The Best Broadway and Off-Broadway Performances of 2022

This is always the hardest best-of list to create, because we collectively saw so many wonderful performances this year. But as we look back on 2022, here are acting turns on and off-Broadway that we really won't be able to forget, as determined by TheaterMania's editorial staff.

Sara Bareilles as the Baker's Wife in Into the Woods
Over the past few years, Sara Bareilles has added "actor" to her singer-songwriter multihyphenate title, starring on Broadway in her own musical Waitress, playing Mary Magdalene in NBC's Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, and leading Tina Fey's comedy series Girls5eva. However, her stunning performance as the Baker's Wife in the latest revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods shot her to a whole other level of artistry. It's an unassuming role with huge demands: comedy mixed with pathos, grounded warmth with internal unsettledness. Her performance became the lynchpin of Lear deBessonet's celebrated production and will be remembered for many years to come. — Hayley Levitt

Kate Berlant as Kate in Kate
In Kate, a solo show at the Connolly Theatre, comedian Kate Berlant and director Bo Burnham pioneered a new genre: the fake tell-all. Simultaneously a parody and a satire, Kate followed a young woman's journey to the big city as she attempts to be an actor, but she has one problem: she can't cry. The bizarre and hilarious journey to make tears flow is the climax of this bananas evening, and Berlant's top-to-bottom commitment to the bit is a wonder to behold. Kate is playing a return engagement off-Broadway this winter, and we really hope that's not the last we see of Berlant and Burnham on New York's stages. — David Gordon

Brittany Bradford as Julia in Wedding Band
When you're thinking about the virtuosic performances of the year, Brittany Bradford must make the cut for her searing work in Alice Childress's Wedding Band at Theatre for a New Audience. Bradford is Julia, a Black seamstress in a longtime relationship with a white baker, who encounters the realities of racism when her partner takes ill and she's visited by his bigoted mother. It builds to one of the most shocking confrontations ever seen on stage, and Bradford, who wore her emotions on her sleeve while possessing the steeliest of reserves, made you want to stand and applaud mid-scene. — David Gordon

David Greenspan in Four Saints in Three Acts
David Greenspan's latest solo show may in some ways be an even wilder feat than his marathon one-man take on Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude a few years ago, despite being considerably shorter in length. Imagine extracting Gertrude Stein's enigmatic libretto for her 1928 operatic collaboration with Virgil Thomson and simply performing those words in isolation. And yet, by sheer force of imagination and personality, Greenspan managed to make his own kind of stage music, using simple physical and vocal gestures to distinguish between characters and coming up with his own virtuoso variations to liven up Stein's deliberately repetitive prose. Maybe Greenspan didn't necessarily have a greater understanding of the meanings behind Stein's abstractions than any of us — but he sure did an electrifying job convincing us he did. — Kenji Fujishima

Tim Hopper as Andy in Downstate
In Bruce Norris's new drama Downstate at Playwrights Horizons, Tim Hopper plays Andy, who has decided to confront the male piano teacher who sexually abused him as a child. From the moments the lights rise, Hopper's body is filled with tension. His head is shaved, he's gaunt, his jaw is clenched. After a series of false starts throughout the play, Andy finally gets the moment he wants during a blistering sequence in act two, where Hopper unleashes decades of well-deserved rage on his abuser. It's unforgettable, and he's just spectacular. — David Gordon

Daniel Irizarry as the King in My Onliness
I'm not sure I'll ever forget the mental image of Daniel Irizarry climbing over audience members and pouring out shots in My Onliness, Robert Lyons's insane burlesque of absolute power, which Irizarry directed and starred in at New Ohio Theatre. He played a mad king in one of the most physically strenuous performances I've ever witnessed: Hurling himself across the stage, wrestling with a cartoonishly long petition, and dragging around an inexplicable prop made from an automobile rim, Irizarry worked up a sweat in ways that would make most CrossFitters call a time-out. But Irizarry never stops. His screaming, snarling performance was both grotesque and completely mesmerizing. And it made me think, Are our most colorful world leaders any less ridiculous? — Zachary Stewart

Joaquina Kalukango as Nelly O'Brien in Paradise Square
It's an exceptionally rare thing on Broadway to see a performer receive a standing ovation mid-show. And yet, when Joaquina Kalukango, playing a saloon owner named Nelly in the musical Paradise Square, stood onstage and belted out the 11 o'clock number "Let It Burn," audiences roared to their feet on a nightly basis while that seemingly endless last note rang in their ears. It was the sort of performance that compelled you up out of your seat before you even knew you were standing, and Kalukango was rightfully honored with a Tony Award for it. Though the show had some unfortunate backstage problems, Kalukango's performance is the reason audiences will remember Paradise Square for years to come. — Pete Hempstead

Lea Michele as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl
It was the casting pivot that launches a thousand think pieces. But as all the gossip and whispers finally die down, it seems that Michael Mayer's erratic production of Funny Girl will ultimately be remembered for bringing Lea Michele's fabulous Fanny Brice to the stage. As I wrote in my review of Michele's performance, "Her voice is clear and powerful. Her acting has contour and texture. But not even those technical proficiencies explain the gravitational X factor that leaves one wanting to experience a performance over and over again. It's the X factor that makes a Fanny Brice." — Hayley Levitt

Laiona Michelle as Nina Simone in Little Girl Blue
One show that pops into my head on a regular basis, especially when I'm listening to the songs of Nina Simone, is Laiona Michelle's Little Girl Blue, which played off-Broadway at New World Stage. Michelle wrote and starred in this biomusical about Simone using some of the legendary singer and songwriter's best-known works to explore her life from her childhood, when she first fell in love with the piano and Johann Sebastian Bach, to her years as a fierce activist for social change. Though I felt that the musical's storyline sometimes tried to do too much, I was impressed by Michelle's breathtaking performance and ability to channel Simone through her music. Biomusicals can be a tough sell for me, but Michelle won me over with this one. — Pete Hempstead

Marla Mindelle as Céline Dion in Titaníque
Extravagantly romantic and glittered for the Gods, Marla Mindelle might not be a dead ringer for Céline Dion — but vocally and spiritually, she is channeling the Québécois Queen of Pop every night in Titaníque. That's the retelling of the 1997 blockbuster movie (or perhaps the actual 1912 maritime disaster) from the perspective of Céline Dion, who insists she was there to witness the whole thing. She belts out Dion hits like "Because You Loved Me, " "Tell Him," and "My Heart Will Go On" with the confidence of a woman accustomed to selling-out Madison Square Garden (this was true even when the show was playing the basement of a Chelsea Gristedes). Mindelle is the bejeweled heart of this ludicrous musical parody, which is as close to a guaranteed good night out as you can get off-Broadway. — Zachary Stewart