Longest Running Broadway Theater Productions

Try to name the longest-running Broadway productions, based on the # of performances.
As of January 22, 2024
Includes revivals. Separate productions of the same play are listed separately.
Could be a musical, drama, or something else
Quiz by tengland
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Last updated: January 22, 2024
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First submittedMay 2, 2012
Times taken48,561
Average score20.8%
Rating3.95
15:00
Can be a musical or play
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#
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Production
13,981
2023
The Phantom of the Opera
10,657
active
Chicago
10,276
active
The Lion King
7,815
active
Wicked
7,485
2000
Cats
6,680
2003
Les Misérables
6,137
1990
A Chorus Line
5,959
1989
Oh! Calcutta!
5,758
2015
Mamma Mia!
5,461
2007
Beauty and the Beast
5,123
2008
Rent
4,671
active
The Book of Mormon
4,642
2017
Jersey Boys
4,092
2001
Miss Saigon
3,486
1989
42nd Street
3,442
active
Aladdin
3,388
1989
Grease
3,242
1972
Fiddler on the Roof
3,224
1947
Life with Father
3,182
1941
Tobacco Road
2,885
active
Hamilton
2,844
1970
Hello, Dolly!
2,717
1962
My Fair Lady
2,642
2009
Hairspray
2,619
2013
Mary Poppins
2,534
2009
Avenue Q
2,505
2019
Kinky Boots
2,502
2007
The Producers
2,416
2019
Beautiful: The Carole
King Musical
2,377
1983
Annie
2,377
2004
Cabaret
2,328
1971
Man of La Mancha
2,328
2015
Rock of Ages
2,327
1927
Abie's Irish Rose
2,212
1948
Oklahoma!
2,036
2000
Smokey Joe's Cafe
1,944
1977
Pippin
1,925
1954
South Pacific
1,920
1978
The Magic Show
1,852
2004
Aida
1,819
1981
Gemini
1,793
1982
Deathtrap
1,775
1949
Harvey
1,774
1982
Dancin'
1,761
1987
La Cage aux Folles
1,750
1972
Hair
1,672
2022
Dear Evan Hansen
1,672
1979
The Wiz
1,669
2022
Come from Away
1,657
active
Harry Potter and the
Cursed Child
1,642
1949
Born Yesterday
1,622
1996
Crazy for You
1,604
1982
Ain't Misbehavin'
1,584
1982
The Best Little
Whorehouse in Texas
1,575
2009
Spamalot
1,572
1964
Mary, Mary
1,567
1983
Evita
1,557
1948
The Voice of the Turtle
1,554
2017
Matilda
1,544
2020
Waitress
1,543
2001
Jekyll & Hyde
1,530
1967
Barefoot in the Park
1,524
2005
42nd Street
1,521
1985
Dreamgirls
1,508
1970
Mame
1,505
1998
Grease
1,453
1978
Same Time, Next Year
1,444
1944
Arsenic and Old Lace
1,443
1963
The Sound of Music
1,420
1989
Me and My Girl
1,417
1965
How to Succeed in Business
Without Really Trying
1,404
1941
Hellzapoppin'
1,375
1961
The Music Man
1,356
active
Hadestown
1,348
1967
Funny Girl
1,326
1980
Mummenschanz
1,314
1972
Oh! Calcutta!
1,312
2012
Billy Elliot the Musical
1,309
2019
School of Rock
1,303
2005
Movin' Out
1,299
1986
Brighton Beach Memoirs
1,295
1944
Angel Street
1,291
1921
Lightnin'
1,281
1972
Promises, Promises
1,246
1954
The King and I
1,234
1968
Cactus Flower
1,222
1973
Sleuth
1,222
1985
Torch Song Trilogy
1,217
1972
1776
1,209
active
Moulin Rouge!
1,209
1977
Equus
1,208
1982
Sugar Babies
1,200
1953
Guys and Dolls
1,184
2011
In the Heights
1,181
1983
Amadeus
1,168
2015
Once
1,165
1969
Cabaret
1,165
2012
Memphis
1,157
1951
Mister Roberts
1,147
1949
Annie Get Your Gun
1,143
1995
Guys and Dolls
+2
Level 43
May 2, 2012
LOVE this quiz! 27/100, but i forgot some of the obvious ones, like grease
+1
Level 75
Mar 2, 2016
I missed obvious ones, too, and only got 31% but it beat 90% of quiz takers. I saw several of these at the outdoor Muny in St. Louis. Never been to Broadway, but maybe someday.
+3
Level 14
May 2, 2012
why are a lot of stuff on here twice?
+5
Level ∞
Mar 28, 2014
Two separate productions of the same play.
+2
Level 78
Aug 21, 2012
Great quiz. Could use a bit more time as I was typing full out from the beginning, but just couldn't type that fast. Nice that you included both musicals and non-musicals - and revivals as well as first run (Chicago barely ran at all in its' first incarnation, but has run "forever" as we say in the biz here since it was revived. One thing I'm glad about is that you didn't try to do "cumulative" performances on Broadway - considering the number of times "West Side Story", "Hello Dolly", "Oklahoma!" and the like have been revived, that would get really confusing! Awesome, and thanks for remembering us here on the G.W.W.!
+1
Level 32
Aug 30, 2021
"Barely run at all" is a relative thing -- Chicago ran about two years originally, which used to be considered a good healthy run, though of course they would have liked more (A Chorus Line buried everything else that year). But of course the revival has outdistanced it in a way nobody could have predicted.
+1
Level 82
Feb 2, 2013
Lots of these I've never heard of before. The one I got that nobody else apparently has heard of was Avenue Q, which is definitely worth going to see.
+1
Level 88
Mar 13, 2020
I saw the national tour of Avenue Q and liked it, but I forgot about it while I was taking the quiz :(
+3
Level 92
Mar 3, 2014
Feel like 'longest running' is perhaps not the best title, seems to be about most performances. Also, since the last time this quiz was updated, The Book of Mormon has climbed onto the ranks (it'd be about #75 as of this writing).
+1
Level 82
Mar 10, 2014
I got it because I ended up just guessing every show I'd heard of, but it's only been out a couple years, right? I saw it on Broadway when it was still new, I think that was a couple years ago. Yet it's already higher than many older productions and some famous ones like West Side Story?
+3
Level 92
Mar 10, 2014
Exactly. In my mind 'longest running' implies passage of time, not simply show count.
+2
Level 82
Mar 10, 2014
There weren't many that I guessed that were not on here. But I don't know Broadway that well. I tried Little Shop of Horrors, Jerusalem, and a few others that I know have been around a lot longer than Book of Mormon. Agree with plattitude.
+2
Level 85
Apr 16, 2022
In standard, time-honored theatre jargon, "longest running" refers to the number of performances. Ask literally ANYONE who works in professional theatre.
+1
Level 92
Mar 1, 2016
There were a few I guessed this time around that weren't on there... Newsies, Shenandoah, Damn Yankees, and Grand Hotel.

