Have we seen the last of the looooong running musical?
I’ve written about long running shows by decade before, but I felt the subject deserved another look as a whole. So, as of this Sunday, take a look at Top 10 Longest Running Shows on Broadway:
| Show | # of Perfs | Year Opened | |
| 1 | The Phantom of the Opera* | 8907 | 1988 |
| 2 | Cats | 7485 | 1982 |
| 3 | Les Miserables | 6680 | 1987 |
| 4 | A Chorus Line | 6137 | 1975 |
| 5 | Oh! Calcutta! | 5959 | 1974 |
| 6 | Beauty and the Beast | 5461 | 1994 |
| 7 | Chicago* | 5236 | 1996 |
| 8 | Rent | 5123 | 1996 |
| 9 | The Lion King* | 4821 | 1997 |
| 10 | Miss Saigon | 4092 | 1991 |
*still running
5 of these marathoners or 50% of the longest running musicals on Broadway are from the decade of glorious growth, the 90s.
30% are from the British Invasion of the 80s. And the remaining 20% are from the 70s.
Let’s take a little trip further down the long runner list, shall we? Here is a list of the 11th – 30th Longest Running Broadway Shows:
| Show | # of Perfs | Year Opened | |
| 11 | 42nd Street | 3486 | 1980 |
| 12 | Grease | 3388 | 1972 |
| 13 | Fiddler on the Roof | 3242 | 1964 |
| 14 | Life with Father | 3224 | 1939 |
| 15 | Mamma Mia!* | 3184 | 2001 |
| 16 | Tobacco Road | 3182 | 1933 |
| 17 | Hello, Dolly! | 2844 | 1964 |
| 18 | My Fair Lady | 2717 | 1956 |
| 19 | Hairspray | 2642 | 2002 |
| 20 | The Producers | 2502 | 2001 |
| 21 | Avenue Q | 2446 | 2003 |
| 22 | Cabaret | 2377 | 1998 |
| 23 | Annie | 2377 | 1977 |
| 24 | Wicked* | 2342 | 2003 |
| 25 | Man of La Mancha | 2328 | 1965 |
| 26 | Abie’s Irish Rose | 2327 | 1922 |
| 27 | Oklahoma! | 2212 | 1943 |
| 28 | Smokey Joe’s Café | 2036 | 1995 |
| 29 | Pippin | 1944 | 1972 |
| 30 | South Pacific | 1925 | 1949 |
There are only 2 musicals on this list that are still running and have a shot at cracking into the top 10: Mamma Mia needs another 2 years, and Wicked needs 4. I expect both to make it, which will give the 2000s (or the “aughts”) 2 spots in the top 10.
If you keep going down the list, there are 3 more musicals that are still running that could conceivably have a shot: Jersey Boys (#54), Mary Poppins (#89), and Billy Elliot (too far down to count). Jersey Boys has probably got a chance, thanks to its low overhead, but I doubt the other two will go the distance.
If those falsetto-singing boys from Jersey make the cut (and they still need another (gulp) 7 years), then that will give the aughts a 30% representation in the top 10 longest running shows. Not so bad.
But if they don’t, and if the Mamma Mia movie madness wears off and that show doesn’t make the cut, we could be looking at only one show from this decade to be in the Top 10.
And is it just me, or does it seem like there isn’t anything on the horizon that has twenty year staying power?
Then again, the day before Rent opened on Broadway, I bet no one thought it would run for 5123 performances.
I think part of this is the types of shows that are produced. LES MIZ is a show that you can watch over and over again. A CHORUS LINE has some strong emotional content that speaks to many different people. Even BEAUTY AND THE BEAST has an emotional core that can be revisited.
The comedy shows produced today–THE PRODUCERS, LEGALLY BLONDE, HAIRSPRAY–are a lot of fun, but they don’t have the emotional core to them that makes them re-visitable. I saw LES MIZ maybe 5 or 6 times on tour. I couldn’t see LEGALLY BLONDE 5 or 6 times and still have the same experience (at least, I wouldn’t pay big bucks to see it 5 or 6 times).
But then, if Thriller gets off the ground…
I think Broadway Mouth is right. It’s repeat business which keeps shows going (can we get some data to prove/disprove that idea though?) and that only happens if it’s deeply emotionally affecting. And connecting. A connection you can’t get anywhere else. On that basis, I wouldn’t be surprised if perhaps Billy Elliot does better than you think in the survival of the fittest game.