- Broadway Classics
- Popular / Best of Broadway
- Family-friendly
- Based on Movies
- Revivals
- Off-Broadway Classics
- Broadway Plays
No trip to New York City is complete without seeing a Broadway show (or two, or three).
Here then is our list of shows to see on Broadway –everything from what's new on Broadway, to hit musicals, plays, family-friendly shows, and long-running popular Broadway classics–shows that have proven over time to be the very best of Broadway. You can purchase your Broadway tickets right here on New York Online, so take a look, decide on your own personal list of "must-see Broadway," and enjoy the show!
Broadway Classics
The Phantom of the Opera
Phantom is the longest-running show in Broadway history, playing continuously for over 31 years. You know the Andrew Lloyd Webber soundtrack, but if you haven’t yet seen the show, well, you sorta have to. It’s the box that every Broadway theatre-goer seemingly has to check before moving on to other shows. Phantom tells the story of Christine, a singer toiling away in the chorus of the Paris Opera until the Phantom, a mysterious, hideously-deformed creature who lurks below the theatre, takes a special interest. He makes her a star, but will the vocal coach from hell win her affection?
Chicago
If you want to know what Broadway is all about, if you need a bit of razzle dazzle in your life, if you’re asking, “What is the quintessential Broadway show?” then look no further. Chicago lays claim to being the longest-running American musical on Broadway, and for good reason: with one show-stopping song after another from Kander & Ebb, super-stylish dancing based on Bob Fosse’s classic choreography, and sizzle that has wowed audiences all around the world, Chicago delivers the goods (and the jazz hands)! A musical satire, Chicago shows both the glamor and the seedy underbelly of Jazz-age Chicago, while taking aim at the corruption within a criminal justice system where show trials are public entertainment.
The Book of Mormon
Called “the funniest musical of all-time,” The Book of Mormon has filled the Eugene O’Neill theatre with explosive laughter for eight years running. Follow a pair of Mormon missionaries on their adventures and near-death misadventures in darkest Africa as they try to convert the villagers, resist carnal desires, and mollify both their own church leader and the neighborhood warlord. The young “Elders” end up learning deeper truths about themselves and the nature of faith as their catechism gets a local makeover. With a book by the creators of Southpark, and music by Emmy-, Grammy-, Tony-, and Oscar-winning composer Bobby Lopez (the youngest person to have won all four major awards in show business), The Book of Mormon is hilarious, irreverent, must-see Broadway.
Popular / Best of Broadway
Come From Away
A touching musical with original score from Tony nominees Irene Sankoff and David Hein, Come From Away tells the true-life tale of what happened when 7,000 international airline passengers were diverted on 9/11 to a small town in Newfoundland, Canada. The passengers and crews, and the local townsfolk have their lives disrupted and transformed by a global tragedy that throws them together, ultimately reminding them (and us) that we are all part of one human family.
Dear Evan Hansen
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Waitress
Mean Girls
The Prom
Don't miss these shows
Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of The Temptations
Follow The Temptations on their rise from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. A high energy, fast-paced jukebox musical, featuring songs from the Temptations’ expansive catalog of 42 Top Ten Hits, including “My Girl,” “Just My Imagination,” “Get Ready,” and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” as well as other Motown hits of the era. At final bows the roar of the audience sounded like a jet engine, and the talented, hard-working cast (headed by Derrick Baskin) deserved it.
Hadestown
You might be in musical heaven as singer/songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and director Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812) take you on a mythological journey to hell and back. Through creative retellings of the timeless allegories of Orpheus and Eurydice, and King Hades and Persephone, the show promises audiences insight into their own life and times.
Oklahoma! (Revival)
Straight from its critically-acclaimed Off-Broadway run, this 21st-Century reimagining of Rogers & Hammerstein’s beloved classic is a stripped-down, provocative exploration the darker subtexts of what is perhaps the great American musical. This is not your grandparents' or your parents' Oklahoma! -- starting with the 7-piece country band onstage, to the Bud Lights being popped, to the psychologically probing, claustrophobic black-out scenes, to the daring dream dance sequence that opens Act 2, but it is true to the original and deeply theatrical--in fact, Time Magazine called this “the #1 theatrical event of 2018.” Hot tip: there's free vegetarian chili and cornbread onstage at intermission for the entire audience, and it's delicious! Your mind and body will be fed by this production.
Beetlejuice
Tootsie
Don't go into this Tootsie expecting a rehash of the movie. The Broadway version is a fresh, creative, and laugh-out-loud funny musical reinvention of the beloved Dustin Hoffman film, updated for the #MeToo moment. Instead of starring in a soap opera, the Broadway version has Tootsie winning a lead role as Juliet's Nurse in a Broadway musical (naturally) of Romeo and Juliet. The musical is a flop until the Nurse takes over as show doctor, bringing honesty and spunk to the production, before everything falls apart, personally and professionally, for Tootsie. Santino Fontana is amazing in the title role, with outstanding, show-stopping comedic support from Sarah Stiles as the ex-girlfriend and Reg Rogers as a talentless, lecherous director. Watch out for the Antoinettes (er, Tonys)–this show and its talented cast are gonna win some awards!
Moulin Rouge! The Musical
Family-friendly
Aladdin
Frozen
Wicked
The Lion King
Gazillion Bubble Show (Off-Broadway)
Big bubbles, little bubbles, bubbles inside bubbles, kids inside bubbles, bubbles bubbles bubbles. You will not feel misled by the title of this show, and you and your young ones are sure to have a good time. With lights, lasers and...did we mention there’s bubbles?
Based on Movies
Beetlejuice
Tootsie
Moulin Rouge! The Musical (previews start June 28, 2019)
The Lion King
Aladdin
Frozen
Revivals
Oklahoma!
Off-Broadway Classics
Stomp
Blue Man Group
Jersey Boys
Broadway Plays
To Kill a Mockingbird
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Ticket buyers paid upwards of $40,000 per ticket to see Springsteen on Broadway during the last week of its celebrated run. A woman from Ireland waits four days (and nights!) on the sidewalk outside the Richard Rogers Theatre to buy standby tickets for her family to see Hamilton; when her turn finally comes, she realizes to her horror she is short $20 (a sympathetic NYC cop pulls a twenty from his pocket and hands it to her). In the box office line at The Ferryman a man casually mentions that he flew from North Carolina to London hoping to score a ticket to the West End production of the play; when that didn't work out, he flew home and promptly booked a flight to New York.
What can account for such madness? Answer: the magic of Broadway. There are moments you experience in a Broadway theatre that remain in memory forever–intimate moments shared with a friend, parent, child or spouse, the actors on stage and a thousand strangers who are right there living that moment with you. It's no exaggeration to say that certain shows, certain actors, certain songs, have the power to change your life. For all the wonders of Hollywood, CGI, Netflix, or cable TV, there's nothing that quite compares to the magic of live theatre–the living, human, beating heart of Broadway.