David Hyde Pierce, Sigourney Weaver, Kristine Nielsen and Billy Magnussen in "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" on Broadway (photo by Joan Marcus)
If you’re an avid reader of American Theatre, you may have consulted our OnStage schedules section for what’s playing on a stage near you. One benefit of housing one of the largest listings of theatrical activity in the country is that after a while, you start to spot some trends, the most notable being which shows and which playwrights are getting the most play around the country.
Some metrics to get out of the way: This information is tallied from 404 theatres that self-reported their season to us. There were 1,876 entries that credited a playwright and/or a composer, and all productions are playing from Oct. 1, 2014, to Sept. 30, 2015. For the numbers from past Top 10 lists, click here.
AMERICAN THEATRE’S TOP 10 MOST-PRODUCED PLAYS OF 2014-15 (Actually 11 Because of Ties)*
- Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang: 27**
- Outside Mullingar by John Patrick Shanley: 10
- Bad Jews by Joshua Harmon: 8***
- Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz: 8****
- Around the World in 80 Days adapted from the novel by Jules Verne: 7(note, 6 for the Mark Brown adaptation and 1 for the Toby Hulse adaptation)
- Peter and the Starcatcher, adapted by Rick Elice from Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson: 7
- The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez: 7
- Tribes by Nina Raine: 7*****
- 4000 Miles by Amy Herzog: 6
- Into the Woods, book by James Lapine, music and lyricsby Stephen Sondheim: 6
- Venus in Fur by David Ives: 6
Want a more visual representation of the biggest plays this season? Look through our slideshow below. Want to know more about top play Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike? Click here for a podcast interview with playwright Christopher Durang, and a roundtable of critics who’ve seen the show in various cities.
Sheila McKenna, Harry Bouvy and Helena Ruoti in “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” at the City Theatre of Pittsburgh (photo by Alex Jones)
Sharon Lockwood, Heather Alicia Simms and Anthony Fusco “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” at Berkeley Repertory Theatre (photo by Kevin Berne)
David Gregory and Leslie Hendrix in “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” at Hartford Stage (photo by T. Charles Erickson)
Brian O’Byrne and Debra Messing in “Outside Mullingar” at Manhattan Theatre Club (photo by Joan Marcus)
Sherri L. Edelen in “Outside Mullingar” at the Fusion Theatre in Albuquerque, NM
Tracee Chimo and Molly Ranson in “Bad Jews” at Roundabout Theatre Company (photo by Joan Marcus)
Rebecca Benhayon and Kenny Toll in “Bad Jews” at Magic Theatre (photo by Jennifer Riley)
The cast of “Other Desert Cities” at TheatreWorks
Sally Wingert and Christian Conn in “Other Desert Cities” at the Guthrie Theater (photo by Michael Brosilow)
Christopher M. Smith, Karen MacDonald, Munson Hicks, and Anne Gottlieb in “Other Desert Cities” at SpeakEasy Stage Company (photo by Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo)
American Stage’s production of “Around the World in 80 Days.”
Dustin Bronson, John Arp, Graham Ward, Caitlin Wise and Patrick Du Laney in “Around the World in 80 Days” at Creede Repertory Theatre.
Gary Danciu, David Hennessey in “Around the World in 80 Days” at Commonweal Theatre Company. (Courtesy of Jason Underferth)
The cast of “Peter and the Starcatcher” on Broadway. (Photo by Joan Marcus)
“Peter and the Starcatcher” at Utah Shakespeare Festival.
Josh Landay, James Craven and Ro Boddie in Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s production of “The Whipping Man” by Matthew Lopez. (Photo credit by Michael Brosilow)
Laurence Curry and in “The Whipping Man” by Matthew Lopez at Curious Theatre Company. (Photo by Michael Ensminger)
Grant Harrison and Tana Hicken in “4000 Miles” at Studio Theatre. (Photo by Scott Suchman)
Benjamin Williamson and Lois Markle in “4000 Miles” at Asolo Repertory Theatre. (Photo by Slaven Vlasic)
James Caverly, Anita Carey, Dan Clegg and Elizabeth Morton in “Tribes” at Berkeley Rep. (Photo courtesy of mellopix.com)
“Tribes” at Capital Stage Company. (Photo by Charr Crail)
Susan Pourfar and Russell Harvard in “Tribes” at the Barrow Street Theatre. (Photo by Gregory Costanzo)
The cast of “Into the Woods” at Lyric Stage in Boston. (Photo by Mark S. Howard)
Patrick Mulryan, Emily Young and Alison Cimmet in “Into the Woods” at the Old Globe. (Photo by Jim Cox)
Nina Arianda and Hugh Dancy in “Venus in Fur” on Broadway. (Photo by Joan Marcus)
Rufus Collins and Amanda Drinkall in “Venus in Fur” at the Goodman Theatre.
Vanessa Wasche and Michael Brusasco in “Venus in Fur” at the Cleveland Playhouse. (Photo by Roger Mastroianni)
FUN FACTS FROM THIS YEAR’S TOP LISTS!
*American Theatre omits Shakespeare productions and holiday-themed shows A Christmas Carol and Santaland Diaries from the list. If we didn’t, they would show up every year and we would run out of ways to say, “The top play in the country is….Christmas Carol! Again!” But if you really want to know, this season, Christmas Carol is getting 46 productions, Santaland Diaries is getting 8 productions and the most-produced Shakespeare plays are A Midsummer Night’s Dream (10) and Romeo and Juliet (8).
**Christopher Durang’s Chekhovian Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike made the Top 10 list last year in eighth place, with 11 productions. That list, plus a 2013 best-play Tony Award, was apparently enough to propel Durang’s play to the top this year.
***American Theatre has printed the complete playscript to two of the Top 10 plays—Bad Jews by Joshua Harmon and 4000 Miles by Amy Herzog. We’re not saying we’re arbiters of not-for-profit theatre tastes, but…
****This marks the third year in a row that Jon Robin Baitz and Matthew Lopez and their plays (Other Desert Cities and The Whipping Man, respectively) have made the Top 10 list. Congratulations on those royalty checks, guys!
*****It seems last year’s female-packed Top 10 list was a temporary trend (last year, women made up half the list). The male/female ratio of this year’s list is 8:2.
The season schedules list contains 403 productions that are billed as world premieres, for those looking for the next hot playwright/play.
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