The opening number of Michael R. Jackson's musical, which has already been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, describes it as a "big, Black, queer-ass American Broadway show."

Jaquel Spivey, who is sensational in his first-ever professional role, plays the lead character Usher, who is attempting to write a "big, Black, queer-ass American Broadway show." He is attempting to write his own musical titled, yes, A Strange Loop while working as an usher at a Disney production that is undoubtedly The Lion King. A stunningly introspective work about a man struggling with his own mind and body instead emerges from all the meta, lest you think A Strange Loop gets lost in it.

Usher is joined on stage by a chorus of his own "thoughts" that tease and needle him—some occasionally playing the roles of his parents who acknowledge that he is gay but haven't accepted it. Referencing everything from Liz Phair to Tyler Perry, A Strange Loop grabs hold of you for its runtime and does not let go.

• Ratings: 5.0/5
• Website: https://strangeloopmusical.com/
• Theater: The Lyceum Theatre
• Ticket Price: $49
  

If Broadway musicals are your sect and theater is your religion, you have recently been severely tested in your faith. Works like Spring Awakening, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, and Next to Normal were risky, boundary-pushing, but they closed too soon. The Tony Awards shamefully disregarded American Idiot, and it will be gone in three weeks.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, an airborne infection, is dominating headlines and making millions of dollars even before it has even begun to play. Celebrities and corporate brands push subpar products, innovation is pushed aside, and garbage rises to the top. To sing along with the Ugandan villagers in The Book of Mormon, "Fuck you God in the ass, mouth and cunt-a, fuck you in the eye," is enough to convert you to heresy.

Such profoundly insightful lyrics provide just a small taste of the countless scato-theological delights to be found in this viciously hilarious treat created by Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and composer-lyricist Robert Lopez, who also co-wrote Avenue Q.

You'll be taken back ten years to when The Producers and Urinetown revived American musical comedy, injecting time-honored conventions with metatheatrical irreverence and a healthy dose of bad-taste humor. You'll be laughing out loud at perky Mormons tap-dancing while fiercely suppressing gay tendencies deep in the African bush. The Book of Mormon is a sick mystic revelation and the most exuberantly entertaining Broadway musical in recent memory, brimming with cheery obscenity, astute satire, and catchy tunes. Thia is definitely one of the best Broadway shows you need to see.

• Ratings: 5.0/5
• Website: https://bookofmormonbroadway.com/
• Theater: EUGENE O'NEILL THEATRE
• Ticket Price: $59
  

The titular character (Ben Platt) is an anxious adolescent with an arm cast who is told by a therapist to write letters to himself explaining why "today is going to be a good day" in the musical Dear Evan Hansen, which was written by Steven Levenson and features songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. The school outcast, Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan), signs his name on Evan's cast on the first day of school after the summer break. He also finds Evan's letter in the library printer and takes it home. Then he ends his life.

His parents think Evan was his secret best friend because all that is found on him is the letter addressed to Evan. Instead of challenging this presumption, Evan, who is too anxious to disagree with the family, starts an elaborate lie, which gives Connor's family, including his sister and Evan's crush Zoe (Kaitlyn Dever), comfort.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower author Stephen Chbosky, who is best known for adapting his own beloved teen novel, thought the musical was like a "tearjerker" version of Heathers. He had to serve as the film's director if Dear Evan Hansen was ever going to be a movie.

Following its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, the reactions to the movie have been impassioned, to say the least. Here, Chbosky talks about how he wanted to rewrite the ending of the musical to redeem Evan and what he thinks of the "haters."

• Ratings: 5.0/5
• Website: https://dearevanhansen.com/broadway/
• Theater: Music Box Theatre
• Ticket Price: Starting at $59
  

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, one of the best Broadway shows you need to see, has made a dramatic comeback to Broadway after an absence of 18 months. The previously two-part epic is now a single show, albeit a lengthy one, as if it had cast a Shrinking Charm on itself: With a complicated time-travel plot involving the sons of Harry Potter and his childhood enemy Draco Malfoy, this nearly three and a half hour stage production of stage magic is set 20 years after the conclusion of J.K. Rowling's seven-part book series.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has retained the majority of its charm despite getting smaller. The magnificent set pieces from John Tiffany's production are still present—the underwater swimming scene, the staircase ballet, and the stunning flying wraiths—but about a third of the original text has been cut. While some of the changes are minor surgical adjustments, others are more significant. The cuts primarily affect the older characters (Harry's flashback nightmares, for instance, are entirely gone); the conflicts between the fathers and sons have less nuance, and the plotting occasionally feels more hurried than before.

