Broadway shows and tickets: listings A-Z

Ann

• Price band: 3/4

Lone Star State Governor Ann Richards (1933–2006) is the subject of Holland Taylor's solo tribute, which premiered in Galveston, Texas, two years ago. Exploring this charismatic, flamboyant political animal, Taylor goes in search of the woman behind the big hair and down-home twang.

Annie

• Rated as: 4/5
• Price band: 4/4
• Critics choice

Anyone who has ever been a child can find something to love in Annie. Just try to throw shade at the sunny optimism of the young heroine’s irrepressible “Tomorrow”; it shines brightly anyhow. Knock the little girls of Annie’s orphanage as hard as you like; they bounce back with spunk. Or carp if you must, from a different angle, that James Lapine’s revival is a shade too depressing for this Great Depression fairy tale. Be that as it may, I spent most of the show fully dressed in

The Book of Mormon

• Rated as: 5/5
• Price band: 3/4
• Critics choice

If theater is your religion and the Broadway musical your sect, you've been woefully faith-challenged of late. Venturesome, boundary-pushing works such as Spring Awakening, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and Next to Normal closed too soon. American Idiot was shamefully ignored at the Tonys and will be gone in three weeks. Meanwhile, that airborne infection Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark dominates headlines and rakes in millions, without

Chicago

• Price band: 3/4
• Critics choice

This John Kander–Fred Ebb–Bob Fosse favorite—revived by director Walter Bobbie and choreographer Ann Reinking—tells the saga of chorus girl Roxie Hart, who murders her lover and, with the help of a huckster lawyer, becomes a vaudeville star.—David Cote

Cinderella

The 1957 made-for-TV Rodgers and Hammerstein musical finally makes it to the Broadway stage. Playwright Douglas Carter Beane gives the book a makeover, and the production stars Laura Osnes in the title role and Santino Fontana as her prince. Mark Brokaw directs the fairy-tale enchantment.

Jersey Boys

• Rated as: 4/5
• Price band: 3/4
• Critics choice

A star is reborn in Jersey Boys when the puppyish John Lloyd Young takes vocal wing, channeling the legendary thrills and trills of Four Seasons frontman Frankie Valli. As Young's bright falsetto rings through the air, the August Wilson Theatre becomes a rejuvenation room, transforming baby boomer women into screaming Valli girls in the throes of Young love. With Jersey Boys, the Broadway musical has finally done right by the jukebox, presenting the Four Seasons' infectiously

The Lion King

• Rated as: 4/5
• Price band: 3/4
• Critics choice

Director and designer Julie Taymor takes a reactionary Disney cartoon about the natural right of kings—in which the circle of life is putted against a queeny villain and his jive-talking ghetto pals—and transforms it into a gorgeous celebration of color and movement. The movie’s Elton John–Tim Rice score is expanded with African rhythm and music, and through elegant puppetry, Taymor populates the stage with an amazing menagerie of beasts; her audacious staging expands a simple

Mamma Mia!

• Rated as: 2/5
• Price band: 3/4

Almost two dozen hits by ABBA form the spine of this worldwide smash, which book writer Catherine Johnson has feebly fleshed out into a mother-daughter comedy-drama. As theater, Mamma Mia! is forgettable. As a delivery system for pop-culture nostalgia, it’s ruthless.—David Cote

Newsies

• Rated as: 4/5
• Price band: 3/4
• Critics choice

No one knows what to do with newspapers these days. They kill trees, get your fingers smeary and, in the event their stories are actually true, lag behind the Internet. Anyone who works at a daily (or even—gulp!—a weekly) frets constantly about impending obsolescence. So imagine what a joy it is to see the dear old things so gainfully employed in Disney’s barnstorming, four-alarm delight Newsies. The “papes,” as they’re called by the show’s scrappy New Yawk street hawkers, are

Once

• Rated as: 3/5
• Price band: 3/4

Sometimes, you fall hard on the first date. Maybe the second. But the worst is when you want to love a person badly, but each time you connect, you leave more doubtful and dissatisfied. That’s my unenviable position in regard to Once, the often glorious and inspiring, but also twee and attenuated musical that moved to Broadway after a run downtown at New York Theatre Workshop. The moody, romantic piece is based on the 2006 indie film, and in the transfer from screen to stage, it

The Phantom of the Opera

• Rated as: 3/5
• Price band: 2/4

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic, bombastic musical goes on. Directed by Harold Prince, Phantom is lavish and engaging enough to draw tourists more than two decades into its run. Although the score often strikes a cheesy 1980s synth-pop note, the spectacle and romance remain more or less intact.—David Cote

Rock of Ages

• Rated as: 4/5
• Price band: 3/4
• Critics choice

The new jukebox musical Rock of Ages, which crams 30 hard-hitting ’80s hits into a self-consciously campy romantic comedy, knows its demo. For anyone who threw devil horns at a Quiet Riot concert, had their ears shredded by Eddie Van Halen’s awesome fretwork or felt their heart bursting from Steve Perry’s caterwauling, this slick package is cock-rock nirvana. And if a two-hour set of pulse-quickening covers isn’t enough, there are strippers, a funny narrator (Mitchell Jarvis,

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

• Rated as: 3/5
• Price band: 3/4

The woe-plagued, $75-million musical based on the Marvel superhero ends its long, strange journey (grisly injuries, Julie Taymor fired, 183 previews) as a moderately enjoyable show that is still a hotchpotch of rock, circus and romantic comedy. You care about Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson more, but the show is still dragged down by plot holes and a lumbering, bland score by Bono and the Edge.—David Cote

Wicked

• Rated as: 4/5
• Price band: 2/4
• Critics choice

This musical prequel to The Wizard of Oz addresses surprisingly complex themes, such as standards of beauty, morality and, believe it or not, fighting fascism. Thanks to Winnie Holzman’s witty book and Stephen Schwartz’s pop-inflected score, Wicked soars. Currently, the cast features Jackie Burns as Elphaba and Chandra Le Schwartz as Glinda.—David Cote