Interestingly, The Book of Mormon climbed some 40 + spaces on the list in the last 2 years though, now at #31, but elapsed time from debut also puts it at 31... looking at the whole list, the order by elapsed time stays very close to the order by show count, with only a couple being more than 3 spaces different, so I'll withdraw my objection.

+2
Level ∞
Mar 5, 2014
The quiz has been updated with the latest data!
+1
Level 24
Mar 10, 2014
Some appear twice because they are revival productions.
+1
Level 77
Mar 10, 2014
More time needed for sure.
+2
Level 21
Mar 28, 2014
You put guys and dolls twice. I was in a prodution of it once
+2
Level 83
May 19, 2014
Cage aux folles doesn't work with out "La". English words always work without "The".
+1
Level 42
Dec 29, 2014
I like quizzes you can complete. That obviously isn't the goal here, but I enjoyed it anyway.
+1
Level 69
May 28, 2015
Smokey Joe's used to be next to Abie's Irish Rose (and I used that to key off each other) but now Oklahoma is in between them. I'm curious how that happened since if Oklahoma had more performances it would be a revival and not change the original count. I figure one of the figures got updated but am curious which changed and why. BTW in case you didn't realize, I love this quiz and take it a lot to see if I can still remember them all.
+3
Level 29
Sep 24, 2015
I'm surprised West Side Story is not here!
+2
Level 66
Jul 29, 2019
same, I tries it like 4 times haha, not sure if I had spelled it correctly (or perhaps written west coast or something haha)
+1
Level 82
Mar 13, 2020
especially considering that West Side Story has had at least 30% fewer accidental decapitations than Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which is still on the list in last place.
+1
Level 32
Aug 1, 2022
West Side Story has never managed a really long run. The same is true of some other well known titles.
+2
Level 70
Nov 15, 2015
for 100 productions, you should really give more time.
+2
Level ∞
Feb 29, 2016
Increased the time to 10:00
+1
Level 61
Mar 2, 2016
I think the quiz would be more interesting if it simply asked for the top ten.
+1
Level 35
Mar 6, 2016
doing the lights at broadway really helps. 83. believe me I ran out of time.you see im not a fast typer cuz I spend 13 hrs at broadway doing lights makeup and 2 hours I have my phone and all I do Is jetpunkjetpunkjetpunk. hey you should check out my quiz cast of Hamilton. watch wicked or matilda or BOTH they are the bombs. oh and when augustus eats the cake, it was a holographic projection. I relly shoudnt be saying this tho.. nvm they'll never fire me cuz I am the BEST at lights and makeup.
+1
Level 82
Mar 13, 2020
I really wanted to see Matilda. Last time I was in London I was going to go but tickets were still really expensive.
+1
Level 50
Mar 10, 2016
strange that Dreamgirls was guessed only by 9%, since it was made into a successful movie
+1
Level 75
Mar 16, 2020
A lot of people probably didn't know it started out as a play, or like me, they just forgot it.
+1
Level 73
Jan 29, 2018
A friend of mine (coincidentally, who I'd seen Spamalot with - yet I failed to get it!) just saw Avenue Q less than a month ago - did the original run close and now it's back? I see the posters for all the current runs all the time so I kind of forget. Odd that I didn't get more correct, since it was only a year ago that I last worked in midtown - I literally had to walk right past probably half a dozen of these shows every day. Yet I still missed many!!
+1
Level 32
Aug 30, 2021
A new phenomenon in the last couple of decades is the possibility for a show to close on Broadway when it can no longer meet its costs, and then re-open off Broadway in somewhat reduced form and at less than Broadway prices. Of course it has to have enough name recognition to keep attracting audiences. There's a whole theater complex now, dedicated to doing this for maybe half a dozen shows at a time.
