For better or worse, 2024 is almost officially in the rear view, capping off another roller coaster year of Broadway and theatre news. While you’re getting your resolutions in order and choosing who to smooch when the ball drops, we’re taking a look at some of the biggest and most-read stories of the year. Read below to look back at the year in theatre news.

Wicked Fever

Dear readers: we see you. We feel you. You love Wicked. A lot. We do too, and we’re only too happy to bring you as much content about it as we can. This musical has been a fan favorite since it came to Broadway in 2003, but the release of the first part of its movie adaptation has kicked Wicked hype into a whole other gear. Lots of Wicked stories and features ended up in our most read stories of the year, overwhelmingly led by our lookback at all the women who have played Glinda and Elphaba on Broadway. 

You also were very interested to read about the changes the movie made to the stage version, the Wicked-themed LEGO sets that came out last fall, and (of course) we were all ravenous to see that trailer when it first dropped. And as you revisit some of this popular Wicked coverage, don’t get too sad that it’s all in the past. With the second film due to release in movie theatres next Thanksgiving, we have an entire year ahead of more Wicked coverage to share and collectively geek out about. That’s a thrillifying prospect, to say the last!

Playbill Celebrates Our 140th With Special Retro Playbill Covers

Not to pat ourselves on the back too strongly, but you all really loved our 140th birthday celebration this year, and that warmed our hearts! We marked the milestone with a set of limited edition Playbill covers that turned back the clock to retro Playbill designs from our history, specifically spotlighting our cover designs from the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. Each show on Broadway (plus Little Shop of Horrors Off-Broadway) had four separate, special covers available to theatregoers who saw a show in October. And you all were very into that, you even made a Reddit megathread about it. The secret is that everybody who works at Playbill are just as big theatre nerds as you are, which made this truly one of our favorite ever projects to put out into the world. 

Special thanks also has to go to all of the Broadway shows, each of whom were responsible for coming up with their own unique and new artwork. They hit it out of the park, which made our 140th birthday as much a highlight for you as it was for us. Take a look back at all the special Playbill 140 Legacy Covers here, and learn about the history of our cover designs.

The Opera Ghost is Coming Back

Speaking of long-running, fan-favorite musicals, we found out in November what we probably all highly suspected was coming, a new incarnation of The Phantom of the Opera. The megahit musical, which ended its historic 35-year run on Broadway in 2023, is getting a new national tour that will begin in November 2025, which will also be the North American premiere of the revised version of the original staging that’s currently in London’s West End. It’s not exactly a huge surprise that the show is coming back, but clearly that’s because all of you need to hear the Music of the Night again. 2025 may just turn out to be a banner year for Phantom fans overall, especially if the rumored immersive version materializes. We will tell you as soon as we know (and can confirm the news)!

PBS Toys With Our Fragile Emotions

Is there anything better than when we get a nicely filmed stage show delivered to us for free on PBS? Every theatre kid knows to pay attention when these are happening, and this year was no different. The only catch is some behind-the-scenes difficulties led to some painful switcheroos. An announced broadcast for the live capture of Broadway’s Waitress starring its songwriter, Sara Bareilles, was yanked from PBS’ schedule in August. And just months later, a similar situation happened with an announced broadcast of the reunion concert of Ragtime—and that one happened the same day it was announced! 

But don’t get too disheartened. Waitress has since been announced to be headed for the National Theatre At Home streaming platform, we’re told that a release for the Ragtime concert is still in the works, and Suffs will soon be headed to your homes. That gives us good stuff to look forward to in 2025! And if you want to learn all the granular details of how PBS films Broadway shows, and why delays sometimes happen, click here.

A Supreme Court-Broadway Mashup

We’re used to Real Housewives stars making a Broadway crossover appearance or two. But just earlier this month, Broadway took stunt casting to a whole other level when & Juliet invited Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to do a one-night-only walk-on role. The inspired move was the kind of news that made headlines well beyond theatrical press, with people from around the world interested to know how Jackson’s Broadway debut would go down. As it turns out, Jackson is a big theatre fan just like us, and had long dreamed of appearing on Broadway, as she wrote in her recent memoir Lovely One. Luckily for Jackson, & Juliet decided to make that dream a reality, and Jackson was totally game! See Jackson make her Broadway debut here.

Does Anyone... Still Comment... on Hats?

One of the year’s more incendiary stories came when Sunset Blvd. star Nicole Scherzinger commented on an Instagram photo of a MAGA-like hat, saying she wanted one. The former Pussycat Doll made the comment on election day November 5, and in the wake of the results of that election, a social media firestorm ensued. Scherzinger, who had opened on Broadway in Sunset Blvd. to rave reviews only weeks before the brouhaha, then issued a public apology. 

