Long-running Musical Theatre Productions
This is a selected list of the longest-running musical theatre productions in history divided into two sections. The first section lists all Broadway or West End productions that have exceeded 2,500 performances in order of greatest number of performances in either market. The second section lists musicals that have broken historical long run records on Broadway, in the West End or Off-Broadway throughout history, in alphabetical order.
- Legend:
- m = music, l = lyrics, b = book
- (Noteworthy trivia appear in parentheses)
- (5,678) = number of performances (in original Broadway production if not specified)
- > denotes shows that are still in production. The number of Broadway performances is updated per Playbill.com as of October 2012. The number of West End performances is updated sporadically as information becomes available.
- "Tony Award winner" denotes winner of Tony for Best Musical
- "Olivier Award winner" denotes winner of award for Best New Musical
Read more about Long-running Musical Theatre Productions: Longest-running Musicals On Broadway and The West End, Other Historic Long Runs
Famous quotes containing the words musical, theatre and/or productions:
“Creative force, like a musical composer, goes on unweariedly repeating a simple air or theme, now high, now low, in solo, in chorus, ten thousand times reverberated, till it fills earth and heaven with the chant.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Mankind’s common instinct for reality ... has always held the world to be essentially a theatre for heroism. In heroism, we feel, life’s supreme mystery is hidden. We tolerate no one who has no capacity whatever for it in any direction. On the other hand, no matter what a man’s frailties otherwise may be, if he be willing to risk death, and still more if he suffer it heroically, in the service he has chosen, the fact consecrates him forever.”
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