As the curtain falls on 2025, 1 Minute Critic looks back at our inaugural year with a wink and a prayer for another season of groundbreaking theater, arts, and culture. There were highs and lows, and you—our readers—reveled in both. The numbers don’t lie. Here’s a look at our most-read theater reviews of the year:
#5 Rob Lake saws his Broadway debut in half, Muppets and all
Magician Rob Lake’s Broadway debut disappeared faster than he (or producers) would have liked, lasting only four performances before closing prematurely.
Sluggish ticket sales, passionate internet objections to using The Muppets for such effect, and the production’s numerous technical glitches throughout previews (witnessed firsthand by this critic) [didn’t help],” according to our critic Lindsay B. Davis.
Davis went on to write that The Muppets spent most of the show waiting in the wings. “When the Prima Donna herself finally appears first via FaceTime and then onstage in a fabulous dressing room set she’ll never use, I’m going full-hog diva: Someone should get on the phone to Miss Piggy and apologize.”
#4 The $300,000 question: Can Neil Patrick Harris & co-stars justify this white canvas comedy?
Art returned to Broadway with an all-star cast, including Neil Patrick Harris, James Corden, and Bobby Cannavale, recouping its investment in its final weeks before closing on December 21.
Reviews were mixed, with ours writing that “Some may be just as happy watching the famed video of Banksy’s ‘Girl With Balloon’ shredded after it was auctioned in 2018 for $1.4 million—just a bit more than Art made during its first full week of previews.”
#3 ‘Ragtime’ returns to Broadway with undeniable urgency and uncomfortable truths
What Lincoln Center Theater’s revival of Ragtime lacked in scenic design, it made up for with rousing performances from Joshua Henry, Caissie Levy, and Brandon Uranowitz, and a stellar ensemble bringing Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens’ musical to life.
“In its final moments, Ragtime projects an interracial and intercultural America,” wrote critic Matthew Wexler. “Still, the lives lost to get there can’t be forgotten, which makes its impact that much more poignant and heart-wrenching.”
#2 ‘Chess’ returns to Broadway with a Cold War that feels white hot
Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, and Tim Rice’s Cold War musical about rival chess players has long been a fan favorite for its pop ballad melodies, but the book clumped along like a wayward pawn. Enter Danny Strong to lighten things up—it’s only a game after all, right?
Star performances by Lea Michelle, Aaron Tveit, and Nicholas Christopher are turning heads, but our critic discovered other highlights, writing, “Choreographer Lorin Latarro proves a formidable collaborator, jolting the cerebral into thrilling gameplay, the ensemble functioning as a Greek chorus smartly dressed in monochromatic grey suits by costume designer Tom Broecker. Many theatergoers will be flocking to see Tveit and Michele in Chess. And while the King and Queen of this game may get the most attention, to win, every move counts.”
#1 ‘The Queen of Versailles’: Even Kristin Chenoweth can’t save this Broadway house of cards
Much like the real-life McMansion being built on the outskirts of Orlando, Florida. Kristin Chenoweth’s latest star vehicle was in trouble from the time it premiered at Boston’s Colonial Theatre. A year of rewrites didn’t help; the musical lasted only 49 performances before shuttering in mid-December.
Director Michael Arden, tasked to make sense of the musical’s disparate tone, fails to find the comedy or gravitas, leaving the audience as puzzled as the ensemble, who appear throughout as apparitional figures from 17th-century France,” wrote our critic. “Schwartz (also represented downtown in a rare revival of The Baker’s Wife) has produced a score without a single hook.”
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