Clockwise from left: Amy Bodnar at Florida Studio Theatre (photo by John Jones); Kate Baldwin at WAM Theatre (photo by Emma Rothenberg-Ware); Cassie Beck in the national tour (photo by Joan Marcus); Erica Steinhagen in the Hangar Theatre/Kitchen Theatre production (photo by Rachel Philipson); Beth Lacke at TimeLine Theatre (photo by Brett Beiner); Jessica Robblee at Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company (photo by Michael Ensminger)
- What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck (16 productions)
- Fat Ham by James Ijames (14)
- King James by Rajiv Joseph (14)
- Primary Trust by Eboni Booth (13)
- Jersey Boys by Marshall Brickman & Rick Elice (book), Bob Gaudio (music), Bob Crewe (lyrics) (11)
- Waitress by Jessie Nelson (book, adapt. from Adrienne Shelly), Sara Bareilles (music & lyrics) (11)
- POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive by Selina Fillinger (11)
- Dial M for Murder by Frederick Knott, adapt. by Jeffrey Hatcher (10*)
- The Heart Sellers by Lloyd Suh (10)
- A Case for the Existence of God by Samuel D. Hunter (9)
- The Play That Goes Wrong by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields (9)
*There will actually be 12 productions of Dial M this season, but two will use the original Knott version, not the Hatcher adaptation.
This list was culled from 1,281 productions at 305 TCG member theatres, plus 176 productions at commercial or non-member theatres, excluding A Christmas Carol (38 productions this year) and plays by Shakespeare (of which none would have made this list).
The U.S. Constitution has been called a living document, but it has seldom felt more alive than in Heidi Schreck’s searching, humane quasi-memoir What the Constitution Means to Me, which tops our list for the second year in a row. It is probably not surprising, given that we’re in a uniquely fraught election year, that theatres around the country are programming this timely look at the flaws and lacunae in our nation’s founding charter—though it’s unlikely that any theatres knew when they programmed Selina Fillinger’s POTUS, also back on the Top 10 list for the second year running, that a farce about a woman having to step in for an incapacitated president would seem so up-to-the-minute. (We did notice, though, that none of the theatres where POTUS is playing are running it past election day on Nov. 5.)
For those following at home, this is only the third time since we started counting in 1994 that a play has been No. 1 on our Top 10 list for two years running: John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt pulled it off in 2007 and 2008, and Yasmina Reza’s Art in 2000 and 2001. Other returning faves include James Ijames’s impish Fat Ham, Jeffrey Hatcher’s new spin on Frederick Knott’s Dial M for Murder, and the durably crowd-pleasing The Play That Goes Wrong. The rest on this year’s list are new, including Rajiv Joseph’s engaging two-hander King James, Eboni Booth’s sad and lovely Pulitzer winner Primary Trust (which we published in our Spring issue), Lloyd Suh’s moving The Heart Sellers and Samuel D. Hunter’s searching A Case for the Existence of God. Also new on the list are two musicals: both the jukebox juggernaut Jersey Boys, which in its nearly 20 years of existence has remarkably never made our Top 10 list, and the newer tuner Waitress.
To see a list of this year’s Top 20 Most-Produced playwrights, go here.