2019 Wrap-Up: Broadway.com Picks the Best Performances of the Year

In a year filled with so many remarkable performances, it’s an unenviable task to single out only five as the best of 2019. Yet, the stage turns listed below are the ones we haven’t been able to stop thinking about ever since they blew our minds and melted our hearts.

 5. André De Shields in Hadestown
After a decade away from Broadway, André De Shields has returned in better-than-ever form as the god Hermes in Hadestown. With every abrupt finger snap, vibrant horn toot or purposeful stride across the stage, he gleams with an otherworldly radiance in Anaïs Mitchell’s musical. De Shields justly won a Tony for his performance, and we would follow him on the road to hell anytime.

4. Alex Brightman in Beetlejuice
Whoever said you can sleep when you’re dead obviously never met Alex Brightman in Beetlejuice. The massive Winter Garden Theatre can barely contain his larger-than-life turn as the titular poltergeist. All of Brightman’s signature, riotous gifts are on full display in this one-of-a-kind performance. Seeing Brightman as Betelgeuse will surely make your Day-O.

3. Ali Stroker in Oklahoma!
Ali Stroker’s revolutionary performance as the girl who cain't say no in Daniel Fish’s radical revival of Oklahoma! is one for the books. Yes, she won the Tony, but the real prize is beholding her bold and sexy take on Ado Annie; you’re witnessing a star-making performance. The moment Stroker rips into that classic Rodgers and Hammerstein tune is one you won’t fergit.

2. Joaquina Kalukango in Slave Play
Joaquina Kalukango’s blistering performance in Jeremy O. Harris’ Slave Play is one that will shake you to your core. As Kaneisha, a woman enrolled in “antebellum sexual performance therapy” with her white partner, she explores degrees of trauma rarely seen on a Broadway stage. Her final line in the play is “thank you for listening,” but we want to thank Kalukango for blessing us with her presence.

1. Adrienne Warren in Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
Experiencing what Adrienne Warren does as the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll in Tina is enough to convince you that you’re not doing enough with your life. The way she inhabits Tina Turner—the voice! the moves! the wigs!—and commands the stage as if it was built just for her is simply the best. Warren’s performance is Hall of Fame-level good and we’re still picking our jaws off the floor.