The story is now centered on the most intriguing new characters, including the resentful Albus Potter (James Romney) and the unpopular Scorpius Malfoy (Brady Dalton Richards), whose relationship has been significantly rethought. In the revised version, it's a more or less explicit romance; in the original play, it was merely a hint that their relationship might go beyond friendship. What was previously hidden has come to light, and the show is now more brilliant as a result.

• Ratings: 5.0/5
• Website: https://www.harrypottertheplay.com/
• Theater: Lyric Theater
• Ticket Price: $148-$383
  

The word that can best define the feeling you will experience if you buy tickets for American Buffalo on Broadway is magic. The Broadway revival of American Buffalo, performed at the in-the-round Circle in the Square Theatre, will continue to require audience masking through July 10, the production’s closing date.

The production will continue to require audiences to wear masks in this space, producers said in a statement issued today, "despite the recent industry announcement of masking-optional across other Broadway theaters beginning July 1st, due to the close proximity of the audience to the actors as a result of the intimate size of the theater and the staging in the round."

The trade association for theater owners and producers known as the Broadway League announced earlier this week that the mandatory audience mask rule that has been in place since theaters reopened last fall will be replaced in July with a mask optional policy. Following that, the policy will be evaluated every month.

• Ratings: 4.0/5
• Website: https://americanbuffalonyc.com/
• Theater: Circle in the Square Theatre
• Ticket Price: Start at $79.5
  

When Americans think of Canada, if they do at all, warmth is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. Irene Sankoff and David Hein's throbbing musical Come From Away, both from Toronto, might be able to change that. Its unlikely subject is a true account from the days following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when 38 international flights carrying about 7,000 passengers were forced to land in Gander, Newfoundland (population roughly 9,000). A small ray of human decency in a world covered in ash, the kindness and hospitality of the locals, who fed and housed the stranded travelers for days, made the news.

Come From Away's multiple narratives mostly have low stakes; it's essentially a show about a lot of people inconvenienced at once, despite the residual shock of 9/11 giving it a strong current of emotion. It struggles when it tackles heavier subjects—one passenger is the mother of a missing firefighter—but excels when celebrating less significant events, like a rowdy initiation night at a neighborhood bar where guests are encouraged to try local rum called screech and kiss a cod. The lively, Celtic-influenced score is performed by an eight-piece band and features a lot of fiddle, bodhrán, and flute.

The 12 talented actors work as an effective ensemble under Christopher Ashley's fluid direction, taking on a variety of roles as both the Plane People and the commoners who welcome them to their rock. Come From Away makes a strong argument for the importance of good intentions despite some minor technical errors. You don't need planes for this kind of uplift.

• Ratings: 4.0/5
• Website: https://comefromaway.com/
• Theater: Schoenfeld Theatre
• Ticket Price: Starting at $42
  

The brand-new musical Hadestown recently made its Broadway debut after experiencing record-breaking runs at New York Theatre Workshop, Canada's Citadel Theatre, and the National Theatre.

In the warmth of summertime, songwriter Orpheus and his muse Eurydice are living it up and falling in love. But as winter draws near, reality sets in: these young aspirants can't get by on just songs. Eurydice is drawn into the heart of affluent Hadestown by the promise of abundance. Orpheus travels to the underworld in an effort to save her, where their mutual trust is finally put to the test.

