2017 - 2018: The Broadway Season That Was...

With today's opening of The Iceman Cometh, the eligibility of the 2017 - 2018 Broadway season comes to a close.  By most accounts, this has been a lackluster season.  There have been critical darlings, critical drubbings, fan favorites, and polarizing shows.  But there were no Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen or Hello, Dolly! sized breakout hits this year.

According to the Tony Awards website, there were 30 eligible productions:

• Best Musical: Prince of Broadway, The Band's Visit, SpongeBob SquarePants, Escape to Margaritaville, Frozen, Mean Girls, Summer
• Best Revival of a Musical: Once On This Island, Carousel, My Fair Lady
• Best Play: 1984, The Terms of My Surrender, Junk, Latin History for Morons, Meteor Shower, The Children, Farinelli and the King, John Lithgow: Stories By Heart, Lobby Hero, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
• Best Revival of a Play: Marvin's Room, Time and the Conways, M. Butterfly, Angels in America: Millennium Approches, Angels in America: Perestroika, Three Tall Women, Children of a Lesser God, Travesties, Saint Joan, The Iceman Cometh

And there were 3 ineligible productions: Home For the Holidays, Rocktopia, Springsteen on Broadway

There were also some trends:

• Long Plays, Long Musicals: Angels in America (both parts separately are long), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (both parts separately are long), The Iceman Cometh (a marathon all by itself), Saint Joan, Carousel, My Fair Lady (those classics are lengthy!)
• Short Plays, Short Musicals: Meteor Shower, The Children, Latin History for Morons, Three Tall Women, The Band's Visit, Once on This Island, Summer
• Tony Winners in Supporting Roles: Chuck Cooper, Prince of Broadway; Laura Benanti, Meteor Shower; Lea Salonga, Once on This Island; Laurie Metcalf, Three Tall Women; Norbert Leo Butz, My Fair Lady; John Glover, Saint Joan; Bill Irwin, The Iceman Cometh
• 2.5 Song Catalogues, 3 Flops: Jimmy Buffet: Escape to Margartaville; Donna Summer: Summer; Songs from shows in the Hal Prince catalogue  (that's the .5!) Prince of Broadway
• Most Unlikely Trend: Threatening Volcanoes: SpongeBob SquarePants, Escape to Margaritaville

Multiple openings per theater:

• 4 - American Airlines: Marvin's Room, Time and the Conways, John Lithgow:Stories By Heart, Travesties
• 3 - Samuel J. Friedman: Prince of Broadway, The Children, Saint Joan
• 2 - Belasco: Terms of My Surrender, Farinelli and the King
• 2 - Vivian Beaumont: Junk, My Fair Lady
• 2 - August Wilson: Home For the Holidays, Mean Girls
• 2 - Hudson: 1984, The Parisian Woman

Wonder what next season will bring...?