Countdown to 2018: 2017 Theater

Last year I saw 69 shows, which was the lowest my count had ever been. This year I saw 76! I’m on the upswing! It’s still not as high as other years (two years ago I saw 89 shows), but I’ll take it. Apparently three years ago I saw 73 shows, so I’m pretty much at average. I’m accepting that my show count should be in the 60s and 70s, so 76 feels good.

Credit: Michael J. Cohen

I saw a good number of these shows for free and paid a discount rate for most of the others. Last year I didn’t see any shows more than once, but this year I saw multiple shows multiple times: Bella (2 times, + 1 other time in 2016), Miss Saigon (3 times), Raisin (2 times), Come From Away (2 times, one being when I volunteered for the Autism Friendly Performance). I also performed in 4 of them: The Pops holiday concert twice, my chorus’s synagogue program, and then my own cabaret at the Duplex. 9 shows (2 that I saw twice, so 7 productions) were connected to articles I wrote for 3 websites/publications (on par with the previous year). 2 shows were autism-friendly performance for people with autism, 1 for which I volunteered and 1 I attended with my siblings. 1 was an opening night.

I also want to note that the show I saw the most, Miss Saigon, was special each time. The first time I saw it with Tara, the second time I saw it with my mom and sister 25 years to the day that I first saw it with my mom (in the same theater), and the third time was with Sarah T. These are all people that share a love of Miss Saigon with me.

I used to do a star rating system, but since I know people involved in many of these shows, I’ve done away with that and just highlighted my favorites. After the favorites is the HUGE list of everything I saw. Then, I have listed some fun panels, exhibits, and events I also attended this year.

Top 10 Favorites (in no order, I swear):

The Oregon Trail
Significant Other
Miss Saigon (all 3 times)
Sunday in the Park with George
A Doll’s House, Part 2
Raisin (both times)
Bella: An American Tall Tale (both times)
The Ballad of Little Jo
Inner City Concert
Mary Jane

Runners Up (Also in no order):
Made in ChinaKid Victory
Big River
Come From Away
The Skin of Our Teeth
The Goodbye Girl Concert
Pipeline
The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin
Hello, Dolly!
Uncommon Sense
The Wolves
School Girls, Or The African Mean Girls Play

The Big List:

Breaking the Waves (NYU Skirball/Prototype Festival)
Candide (New York City Opera)
Made in China (Wakka Wakka/59E59)
The Oregon Trail (Fault Line Theatre)
Man from Nebraska (Second Stage Theatre)
Kid Victory (Vineyard Theatre)
Big River (New York City Center Encores!)
The Object Lesson (NYTW)
Significant Other (Broadway)
Miss Saigon (Broadway–First time)
Come From Away (Broadway)
Dead Man Walking (Kennedy Center/Washington National Opera)
Sweat (Broadway)
The Skin of Our Teeth (Theatre For a New Audience)
Sunday in the Park with George (Broadway)
A Doll’s House, Part 2 (Broadway)
Miss Saigon (Broadway–2nd Time)
Ain’t Far From Home (MTF)
Learning Spring Talent Show
The View Upstairs (Culture Project)
The Profane (Playwrights Horizons)
How to Transcend a Happy Marriage (Lincoln Center Theater)
Raisin (APAC–first time)
Miss Saigon (Broadway–third time)
Raisin (APAC–second time)
The Ballad of Baby Doe (Hunter College)
Happy Days (Theatre for a New Audience)
Indecent (Broadway)
New York Theatre Barn New Works Night (NYTB)
Bella: An American Tall Tale (Playwrights Horizons–first time)
Tumbleweed Reading (Theatre for a New City)
Ernest Shackleton Loves Me (off-Broadway at Second Stage)
Yiddish and British on Broadway: Jewish People’s Philharmonic Chorus (Symphony Space)
Bella: An American Tall Tale (Playwrights Horizons–second time)
Cynthia Hopkins’ Articles of Faith (The Kitchen)
Somebody’s Daughter (Second Stage Theatre Uptown)
Cost of Living (Manhattan Theatre Club)
The Ballad of Little Jo (Two River Theater)
The Goodbye Girl concert (54Below)
Urgent Care (UCB)
Ghostlight (Lincoln Center Theatre/Third Rail Projects)
An Occasion for Sin (Planet Connectivity Festival)
Pipeline (Lincoln Center Theatre)
Assassins (New York City Center Encores! Off-Center)
Cats (Broadway–Autism Friendly Performane)
War Paint (Broadway)
The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (New York City Center Encores! Off-Center)
Spoon River (Soulpepper at Signature Center)
A Parallelogram (Second Stage Theatre)
Gordon and Julia Concert (54Below)
Really Rosie (New York City Center Encores! Off-Center)
The River is Me concert (54Below)
Inner City concert (54Below)
Groundhog Day (Broadway)
Hello, Dolly! (Broadway)
For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday (Playwrights Horizons)
Mary Jane (New York Theatre Workshop)
White Girl in Danger (Joe’s Pub)
Crossing (BAM Next Wave Festival)
Animal Husbandry (Bushwick Starr)
Torch Song (Second Stage Theatre)
Finding My Own Damn Way: Shoshana’s 35th Birthday Cabaret (Duplex)
M. Butterfly (Broadway)
Junk (Lincoln Center Theatre/Broadway)
Prince of Broadway (MTC/Broadway)
Uncommon Sense (Sheen Center/Tectonic Theatr)
The Wolves (Lincoln Center Theatre)
Chorus Synagogue Program (Brooklyn Heights Synagogue)
Reb+Vodka +Me (NYU)
Come From Away (Broadway–Autism Friendly Performance)
Hundred Days (New York Theatre Workshop)
CO/LAB’s Show of Shows (CO/LAB)
Chorus Concert (Carnegie Hall — Friday)
School Girls, or The African Mean Girls Play (MCC)
Chorus Concert (Carnegie Hall — Saturday)
The Mad Ones (Prospect Theatre Company/59E59)

Miscellaneous Panels, Exhibits, and Events:

Athena Film Festival Awards (Barnard–2/10)
Backstreet Cultural Museum (New Orleans–2/21)
An Evening with Bill Ayres and Bernadine Dorhn (NYU–3/1)
Imagining Men & Women with Susan Faludi (92nd Street Y–3/30)
Writers House at UPenn (4/10)
Thornton Wilder program: A Celebration of Thornton Wilder (4/24)
LBJ Library (Austin, TX–8/10)
Summer Streets (8/19)
Anne Waldman (9/19)
Comic Con (Saturday 10/7)
Thornton Wilder program: Inspired by Thornton Wilder’s One Acts (10/30)
Barnard Brunch (11/12)

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