Lin-Manuel Miranda Will Never Be Satisfied, Kelli O'Hara Had a Victory Dance This Whole Time & More Lessons of the Year

The New Year is just around the corner, but before you whip out your cat suit and blowtorch, sit back down, because class is still in session. Broadway class, that is. We had yet another action-packed year on the Great White Way; 2015 brought us geniuses with alleged time-traveling superpowers, broken Tony curses and more live-tweeting than ever. Relive the highlights as we take a look at all the exciting lessons we learned in the past year from Broadway’s best!


Lin-Manuel Has Found the 5th Dimension
We can buy that a show would sell like crazy, inspire memes, top Billboard charts and sync up to Beyoncé. That makes sense once you see/listen to Hamilton. But how does certified genius Lin-Manuel Miranda have only 24 hours in his day?! He wrote music for Star Wars and Disney’s Moana, puts on a mini-show multiple times a week, greets celebrities daily and is a one-man publicity machine. On top of all this, his son just turned one, so imagine how much sleep he’s gotten. Congratulations on everything, Lin, but most especially on transcending the space-time continuum.


Broadway Says "YAAS" to Queens
In a bout of role reversal, Broadway shows had audiences bowing down this year. How else to address royalty? First, Helen Mirren demonstrated regal realness and wig-ography as Queen Elizabeth II in her Tony and Broadway.com Audience Choice Award-winning turn in The Audience. Fast forward a few weeks/rewind a few centuries as Wolf Hall’s Lydia Leonard offered a fiery take on Anne Boleyn. And this fall, Lydia Wilson played a hungry-for-the-crown Kate Middleton in King Charles III. Say it with us: yaas, kween!


The Sixth Time's the Charm
While we’re talking coronations, it’s time to uncrown Kelli O’Hara as the Susan Lucci of Broadway. This was finally the year she took home a Tony, after twirling in hoop skirts, getting to know a bunch of Siamese children and whistling some happy tunes as Anna in The King and I. Thanks to her award-winning performance, dental drumming skills and Quiche linguistic stylings—not to mention her Met Opera debut—you chose her as the Broadway.com Star of the Year. If that’s not worthy of the Worm, we don’t know what is. Will you be next, Tevye?


Even Big Stars Can Be Newbies
Stars of the big screen and beyond were braver than ever in 2015; a plethora of buzz-worthy celebs took center stage to make their Broadway debuts. Bold-faced names to hit the Great White Way included Bruce Willis, Keira Knightley, Larry David, Jake Gyllenhaal, Clive Owen, Jennifer Hudson, Vanessa Hudgens, George Takei and Renee Fleming. Not all of their shows were boffo at the box office, but at least they all took a risk. What are you waiting for, Cher?


You Don't Need Glitz to Win Big
While several celebs brought star quality to Broadway, they weren’t necessary to make a hit—nor were elaborate musical numbers and splashy sets. Fun Home won the Tony for Best Musical, winning over the more traditional tuners Something Rotten! and An American in Paris. What it lacked in size it made up for in innovation: an gimlet-eyed score from a history-making all-female writing team, representation of a lesbian protagonist, and your keys, oh-oh-oh-oh, your ring of keys…sorry—it's still stuck in our heads (and yes, we're still crying).


The Lord's House Is Still the Winter Garden
Kids on stage is nothing new, but kids on stage and in the band? You have our attention, Andrew Lloyd Webber. Lord Lloyd Webber's latest show boasts pint-sized head-bangers, and their choice of venue is rather familiar to the maestro. After parading around a hoard of jellicles for almost 20 years, the Winter Garden Theatre is now home to School of Rock. So if Love Never Dies comes into the theater at some point, that would be a Winter Garden trifecta, and the Shuberts should be required to change its name to the Andrew Lloyd Webber Theatre. It's down the road, but it would make a nice 80th birthday present.


PJs Are Appropriate for Even More Shows
This year brought us The Wiz Live!—the third annual musical telecast from NBC. Now other networks have realized the magic of show tunes on the small screen. Fox’s Grease: Live was announced for next month starring Aaron Tveit (never heard of him), Tyler Perry’s presenting a live, modern-day adaptation of the Passion of the Christ and ITV did their own Sound of Music Live! across the pond. It’s officially our new favorite holiday tradition, right after watching this video (which, let’s face it, we do year-round).


We Have a Warrior & Her Name Is Patti
Musicals may be going digital on the small screen, but audiences still haven't learned to disconnect. Theater etiquette warrior Patti LuPone put on her battle gear during a performance of Shows for Days and confiscated an audience member’s phone. Someone charged the Hand to God stage to plug his phone into a fake outlet. AT&T wants you to watch (gasp!) sports during shows. Even Aretha Franklin is guilty! Tsk, tsk. Listen, you can always check the Broadway.com app after the show (even you, Aretha).


Good Girls Go Bad on TV
They may be Broadway darlings, but once they hit the small screen, don’t cross these Tony winners. Both Kristin Chenoweth and Laura Benanti embraced the darkness this year: the pocket diva headlined Disney’s Descendants as Mistress of All Evil Maleficent, and the She Loves Me star shocked us on Supergirl as evil twin Astra. Also behaving badly was a third Tony winner: Sutton Foster, who committed some serious fraud (and sold her panties!) in the name of comedy in Younger. We love them when they're good, and we adore them when they're bad.


Smash Is Still Our Star
They thought they could dispose of Smash; they tried to make Smash small. But the little NBC show that could (but didn't) made a resurgence as Megan Hilty, Katharine McPhee, Christian Borle, Debra Messing and more reunited to present a one-night-only Bombshell concert. The fictional Marilyn Monroe tuner is slated to become non-fictional in the near future as it’s developed for Broadway. They’re still gathering a creative team, so Bombshell team, we’re what you’ve been needing; it’s all here and our hearts’ pleading: let us be your book writers. Or Marilyn. Or understudy. Or usher?