Unless otherwise noted, the run count listed is for the original Broadway production of the show. M denotes a musical, P denotes a straight play, R denotes revue, D denotes a dance show, and S denotes a special show or event. Totals current through January 26, 2025.
Original production in 1966 (1,165 performances) and revivals in 1987 (261 performances), 2014 (388 performances), and 2024 (320 performances, currently running at the August Wilson Theatre)
Revivals in 1987 (261 performances), 1998 (2,377 performances), 2014 (388 performances), and 2024 (320 performances, currently running at the August Wilson Theatre)
Original production in 1950 (1,200 performances) and revivals in 1955 (16 performances), 1965 (15 performances), 1976 (239 performances), and 2009 (121 performances)
The Black Crook, which ran from 1866 to 1868, was the first Broadway show to run for over one year.[127]
This is a list of shows that have held the record for being the longest-running show (including straight plays and musicals) on Broadway since 1853. A few probable longest-running plays prior to 1853 are also listed.
Not included below is the 1976 revival of the revue Oh! Calcutta!, which briefly overtook A Chorus Line as the Broadway show which had played the most performances, even though A Chorus Line had opened more than a year earlier and was still playing. Oh! Calcutta! achieved this distinction by playing more than the standard eight performances per week.[128]A Chorus Line retook the record for most performances after Oh! Calcutta! closed.
The longest running off-Broadway musical to date is The Fantasticks, which starred Jerry Orbach. When it closed on January 13, 2002, it had run for 42 years and 17,162 performances, making it the world's longest-running musical. The current longest-running musical on Broadway is The Phantom of the Opera, which opened in 1988 and played its final performance in 2023.[129]
250th performance programme claimed play had exceeded number of consecutive performances of any "similar play" in the country on its 238th performance,[148] which is no doubt a reference to Pique (1875) which ran for 237 performances.[149]
First Broadway show to run for over one year.[127] In terms of a "musical", The Seven Sisters (1860–61, 253 perf.), was probably the longest running show closest to a "musical" prior to this.[152]
As of October 7, 1850, it hit 100 consecutive performances in New York, the first play to do so.[159] At Barnum's American Museum. It debuted in 1844 outside New York at the Boston Museum.
At the Bowery Theatre. If Mazeppa ran 43 nights in 1833 and was previous record, Putnam became most performed on its 44th performance on September 24, 1844.
At the Bowery Theatre, the first season under Thomas S. Hamblin, who embraced melodramas which might support longer runs. The Elephant of Siam featured the elephant Mademoiselle D'Jeck, who of course needed to be used while available. The Water Witch, an adaption of a James Fenimore Cooper novel by Charles W. Taylor, which debuted on March 10, 1831, at the Bowery, also played for 18 performances.[165]
^(November 18, 1939). If Any Record Is Left, Play Breaks It Tonight, Milwaukee Journal (reporting that on November 18, 1939, Tobacco Road had 2,533rd performance, beating 2,532 mark that was being used as record for Abie's Irish Rose, though it had been discovered that number included over 200 non-Broadway performances, so that record had been made 5 months prior)
^(May 1920). [1], Munsey's Magazine, p. 730 (" 'Lightnin' has now broken the record of 'A Trip to Chinatown' for the longest consecutive New York run ...")
^Theatre Week (1990) (noting that at start of World War I, A Trip To Chinatown still held the record, which was beat by Lightnin after the war)
^(July 1893). The Stage, Munsey's Magazine (reporting that A Trip to Chinatown had 604th performance on June 22, 1893)
^(August 5, 1867). Black Crook advertisement, New York Tribune, p. 7 col. 3 (advertisement for 326th performance of The Black Crook on August 5, 1867; no recognition at this time that it was likely the longest)
^(August 31, 1833). Amusements, New York Evening Post, p. 3, col. 5 (advertisement stating that evening will be 35th presentation of Mazeppa)
^(September 9, 1833). Amusements, p. 3, col. 5 (announcing that Mazeppa will be performed that night "For the Benefit of Mr. Gale", appears to have been final consecutive performance)
^ abcShank, Theodore J. (1959). "Theatre for the Majority: Its Influence on a Nineteenth Century American Theatre". Educational Theatre Journal. 11 (3): 188–199. doi:10.2307/3204801. JSTOR3204801. See p. 196, noting that Mazeppa had 43 performances; Elephant of Siam and the Water Witch in 1831 had 18 each.
