Several perceptive readers of this site have deduced that the Jimmy Brogan video I posted last night (this one) must be from around 1981. The clue I missed was that someone in the audience mentioned attending a test screening of the TV series, Mr. Merlin. Mr. Merlin was on in 1981.
Several others wrote to say words to the effect of: "If you're going to mention long-running Broadway shows, you should at least give a nod to The Fantasticks, which was an Off-Broadway show that ran a brief 42 years and had 17,162 performances." Consider The Fantasticks nodded.
Sticking with the post about long-running shows, a few folks wrote to ask how many of the Top 20 I saw. Well, I saw the revival of Chicago on Broadway. Even sat next to Julie Newmar who happened to be seeing it that night. I also saw The Lion King there (as you know) and Beauty and the Beast and Rent and Miss Saigon (twice!) and 42nd Street, all the original productions on Broadway. I saw national touring companies of the following shows out here: Wicked, A Chorus Line and Jersey Boys. And I've seen a couple of the other shows (like Mamma Mia!) in productions that were probably not close replicas of what played on Broadway.
I was momentarily puzzled on this list when I came to Grease because I have seen Grease in a Broadway theater, as well as a number of far-removed-from-Broadway productions. But Grease has been mounted for Broadway three times — 1972, 1994 and 2007 — and I didn't know which one of the three was the one that holds down Spot #16 on the list of longest-running shows. Turns out it was the first one…which I didn't see. The original production of 42nd Street was the first Broadway musical I saw at a Broadway theater.
Revivals do sometimes run longer than the originals, the best example being Chicago. The original production was a hit running 936 performances. The current revival opened in 1996 and is still running with more than ten times as many performances. Since The Phantom of the Opera is considered a British production, the revival of Chicago is therefore the longest-running American musical in Broadway history. Which proves all you have to do in life is give 'em the old razzle-dazzle.