The revival of Cabaret just closed in New York after 2378 performances. One suspects it might have closed a little sooner but that its producers kept it running just long enough to rob Annie of its stature as the eighteenth longest-running show in Broadway history. The top twenty now shapes up as follows…
- Cats (7485 performances)
- Les Misérables (6680, closed 5/18/03)
- The Phantom of the Opera (6650, still running)
- A Chorus Line (6137)
- Oh! Calcutta! – revival (5959)
- Miss Saigon (4097)
- Beauty and the Beast (3971, still running)
- 42nd Street (3486)
- Grease (3388)
- Fiddler on the Roof (3242)
- Life With Father (3224)
- Rent (3191, still running)
- Tobacco Road (3182)
- Chicago – revival (2976, still running)
- Hello, Dolly! (2844)
- My Fair Lady (2717)
- The Lion King (2598, still running)
- Cabaret – revival (2378, closed 1/4/04)
- Annie (2377)
- Man of La Mancha (2328)
There are a lot of interesting things about this list, such as the fact that contrary to what you might expect, there's nothing by Neil Simon on it. His longest-running shows to date are Barefoot in the Park and Brighton Beach Memoirs, both tied for 43rd place with 1,530 performances each. (Everyone assumes it's The Odd Couple, which is actually in 97th place with 974 performances. Several other Simon works are ahead of it…Promises Promises with 1291 performances, Plaza Suite with 1097 and They're Playing Our Song with 1081.) There's also no Stephen Sondheim. His longest-running show is the original production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which is tied with The Odd Couple. Mr. Sondheim is presumably a good sport about the fact that Rent, the one and only show of Jonathan Larson (who was something of a protege) will probably wind up in the top ten.
Another interesting thing is that in the top 20, there are only two non-musicals…one comedy and one drama. If you go down the whole list of long runs, that's not atypical. Also, only five or six of the top twenty are shows that you might call "star-driven," in that their appeal is dependent on having some Big Name on the marquee.
Some people feel the 1976-1989 revival of Oh! Calcutta! should not be on this list. It was done in a small theater…the Edison, which was torn down shortly after it closed. And it was done on an extremely low budget that enabled it to keep running with rather minimal attendance. I once heard an actress who was in it for several years explain that because of the nudity, the producers were able to book a lot of tour groups, few of whom spoke English, to fill the seats. Even then, they sometimes played to off-Broadway numbers of forty or fifty people a night. I don't have an opinion on this but if you want to just pretend it isn't there and mentally renumber everything after, that's fine with me.
It's also interesting to note that The Phantom of the Opera is about to claim the #2 slot, though no one expects it to stick around long enough to topple Cats from its perch. Beauty and the Beast will soon grab the #6 position and probably close before it can move up any higher. Rent will probably move up a notch or two before it closes, as will Chicago. But the lofty status of Cats is likely to remain for a long time. After six and a half years on Broadway, The Lion King is only about a third of the way there, and the next contender (Aida with 1577 performances) may not last out the year.
When The Producers opened, some folks in a burst of enthusiasm suggested it was destined to become the longest-running musical on Broadway. At present, it's at 1128, so it's got a long way to go. At eight performances a week, it will have to run until May of the year 2019 to top Cats. Even if Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick stick around for the next ten years, I don't think it'll make it.