascended to a whole new league thanks to Oh, Mary!, their side-splitting comedy about Mary Todd Lincoln (whom they also play) packed with laughs and historical irreverence.

Escola’s self-made star-is-born vehicle – first seen off, then on Broadway, where it recently extended for a third time – is sweeter than ice cream. (That's an inside joke you'll get if you see the show.)

Get Oh, Mary! tickets now.

Harry Potter gets abbreviated – again.

Long story short, it’s now lightning-bolt quick! Broadway’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child trimmed the script so the running time is now under 3 hours, down from 3.5 hours. Jack Thorne’s play, which continues J. K. Rowling's stories of the beloved boy wizard, originally ran over 5 hours across two parts.

Get Harry Potter and the Cursed Child tickets now.

Gypsy returns in a fresh revival.

Before this year, the beloved classic musical inspired by the real-life memoirs of performer Gypsy Rose Lee has been mounted on Broadway five times. The current sixth version — headlined by record-setting, six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald and directed by George C. Wolfe — is the first time that most principal characters are played by Black actors. “Race is embodied, not articulated,” Wolfe has said about his vision.

Additionally, this revival is the first in which none of Gypsy's original creators are involved. Arthur Laurents, who wrote the show's script, directed multiple of the previous revivals.

Check back for information on Gypsy tickets on New York Theatre Guide.

Gatz makes its final NYC return.

Gatz is a marathon theatrical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, presenting the entire novel over the course of 8 hours. The ever-enterprising theatre company Elevator Repair Service presented the show in NYC for the last time in 2024, nearly 20 years after they first did it. The production blends verbatim narration with live staging, transforming a drab office setting into a portal to 1920s opulence as one worker gets engrossed in the novel.

10 unforgettable onstage moments

• A firefly-lit dance between two robots is one of many gorgeous moments in Maybe Happy Ending.
• Upon setting eyes on her teacher in Oh, Mary!, Cole Escola's Mary Todd Lincoln utters an unprintable one-word reaction. It's a mini masterclass.
• Via a handheld camera, Sunset Boulevard lets audiences follow an actor backstage and streetside at the top of Act 2.
• “Masquerade,” an original song written by Will Butler for Stereophonic’s fictional band, became an instant earworm from the show’s first act.
• Swept Away’s dramatic scenic transformation following a mid-show shipwreck completely changes the course of the musical.
• Sutton Foster made a hilarious entrance into Once Upon a Mattress as a critter-infested swamp princess.
• Death Becomes Her recreates iconic visuals from the movie — like a staircase tumble and a shotgun blast — with delightfully low-tech, high-impact stage magic.
• Cult of Love’s fractious Dahl family is united by music — including in the play's harmonious, heart-wrecking last three minutes as they sing one final song.
• Theatre legend Andre DeShields wigged out (literally) as the powerful elder Old Deuteronomy in Cats: The Jellicle Ball.
• Water for Elephants, based on the circus novel, created a unique musical world with a mix of high-flying acrobatics and majestic puppetry.

Watch 2025's soon-to-be memorable theatre moments for yourself — get Broadway tickets on New York Theatre Guide.