Every so often, I find it interesting to take a look at the list of the longest-running Broadway shows. Here's the Top 20 as of a day or so ago and the first thing I always think of when I look at these is that no show is likely to steal the #1 spot from Phantom of the Opera in our lifetime. It still shows no sign of closing and it's still 3,643 performances ahead of its nearest challenger.
Broadway shows generally do eight shows a week times 52 weeks a year so that's 416 a year. So if Phantom ever closes (which is quite an "if"), and if the revival of Chicago is still running then (bigger "if"), Chicago would have to keep running close to nine more years to be Numero Uno.
There are other intriguing facts that jump out at me but first, let's all read the list. The shows in boldface are still up and running..
- The Phantom of the Opera – 13,725 performances
- Chicago (1996 Revival) – 10,082 performances
- The Lion King – 9,699 performances
- Cats – 7,485 performances
- Wicked – 7,235 performances
- Les Misérables – 6,680 performances
- A Chorus Line – 6,137 performances
- Oh! Calcutta! (1976 Revival) – 5,959 performances
- Mamma Mia! – 5,758 performances
- Beauty and the Beast – 5,461 performances
- Rent – 5,123 performances
- Jersey Boys – 4,642 performances
- The Book of Mormon – 4,095 performances
- Miss Saigon – 4,092 performances
- 42nd Street 3,486 performances
- Grease – 3,388 performances
- Fiddler on the Roof – 3,242 performances
- Life with Father – 3,224 performances
- Tobacco Road – 3,182 performances
- Aladdin – 2,866 performances
Like me, you may have noticed a certain absence of shows written by the big names of Broadway. Unless you count the uncredited punch-up he did on A Chorus Line, Neil Simon is nowhere on the Top 20. His longest-running show, Barefoot in the Park, ran 1,530 and comes in on this chart at #61.
The longest-running show that Stephen Sondheim had anything to do with was the original production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which ran 964 performances. It doesn't even make the Top 100 and it's easily beaten out by all three separate productions of Grease. (I am not for a moment suggesting that this is any measure of Mr. Sondheim's success or influence, nor Mr. Simon's, either. It's just surprising that the two men most honored for the kind of work they do for Broadway haven't had long-running shows there. Both would do way better in a list of the number of productions around the world.)
The longest-running show by Rodgers and Hammerstein was the original Oklahoma!, which ran 2,212 performances placing at #35. Not far below it is the original South Pacific coming in at #37 with 1,925.
If I went past the Top 20, you'd find the longest-running Jerry Herman show (Hello, Dolly!) at #21 with 2,844 performances and the longest-running show by Lerner and Loewe (My Fair Lady) at #22 with 2,717.
Disney has three shows in the Top 20 with Mary Poppins not far behind at #24.
In the Top 20, we have 18 musicals and two shows — Life with Father and Tobacco Road — without music, both near the bottom of that 20. The next non-musical on the list is Abie's Irish Rose at #33 and in a week or two, it will lose that spot to Hamilton.
And you may notice other things on the list including the fact that hit shows are running longer and longer these days. Four of the top five are still open…and we'll soon have the Top Four all running when Wicked overtakes Cats in about 32 weeks. There was a time when a lot of people felt that no show would ever run longer than the original A Chorus Line but Phantom has more than doubled its run and seems unstoppable.
Finally for now: Situated in the Top 10, and likely to be there for a long time, is that 1976 revival of Oh! Calcutta! which played the Edison Theater until 1989. It didn't matter that it had no stars because it had no clothes…at least in some scenes. It was a low-budget production to begin with and I'm surprised no one has revived it since because I suspect there would still be an audience for it. Even the fact that it was never a very good show in the first place didn't seem to matter.