Did you miss any of our most popular articles of the year?

For better or worse, 2025 is almost here. As we on the BSR team face the new year, and the commitment to our readers that remains unchanged by political turmoil, it’s helpful for us to look back on which BSR stories got the most readers.

Anyone who’s been reading us for more than a minute knows that we’re not about click-bait. We don’t operate based on what we think will be popular or get the most hits. That means we give the same critical consideration to major national tours like Hamilton as we do to shoestring solo Fringe premieres. Ultimately, that dynamic mix of coverage is what keeps our readers engaged—plus the knowledge that our expert critics are always honest.

But it’s also good to look back on which stories got the most readers, and to use that knowledge to inform our coverage for next year. For each of the stories below, we’ll tell you why we’re so excited that it got a ton of traffic. Let’s get to it!

This story by Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer isn’t just among our top-trafficked pieces of 2024; it’s one of the most popular BSR pieces ever. In it, she shares her own experience of cancer as a young mom and uses the news of Princess Kate’s diagnosis (which gripped the globe last spring) to reflect on our own attitudes toward illness and mortality. We love this because of our focus on disability justice. It’s exciting to get confirmation of how many others are interested, too.

This is another piece that is not only among the most-read of the year, but our most-read ever. Good. We stand behind the mission we articulate here: that art is political; that we debate opinions, not other people’s right to exist; and that journalists are the ally and the voice of the people, not their enemy.

BSR was originally founded out of UArts and we continue to have many connections in that community, so we raged and mourned over the abrupt and unconscionable closure of that university last summer. We are glad that this heartfelt personal elegy from novelist and UArts creative writing professor Elise Juska was read so widely.

We’re glad this piece addressing Quintessence Theatre Group’s latest all-male Shakespeare production got a lot of readers. That’s not just because we think the topic of gender itself in theater is important; it’s also because we think it’s necessary to hear directly from the people who are most affected by any given issue. This excellent op-ed by a local trans actor Bruce Baldini fits the bill.

Longtime BSR writer Camille Bacon-Smith brings her trademark verve to this story about a Mary Cassatt exhibition at the PMA. We love that considerations of women artists get lots of attention nowadays (more on that below), and we like the way this article goes beyond the walls of the PMA to make the show a city-wide event.

We were happy to run this piece by dramaturg and writer Alix Rosenfeld, who reflects on the value of a developmental space dedicated to Jewish artists, as in the world premiere of Deborah Zoe Laufer’s The Last Yiddish Speaker at InterAct last spring. She writes, “In my nearly 15 years of working in the field, I have never worked on a production that featured the trifecta: the play is about Jewish people, the playwright is Jewish, and Jewish people make up the majority of the cast and creative team.” We at BSR are proud to support our Jewish community members, including those on the BSR team.

Philly is still reeling from City Council’s decision to allow the billionaire owners of the 76ers to start construction on a new Center City arena that a majority of ordinary Philadelphians do not want—including the Chinatown community, who will be the most affected by this huge development right on their doorstep. We love Constance Garcia-Barrio’s sensitive and well-researched piece on why she, as a Black Philly elder, stands with Chinatown, and why this fight reaches far beyond that neighborhood and beyond Philly itself. We’re glad she reached so many readers.

“Beyond readings or solo shows, Philly theater companies have never produced a script by a Philly-based Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) playwright.” So begins Krista Mar’s story about a series of readings from Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists. We are glad this story got so many readers, and we think its popularity underscores the point of Krista’s piece: Asian playwrights are here in Philly and there is a strong appetite for their work.

Camille Bacon-Smith cracks the top 10 again with her May review of longtime PHILADANCO! star Joe González’s own company, Jo-Mé Dance Theatre. We’re excited about this because it shows that Philly wants dance coverage. Click through on this one and you can even watch a recording of the show for yourself (linked at the end) and see if you agree with Camille’s review.

Again, women painters crack the top 10, and we are here for it. Prolific art and museum critic Pamela J. Forsythe, who brings her lovely writing to everything she covers, heads to Woodmere Art Museum for its part of the 50th anniversary of a citywide celebration of women artists. The popularity of this piece shows us that people want to read art reviews, and that they want to read about women artists. We’ll keep delivering that in 2025.

Did you enjoy reading (or revisiting) these stories? We love showcasing such diverse voices in BSR. And we’re thrilled that with your clicks and your shares, you prove that you want this coverage.

But we can’t provide this range and depth of coverage in 2025 without your support.

Thanks for spending another year with us. Next year (our 20th!), we can’t wait to continue covering Philly’s arts and culture scene.