Rebecca Hurd

My list of the top 10 musicals of 2022 is a little belated. Note that I focused on Chicago-based productions, but this was also an outstanding year from Broadway-in-Chicago with traveling companies of Hadestown and Come From Away visiting early in the year, and Six holding a residency for several months at the CIBC.

#1 Fiddler on the Roof (Lyric Opera)

In the opening scene of director Barrie Kosky’s production (which he originated in Berlin), a modern American boy opens his bedroom closet to find not just Tevye but the entire tremendous cast stream through a set of double doors onto the crowded stage. The impact is a masterful articulation of the way that Fiddler connects the decedents of immigrants to the cultural hardships their ancestors reluctantly left behind. Steven Skybell as Tevye led an outstanding cast, and set designer Rufus Didwiszuz created the most memorable effect I can even remember viewing by covering the vast Lyric Opera stage with snow for the second act.

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Relentless was the first hot ticket of 2022 for Chicago theaters. The Timeline production sold out in its January-February run and even offered streaming options in its later weeks. The show has since transferred to the Goodman Theater, where it is playing next to Good Night, Oscar—a production combo of this quality arrives maybe two or three times in a decade. Tyla Abercrumbie’s script is particularly praiseworthy for developing intricate connections between its six main characters with the predominant action taking place in 1919 at the dawn of “Red Summer,” a period marked by nationwide racial violence against African Americans.

Ayanna Bria Bakari (Annelle) & Jaye Ladymore (Janet)

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theater in chicago reviews

Year in Review–2022’s Best Musicals

Relentless—Goodman Theater (4/12/22)