“When I commented on these posts, I made the mistake of not realizing that they could be easily interpreted as being politically related and I apologize to anyone who understandably reached that conclusion,” Scherzinger wrote November 8. “Many presumptions are being drawn, which do not reflect who I am, what I stand for, or who I voted for. Many of the marginalized communities feeling hurt and concerned by the results of the presidential election are people I care about most. I stand with them, as I always have, throughout my life and career. If you know me, you know that.” So far, the backlash hasn’t seemed to impact the production’s box office very much at all, but the entire story was an important reminder that social media posts—even comments!—are visible and public to everyone, and can bring swift and strong fan response.

More Disney Theatre Magic in 2025

It’s only appropriate that one of our most-read stories of 2024 was about things we have to look forward to in 2025 and beyond. Disney announced at this year’s D23 fan convention that 2017 movie musical The Greatest Showman is being developed as a stage show. Given the level of excitement that announcement brought, it’s easy to see why. We don’t know yet when that show will make its world premiere, but audiences are ready for "the greatest show." The other big D23 news was a live stage film of Frozen that we do know will be streaming on Disney+ in 2025, filmed in London’s West End with Samantha Barks starring as Elsa. Also announced for 2025 was a West End bow for the new stage version of Hercules, making this next year truly chock full of things to look forward to for Disney on Broadway fans.

Protesters Come to Broadway

2024 was a huge year for activist protesters on Broadway. Climate activist group Extinction Rebellion NYC made headlines disrupting a March performance of An Enemy of the People at the Circle in the Square Theatre. The group took advantage of a scene that, with the house lights up, used the audience as the attendees of a public meeting. With a climate message mirroring much of the message of An Enemy of the People, the disruption had many audience members initially thinking it was part of the show, and actors (including star Jeremy Strong) initially playing along in character. 

Then, a similar situation happened at a July performance of Suffs, with demonstrators unfurling a banner from one of the Music Box Theatre’s box seats reading “SUFFS is a white wash.” The group was protesting the musical’s supposed overly white version of feminist history. The scheme brought the performance to a standstill, and set social media ablaze with all possible reactions, both supportive and otherwise. Both stories were amongst our most-read this year, proving that disruptive protests do often make quite a splash.

Donny Osmond Returns to the Beginning

Donny Osmond might be best known to the world for his career as a singer, either as part of the Osmond Family or with sister Marie. But to theatre fans, Osmond is pretty synonymous with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He emerged as the most high-profile of actors to take on the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical’s title role in the ‘90s revival, playing more than 2,000 performances in U.S. and Canadian productions and turning it into a 1999 film version, too. So perhaps it’s no surprise that one of this year’s biggest stories was that Osmond would return to the show 25 years later, now playing the Pharaoh in a U.K. tour during its stop at Edinburgh Playhouse in Scotland. He’s actually playing the role right now, through December 29, but we’re all hoping he’ll repeat it in the U.S. sometime soon! To read Osmond's thoughts on returning to Joseph, and the prop he kept from his initial run with the show, click here.

A-List Understudy to the Rescue

We seem to be past the worst of the COVID-related performance cancellations, but not completely! A familiar song played again on Broadway earlier this year when The Roommate star Mia Farrow was sidelined from the show with COVID just days after the Jen Silverman play opened on Broadway. But in a true moment of show business magic, the play got an A-list new star in stage and screen icon Marsha Mason. In an odd coincidence, Mason served as the production’s associate producer, making her the perfect last minute sub in to let the show go on even in Farrow’s absence. Luckily, Farrow’s absence ended up being pretty brief—just five days! She finished out the run of The Roommate, opposite longtime friend Patti LuPone, December 15.

Thank you all for continuing to read our coverage on Playbill.com. We can't wait to see what is to come in 2025, and we hope you will join us back here for the latest theatrical news and backstage antics.

Legends Lost

It's never easy when theatre legends pass away, but it's particularly heartbreaking when they leave us early. This fall shocked the theatre community when Tony winner Gavin Creel and Jelly's Last Jam star Adrian Bailey passed away within days of each other. Creel was 48 while Bailey was 67. If there were any question of the impact that these performers had on Broadway, those concerns were quickly silenced—after the Broadway League announced that both actors would only receive a partial dimming of the lights on Broadway, the backlash was swift (there was even a petition). That outcry led to full dimmings for both actors (as well as Dame Maggie Smith), and the Broadway League stepped away from being involved in the dimming ceremonies. Though these beloved actors left us too soon, these recent events showed their impact will continue on long after their passing.