The cast of Hadestown is led by the acclaimed actors from its sold-out run at London's National Theatre: Reeve Carney, André De Shields, Amber Gray, Eva Noblezada, and Patrick Page. Hadestown was written by renowned singer-songwriter Anas Mitchell and developed with innovative director and Tony Award® nominee Rachel Chavkin. As the Fates, they are joined by Jewelle Blackman, Kay Trinidad, and Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer. Ahmad Simmons, Afra Hines, Timothy Hughes, John Krause, Kimberly Marable, and others perform as The Workers Chorus. Swings Malcolm Armwood, T. Oliver Reid, Jessie Shelton, and Khaila Wilcoxon are also included in the ensemble cast.

• Ratings: 4.0/5
• Website: https://www.hadestown.com/
• Theater: Walter Kerr Theatre
• Ticket Price: Starting at $49
  

The best time you'll have on Broadway this season is probably Six. When it comes to Henry VIII's six wives, there are beheadings, divorces, and deaths, but that's just par for the course (if not Parr, as in Catherine). However, this production envisions the women as sassy pop stars, a girl group in the vein of Fifth Harmony or the Spice Girls.

Every night, the members of Six put on a competition for the audience: They'll each give a solo performance outlining their tragic story, and whoever had the worst experience being married to the English monarch wins. The proceedings begin with a Beyoncé-inspired jam about annulment from Catherine of Aragon. Anne of Cleves brings down the house with her killer bop about living large after Henry thinks she doesn't match her Hans Holbein portrait (a.k.a. her profile picture).

Jane Seymour performs a somber ballad. Every performer puts on a fantastic vocal performance, hitting high notes and running as if their lives depended on it. The feel-good feminist message of the show is not particularly challenging, but who cares when you're engrossed in the upbeat music?

• Ratings: 4.0/5
• Website: https://sixonbroadway.com/
• Theater: Brooks Atkinson Theatre
• Ticket Price: Starting at $79
  

The Minutes is a remarkable achievement from playwright and star Tracy Letts, not least because it orchestrates audience expectations and surprise with exquisite finesse. The best way to appreciate the play's dramatic skill is possibly to go into it with little to no knowledge of it.

The Minutes doesn't, however, deal in shocking information or revelations. It reveals the delusion systems that prevent people from seeing truths that are hidden in plain sight. Until it's not, it's hilariously sinister. It is thrilling and important theater that challenges the present by exposing the methods used to create history. And it ranks among the best recently produced plays on Broadway.

You might anticipate watching a parody of Parks and Recreation or another sitcom when Tracy Letts' new play The Minutes starts. It helps that the play also features Noah Reid from Schitt's Creek in addition to Letts himself. All of the eccentric archetypes are present in the one-act, which is set at a council meeting for Big Cherry representatives.

There is also the eccentric woman with too many snacks and an ant spray can on her desk, as well as the loud old man who is complaining about his parking spot. But beneath all these small-town jokes, there's something else at play. Since eager newcomer Reid's Peel missed last week's meeting, Mr. Carp, one of his colleagues, is no longer present. Why? How then? The play's true goal—to confront the curse and the cult of Americana—slowly becomes clear as the answers are revealed. It's both exciting and terrifying.

• Ratings: 4.0/5
• Website: https://theminutesbroadway.com/
• Theater: Studio 54
• Ticket Price: Starting at $59
  

Company, one of the best Broadway shows you need to see, enters as the phone rings and the door chimes. Stephen Sondheim and George Furth wrote the Tony-winning musical Company. When the production made its Broadway debut in 1970, it was so well-received that, breaking a previous record, it received 14 Tony Award nominations and took home six of them.

Company is considered one of the first popular concept musicals. Company follows Bobby, who is single and surrounded by married people, on the eve of his 35th birthday. Instead of a linear story, in a series of disparate scenes, Bobby watches the interaction of his married friends and debates whether or not to settle down himself. Company may not have a traditional plot, but what it does have are songs that are now musical theatre anthems, such as “Being Alive,” “Not Getting Married Today,” and “The Ladies Who Lunch.”

Company has also featured many legendary performers from the world of musical theater, including Dean Jones and Elaine Stritch in the original production as well as Ral Esparza, Neil Patrick Harris, Katrina Lenk, and Patti LuPone in notable revivals.

• Ratings: N/A
• Website: https://companymusical.com/
• Theater: Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre
• Ticket Price: $59