This year, for the first time since I began compiling these best-of-the-year lists in 2003, no Broadway shows at all have made the top ten. In part, that's an accident of timing; two shows that opened on Broadway this year, Oklahoma! and Slave Play, were on my 2018 top ten list for their earlier Off Broadway runs, and What the Constitution Means to Me was an honorable mention. Still, it speaks to a general truth of theatergoing in New York City: That much of the most exciting work is happening in smaller venues—including original musicals, of which there are four on this year's list. And it's been an especially strong year for Playwrights Horizons and the Public Theater, two longtime pillars of the Off Broadway world. Here are my picks for the best theater of 2019.
Soft Power (Public Theater, closed Nov 17)
At its best, David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori’s feverish musical offered a brilliant deconstruction of classic Broadway storytelling by projecting it through a Chinese lens.