July 1, 2026: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler.

The 21st century began on January 1, 2001 (this is a statement of fact; no arguments, please), with dozens of Broadway musicals that opened over that spate of time. Today, with exactly six months to go before the end of the first quarter of the century, I’m jumping the gun and offering my choices of the worthiest musicals this new century has offered thus far; 25 for the first 25 years. It’s possible that either Wanted and Galileo—both scheduled to open before the end of the year—could be added as amendments, but let's proceed anyway, shall we?

First off, I can’t claim to have seen every Broadway musical over the past 25 years, though I obviously saw all the ones I cite, as well as every Tony Award winner for Best Musical. I’m also not embarrassed to express my adoration for some that were not hits or even outright flopped. I’ve ordered this list by when each show opened until the last one, wherein I reveal the musical I believe most outstanding. Each is a singular honor for a made-up category, the titles of which have been created out of pure hindsight. My game, my rules and drumroll, please:

MOST OUTSTANDING MUSICAL TO PUT THE COMEDY BACK IN “MUSICAL COMEDY”: The Producers (4/19/2001)

Capturing lightening in a bottle, Broadway was gob smacked when The Producers opened. People wanted a ticket no matter what the cost (it began the habit of theatre box offices charging the outrageous prices once only associated with ticket brokers). If you saw the unbeatable casting of Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, you witnessed a teaming that can rightly be coined legendary. And it was funny, funny, funny! God bless the late Gary Beach.

MOST AUTHENTIC MUSICAL TO ITS FILM SOURCE: Hairspray (8/15/2002)

Thomas Meehan and Mark O’Donnell’s book for Hairspray honors and even improves upon John Waters’ original screenplay while retaining its outrageousness and sweetness. It also didn't hurt that it had a dance-in-your seat score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman.

MOST OUTRAGEOUSLY ORIGINAL MUSICAL: Avenue Q (7/31/2003)

“Warning: Contains Puppet Nudity” is one of the great advertising ploys of all-time. A well-constructed show with a first-rate score, its recent London revival proves Lucy the Slut is once again ready for her closeup. It delivers great song after great song, each more clever and funnier than the one that came before it. And then towards the end, it switches things up with “I Wish I Could Go Back to College,” bringing a tear with the gentlest of forces.

MOST EPIC MUSICAL: Wicked (10/30/2003)

By virtue of its sheer size and reach and phenomenal global success, Wicked has proven not only its durability but its stature as an all-time great musical. ‘Nuff said.

MOST UNUSUAL AND BEAUTIFUL AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MUSICAL: Caroline, or Change (5/22/2004)

A singing washing machine, dryer, radio, and even the moon serenading our heroine in gospel and Motown styles? Really? It doesn’t get funkier than that. And yet Tony Kushner’s glorious (and mostly autobiographical) writing (both book and lyrics) accompanied by Jeanine Tesori’s eclectic score, are a marvel. It's also one of only three shows on this list to get a Broadway revival since its early aughts' premiere.

MOST READY FOR THE ENCORES! TREATMENT: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (3/3/2005)

Encores! has already brought back one show from the same 2004-05 season (The Light in the Piazza) and this hilarious and charming David Yazbek score deserves the same treatment. Augmented by a tight and smart book by Jeffrey Lane, DRS boasted a pitch-perfect cast led by John Lithgow, Norbert Leo Butz (who won the Tony), Sherie Rene Scott, Joanna Gleason, and Gregory Jabara. Delightful with a capital D.

MOST RIDICULOUS MUSICAL: Monty Python’s Spamalot (3/17/2005)

Eric Idle’s turning Monty Python and the Holy Grail into a Broadway musical was a risk. But in the hands of Mike Nichols, for whom this marked the second (and last) musical of his storied theatrical career, in tandem with Casey Nicholaw’s witty musical staging (in his debut as a choreographer), Spamalot was one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen. And that opening night cast: Tim Curry, David Hyde Pierce, Hank Azzaria, Christopher Seiber, Christian Borle, and Tony winner Sara Ramirez. What a beautifully constructed off-the-wall night in the theatre.

MOST BEAUTIFUL SCORE OF THE LAST 25 YEARS: The Light in the Piazza (4.18.2005)

I defy anyone to cite another musical of the 21^st century that’s more romantic with as lush a score than this one by Adam Guetel. Victoria Clarke was every bit as ravishing as Bart Sher’s production, his first musical of many at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre. I had to see it twice because I wanted to make sure both my children saw it.

