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:
“Through man, and woman, and sea, and star,
Saw the dance of nature forward far;
Through worlds, and races, and terms, and times,
Saw musical order, and pairing rhymes.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Make them laugh, make them cry, and back to laughter. What do people go to the theatre for? An emotional exercise.... I am a servant of the people. I have never forgotten that.”
—Mary Pickford (1893–1979)
“If in many of my productions terror has been the thesis, I maintain that terror is not of Germany, but of the soul.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)