The top Broadway and off broadway musicals in NYC: complete A-Z list

On the high heels of her grand success as Celine Dion in Titanique, the delightful actor-writer Marla Mindelle has created another campy star vehicle for herself: a Schmigadoon!-ish musical about a modern normie who wakes up from a bender to find herself trapped in a 1940s-style Broadway musical. In addition to starring, Mindelle has co-written the book with Jonathan Parks-Ramage and the score with Philip Drennen; her costars include Titanique co-creator Constantine Rousouli as well as Natalie Walker, Paris Nix and the charming SNL alum Alex Moffat. Connor Gallagher serves as director and choreographer.

You’ll get a kick out of this holiday stalwart, which still features Santa, wooden soldiers and the dazzling Rockettes. In recent years, new music, more eye-catching costumes and advanced technology have been introduced to bring audience members closer to the performance. But the main attraction remains the Rockettes, whose perfect unison a testament to the disciplined human form. This is precision dancing on a massive scale—a Busby Berkeley number come to glorious life—and it takes your breath away.—Adam Feldman

The witty drag empress Alaska Thunderfuck stars in her own original musical comedy, co-written with Tomas Costanza and Ashley Gordon, about a wigged-out war between a pair of rival drag houses bent on domination. The cast incorporates popular drag performers (Jujubee, Jan Sport, Luxx Noir London, Lagoona Bloo) alongside significant traditional-musical-theater talents (Nick Adams, J. Elaine Marcos, Eddie Korbich, Bre Jackson). Through November 24, the token straight man is played by Joey McIntyre of New Kids on the Block. Prepare to be properly gagged.

Broadway's loyal opposition, Gerard Alessandrini, returns with a new edition of his beloved satirical revue Forbidden Broadway, which has ribbed the Great White Way since 1982. Hell’s Kitchen, Stereophonic, The Outsiders, The Great Gatsby, Back to the Future, The Wiz and Merrily We Roll Along are among the targets this time; the cast includes Jenny Lee Stern, Chris Collins-Pisano, Danny Hayward, Nicole Vanessa Ortiz and Fred Barton at the ivories.

The prolific Bob and Tobly McSmith, who specialize in silly musicals based on nostalgia objects like Saved by the Bell and Beverly Hills 90210, take a shot at America's favorite six 1990s white people. Assaf Gleizner, who wrote music for the McSmiths' The Office! A Musical Parody, is there for them like he's been there before, and Ryan David Barto directs.

Andrew Barth Feldman, Sarah Hyland and James Carpinello currently star in the latest revival of this dark, tuneful and utterly winsome 1982 horror-camp musical about a flesh-eating plant who makes dreams come true for a lowly flower-shop worker. Composer Alan Menken and librettist Howard Ashman wrap a sordid tale of capitalist temptation and moral decay in layers of sweetness, humor, wit and camp. Michael Mayer directs the feeding frenzy in this deeply satisfying revival.

It's been more than two decades since Marissa Jaret Winokur, Laura Bell Bundy and Kerry Butler shared the stage as the teen queens of the original Broadway cast of Hairspray. Reuniting for a theatrical cabaret show at New World Stages, they stare stories and songs from that musical, plus a sprinkling of mashups, medleys and parodies. Andrew Byrne is their musical director. 

Writer-director John Fisher's musical farce takes us backstage at a campy musical version of Euripides's kill-the-kiddies tragedy, where mayhem ensues when the production's gay star unexpectedly falls in love with his leading lady. Decades after its acclaimed runs in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the show finally makes its New York City debut in an open-ended Off Broadway run with a cast of nine. 

Bedlam presents a new musical about the hopes and travails of Nashville songwriters with a score by a real-life one: J.T. Harding, who has written for artists including Keith Urban, Blake Shelton, Kenny Chesney, Darius Rucker and Uncle Kracker. The book is by Peter Zinn; Bedlam's Eric Tucker directs the New York premiere for his company. The cast includes Stephen Michael Spencer, Jonathan Judge-Russo, Casey Shuler, Leenya Rideout, Drew Bastian and Andrew Rothenberg. 

The boys are back in town! Five nice-looking men take it all off and vocalize in this collage of musical vignettes on gay themes, revamped since its 1999 debut with new jokes and more up-to-date references. Although sex is central to most of the numbers, the goofy nudism has no erotic charge (and when the show tries to be serious, it's sometimes hard to watch). After a hiatus of several years, NBS has returned to NYC at a new venue in 2023.