VIEWPOINTS – THE BEST OF 2025: Theater, Music, and Dance

With 2025 now merely a memory, I’ve taken the time to look back upon the year prior and pick out the performances that distinguished themselves from the pack. Read on below for my annual top ten lists — each arranged in no particular order — across the performance genres of theater, music, and dance. One of the most notable themes of the year was how malleable the boundaries between these so-called genres actually are, which is an indication of the healthy desire of artists to continue to push performative forms forward (and break conventions, as needed) to exciting and adventurous new realms.

David Cale in “Blue Cowboy” at The Bushwick Starr (photo by Maria Baranova).

THEATER

  • Practice (Playwrights Horizons)
  • Bat Boy: The Musical (New York City Center)
  • Blue Cowboy (Bushwick Starr)
  • Caroline (MCC Theater)
  • When the Hurlyburly’s Done (Theater on Podil at The Public Theater)
  • Mexodus (Audible Theater at the Minetta Lane Theater)
  • The Brothers Size (The Shed)
  • Purpose (Helen Hayes Theatre)
  • Vanya (Lucille Lortel Theatre)
  • Dead as a Dodo (Presented by Baruch Performing Arts Center, a co-production with Nordland Visual Theatre, Nord University, and The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival)
A scene from William Kentridge’s “SIBYL” presented by Powerhouse: International (photo by Stella Olivier).

OPERA AND CLASSICAL MUSIC

  • Amahl and the Night Visitors (Lincoln Center Theater in association with The Metropolitan Opera)
  • Dalia Stasevska conducts the New York Philharmonic (Geffen Hall)
  • Sibyl (Powerhouse: International)
  • 11,000 Strings (Park Avenue Armory)
  • Salome (The Metropolitan Opera)
  • Verdi’s Requiem (Trinity Church Wall Street)
  • Beethoven: String Quartet Op. 131 (Death of Classical)
  • Riccardo Muti conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Carnegie Hall)
  • In a Grove (Prototype Festival)
  • Primero Sueño (The Met Cloisters)
A scene from nora chipaumire’s “Dambuzdo”, a presentation of BAM Next Wave (photo by Guto Muniz).

DANCE

  • Tere O’Connor: Lace (New York Live Arts)
  • Ballet Preljocaj: Gravity (The Joyce Theater)
  • nora chipaumire: Dambuzdo (Next Wave Festival at Roulette)
  • Alexei Ratmansky: Serenade after Plato’s Symposium (American Ballet Theatre)
  • Twyla Tharp Dance: Diamond Jubilee (New York City Center)
  • Ayodele Casel: The Remix (The Joyce Theater)
  • Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company: Curriculum III — People, Places & Things (New York Live Arts)
  • Batsheva Dance Company: Momo (The Joyce Theater)
  • Akram Khan: Gigenis — The Generation of the Earth (The Joyce Theater)
  • Monica Bill Barnes: Many Happy Returns (Playwrights Horizons)
Justin Vivian Bond in St. Ann’s Warehouse’s production of “Flaming September” at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church (photo by Adrian Dimanlig).

CABARET AND OTHER MUSIC

  • Marilyn Maye (Birdland)
  • Cheyenne Jackson (Carnegie Hall)
  • Christine Ebersole & Billy Stritch (54 Below)
  • Ron Carter (Birdland)
  • Nicole Scherzinger (Carnegie Hall)
  • Justin Vivian Bond: Flaming September (St. Ann & The Holy Trinity Church)
  • Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill (54 Below)
  • Samara Joy (Carnegie Hall)
  • Joaquina Kalukango (54 Below)
  • Jinkx Monsoon (Carnegie Hall)
Categories: Broadway, Cabaret, Dance, Music, Off-Broadway, Opera, Other Music, Theater

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