MOST ADEPT USE OF ADULTS PLAYING KIDS: The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (5/2/2005)

Watching the adult actors in the original cast portray pre-teens competing in “the bee” was a hoot and a half. Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Dan Fogler (Tony winner), Jose Llana, Sara Saltzberg, and Deborah S. Craig—simply incredible. Among its Broadway replacements were Josh Gad, Barrett Foa, and Greta Lee, with the show continuing to enthrall audiences the world over. Currently it's on display in a terrific off-Broadway revival given audiences the chance to once again enjoy Rachel Sheinkin’s wonderful book and the late William Finn’s marvelous score.

MOST OUTSTANDING JUKEBOX MUSICAL: Jersey Boys (11/6/2005)

Beautifully structured and a tremendous crowd pleaser (you entered the theater humming the songs), this was the ultimate musical of the past 25 years without an original score. Under Des McAnuff’s assured direction, Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman’s idea to present each of The Four Seasons narrating the show in separate parts— winter, spring, summer, and fall—was superb.

MOST INSPIRED SATIRE: The Drowsy Chaperone (5/1/2006)

A show you just want to take home and hug, The Drowsy Chaperone was a chancy move. How do you sustain this kind of satire for more than two hours? Key is the very smart book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar and the deft touch of Casey Nicholaw (in his directing debut), who put together a top-notch cast, most of whom were old friends he’d worked with over the years and with whom he came up through the ranks of being an ensemble member. Gotta love that.

MUSICAL THAT GAVE US THE FINEST PERFORMANCE OF THE PAST 25 YEARS: Grey Gardens (11/2/2006)

Here’s where I go for broke and claim that Christine Ebersole gave my single favorite performance of the past 25 years. She managed the near-impossible task of being both hilarious and heartbreaking as Big Edie and Little Edie in the two-part musical Grey Gardens. Elegant and light as chiffon in the first, dogmatic and a tiny bit insane in the second. The sophisticated and melancholy score, music by Scott Frankel and lyrics by Michael Korie, spoke naturally through Doug Wright’s sad and funny book. I saw it off and on Broadway and both times had experiences that will last my lifetime.

MOST OUTSTANDING DEBUT OF A PROMINENT TALENT: In the Heights (3/9/2008)

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights (with a book by Quiara Alegria Hudes) not only offered a joyous time, but the promise that a brand-new talent had arrived with the power to potentially redefine the Broadway musical. Miranda won a Tony for his score and the show won Best Musical, paving the way for the blockbuster to come from this multi-talented artist.

MOST OUTSTANDING BRITISH IMPORT: Billy Elliot the Musical (11/13/2008)

I just love Billy Elliot. That’s all. Its upcoming fall revival in London has me hoping that it means we’ll have it back on Broadway sometime in 2028.

MOST OUTSTANDING ROCK SCORE: Next to Normal (4/15/2009)

Personal story: I was shaken and deeply moved by this show when I first saw it with my son. A few months later, I brought my then-wife to it. At intermission, she angrily said, “Why would you bring me to such a disturbing musical?” We divorced a few years later (I don’t think she ever forgave me). At least the Pulitzer committee agreed with me when Next to Normal was awarded the prize (the 8th of only 10 to achieve that distinction).

MOST LIKELY TO BE REDISCOVERED AS A CLASSIC: The Scottsboro Boys (10/31/2010)

Don’t get me started on Scottsboro Boys. I love this show passionately (saw it more than once) and believe firmly that the naysayers got it wrong. Small groups of people picketed the Lyceum Theatre who, without seeing it, objected to it on principle. However, their claim that it somehow was trivializing the horrors of its story of nine Black teenagers falsely accused of raping two white women on an Alabama train in 1931 was bogus. The show received 12 Tony nominations but won none of them due to Book of Mormon sweeping most of the categories in which they competed. John Kander’s beautiful music will one day be remembered as one of his top three scores. Fred Ebb contributed lyrics prior to his death in 2004, and Rupert Holmes and Kander himself were responsible for finishing out the work.

MOST INVENTIVELY SATIRIC MUSICAL: The Book of Mormon (3/24/2011)

I’m partial to this musical for several reasons, one being that it’s a riot and beautifully put together. Mainly though, I saw it under the best possible circumstance. It was the night after it opened. Have you ever seen a hit show the night after it opens? The audience is hyped because they're seeing a spanking new hit; self-satisfied in the knowledge that they could have easily scalped their ticket for many times its value. And the actors are incredibly pumped because they know they have a job for a while, or in the case of Lewis Cleale, one for 14 years (he only recently left the show after more than 5,000 performances).

