Audiences were certainly in for loads and loads of laughs in 2024 on Broadway — with comedic and sometimes even campy turns from performers like Cole Escola from “Oh, Mary!”, Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard from “Death Becomes Her” and Sutton Foster from “Once Upon A Mattress."

It was comedy that was used as a healing balm during a highly charged political year.  

As for "On Stage" host Frank DiLella's favorite shows of 2024, in no particular order: Alicia Keys' musical “Hell’s Kitchen," which is loosely based on the entertainment superstar’s experience of growing up in Manhattan; Cole Escola’s turn as a cabaret obsessed Mary Todd Lincoln in the Off-Broadway to Broadway transfer of “Oh, Mary!”; the epic and dark “Hills of California,” starring the radiant Laura Donnelly as a mother willing to do anything to get her daughters in show business; and Jamie Lloyd’s spectacular reimagined revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard” starring, in their Broadway debuts, Nicole Scherzinger and Tom Francis.

Broadway audiences should also keep their eyes on Escola, Donnelly, Scherzinger and Francis during awards season.

Speaking of looking ahead to 2025…

It’s been said that the current Broadway season is a season of stars, and there are stars galore in the new year, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Denzel Washington returning to Broadway in a new revival of “Othello.”

In his Broadway debut, George Clooney will bring Edward R. Murrow to life on stage in the film to stage adaptation of “Good Night, and Good Luck."

Tony Award-winner Idina Menzel returns to her onetime "Rent" home, the Nederlander Theatre, in the new musical “Redwood." The musical is about a woman’s healing journey into the world of the Redwoods in Northern California.

David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize Award-winning masterwork, “Glengarry Glen Ross,” a play that depicts the cutthroat world of real estate will “lease” the Palace Theatre beginning in March with an all-star cast, including Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk and Bill Burr.

Nick Jonas will pair up with Tony Award-winner Adrienne Warren in the first ever Broadway presentation of Jason Robert Brown’s two-hander “The Last 5 Years." 

And keeping with musicals, the NBC TV series about the making of a Broadway musical, "Smash," will take center stage at the Imperial Theatre under the direction of five-time Tony Award-winner Susan Stroman.  

And finally, Tony Award-winner from last season Jonathan Groff will be back in the spotlight this time as the late crooner Bobby Darin in the new jukebox tuner “Just in Time."

After years of challenges, Broadway seems to be on the upswing again, proven by one of the most exciting seasons to date.