MOST DECEPTIVELY SIMPLE MUSICAL: Once (3/18/2012)

A bar, some musicians, and the thinnest of plots can sometimes create magic. Once, based on John Carney’s 2006 film of the same title, scored with audiences to become a sleeper hit running close to three years and winning 8 Tonys including Best Musical. A touching love story with exhilarating music.

MOST UNDERRATED MUSICAL: Something Rotten (4/22/2015)

In the 2015 theatre season, Something Rotten only took home one Tony Award out of ten nominations (Christian Borle as William Shakespeare), but it deserved a hell of a lot more. Its book and score by Karey Kirkpatrick, Wayne Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell are ingenious as was its slam-bang production directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw (yeah, he's got three on this list).

MOST IMPROVED IN A REVIVAL: Spring Awakening (9/27/15).

Though Spring Awakening opened on Broadway in 2006, it didn’t work as well for me as the one nine years later that came from Los Angeles’s West Deaf Theatre in 2015. Yes, the first one had that amazing cast, but so did the revival (Broadway debuts of Kathryn Gallagher and Ali Stroker). It was its ingenious use of double casting (both deaf and hearing actors in the same lead roles) that gave the characters’ an illusion of split personalities, which added a layer of depth that I’m sure even surprised its creators when they saw it for the first time. A memorably shattering production.

MOST DISAPPOINTING CRITICAL AND AUDIENCE RECEPTION: Shuffle Along, Or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed (4.28.2016)

Critics nitpicked and audiences stayed away while Hamilton took up all the oxygen on Broadway in the 2015-16 season. I saw Shuffle Along three times and couldn’t get enough of Savion Glover’s brilliant choreography (it should have won the Tony over Hamilton). Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Brandon Victor Dixon, Billy Porter, Adrienne Warren, Brooks Ashmanskas . . . that there’s no original cast recording is downright criminal.

MOST EMOTIONALLY RESONANT: The Band’s Visit (11/9/2017)

A Chekhovian musical set in Egypt. Who’d have thunk it? I unabashedly adored Itamar Moses and David Yazbek’s adaptation of a 2007 Israeli film of the same name. I found it so sensitively staged, so perfectly rendered, that it left me speechless. It had its detractors (“nothing happens,” one friend whined to me), but it was because it took its time that it came off for me like something out of a dream. It was not for nothing it earned 10 Tony Awards.

MOST NOTEWORTHY TRANSITION FROM CONCEPT ALBUM TO BROADWAY: Hadestown (4/17/2019)

Anaïs Mitchell’s haunting score for Hadestown took thirteen years to reach the stage; first as a scrappy staged reading, then to a concept recording, and later through three separate productions off-Broadway, and in Canada and London before arriving on Broadway in 2019, where it is still playing. Great stagecraft and eye-popping scenic effects helped lift this up from the underground to achieve a high level of excellence.

MOST OUTSTANDING MUSICAL THAT MAY NEVER BE SEEN ON BROADWAY AGAIN: A Strange Loop (4/26/2022)

I saw A Strange Loop in both its original off-Broadway production at Playwrights Horizons with Larry Owens in the lead, and in its Broadway iteration with Jaquel Spivey replacing Owens. Both were exceptional, and I found the show arresting in its power to tell its story with uncompromising integrity. A bold and revealing drama that challenged its audience (and I mean REALLY challenged them). Sadly, people stayed away and it shares with Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Passion the distinction of the two shortest runs of the last 79 years of Tony Award Best Musical winners.

AND FANFARE, PLEASE, THE MOST OUTSTANDING MUSICAL OF THE LAST 25 YEARS: Hamilton (8/6/2015)

For its influence on an entire generation (and with more to come), Lin-Manuel Miranda’s extraordinary musical based on Ron Chernow’s 800-page biography of Alexander Hamilton, tops my personal list for its innovation and execution. And talk about great performances: In addition to Manuel, its original company featured Leslie Odom Jr., Christopher Jackson, Jonathan Groff, Phillipa Soo, Daveed Diggs, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Anthony Ramos, and Ariana DeBose. I’m not sure there will ever be another show quite like it. Daring, original, unique, powerful; its very existence a thing of wonder and beauty.

Ron Fassler is the author of The Show Goes On: Broadway Hirings, Firings and Replacements. For news and “Theatre Yesterday and Today" columns when they break, please subscribe.