+1
Level 63
Feb 20, 2018
I know the song Shenandoah very well - yet I never knew that there is a musical also called this. I am now going to investigate whether the song is from the musical...
+3
Level 66
Feb 21, 2018
I'm amazed that Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat didn't make the list, given that I remember there being approximately 50 billion ads for it on TV when it was running, for what seemed like decades.
+1
Level 59
Feb 21, 2018
Holy crap this was hard! Managed 29 somehow, but forgot so many major shows.
+1
Level 82
Mar 13, 2020
Indeed. I only got 34. But that was worth 4 points so I'm not complaining.
+3
Level 70
Feb 21, 2018
Annie Get Your Gun is listed twice but counted once. Granted when I typed in "Annie" I was thinking about the orphan girl so maybe the 1 out of 2 was a token gesture.
+4
Level 77
Feb 21, 2018
I just can't believe that Spiderman is on the list . I'm sure it's correct, but it was a running joke for two Tony shows in a row it was that awful. If there was a Razzie for Broadway shows, it would have won hands down.
+1
Level 69
Mar 30, 2019
Same here! It had so many problems that I was under the impression it never even got out of previews!
+1
Level 82
Mar 13, 2020
it was running for a good while and very popular, just, widely panned at the same time and virtually every show had to be shut down at least once or twice during the performance when something went wrong with the wire work or somebody was injured. At one point they also completely redid the music, as the original songs and score were considered bad. The new soundtrack was supposed to be superior; I don't know as I never heard the original.
+1
Level 73
Feb 21, 2018
I just tried to think of all those plays that it seems like every middle school / high school is always putting on, and that covers a lot of the classics. I mostly missed on some of the newer ones, or some of the really old ones.

Even of the 60 I did not get, as soon as I read the name, I was like, oh yeah!

Ironically the number of these that I've actually seen is probably not that high but I guess the names of plays and musicals are so often short, memorable, and find their way into popular language usage.

+3
Level 56
Feb 28, 2018
I could only think of 10 Broadway shows. I'm probably the least-qualified homosexual you will ever encounter on JetPunk.
+2
Level 69
Mar 30, 2019
LOL! Soon they'll be coming to revoke your gay card! Let me guess, you're probably terrible at interior decorating too :-D
+4
Level 62
Sep 22, 2018
I got one "Annie Get Your Gun" by typing "Annie" but not the other one. Also, I think it would be very helpful to have the opening year. The closing year doesn't really help at all.
+1
Level 32
Aug 30, 2021
I agree with your last point. I have no real sense of when shows closed, but have some associations for when they opened.
+1
Level 82
Feb 12, 2020
Suggest allowing "Cage Aux Folles" for La Cage Aux Folles, typically we don't need to include any form of "the"
+1
Level ∞
Feb 13, 2020
Okay
+2
Level 79
Mar 13, 2020
Possibly accept Pygmalion for My Fair Lady?
+2
Level 93
Apr 23, 2021
No, because that's not the name of the production. They wouldn't allow Hamlet for The Lion King.
+2
Level 84
Jan 23, 2024
That's obviously not equivalent. The Lion King has a similar plot to Hamlet, whereas My Fair Lady is a musical version of Pygmalion. They aren't just similar; it's the same play, but with singing.
+10
Level 62
Mar 13, 2020
I suppose "active" isn't really the appropriate word right now...
+1
Level 50
Mar 9, 2023
No way, how on earth did I forget Hamilton!!!!!
+1
Level 74
Oct 26, 2023
I thought Les Mis was a book.
+1
Level 83
Jan 22, 2024
...and also a musical?
+1
Level 60
Mar 2, 2024
Hence "I thought".
+3
Level 84
Jan 23, 2024
I thought The Lion King was a movie.
+2
Level 89
Mar 1, 2024
I thought Chicago was a city.
+4
Level 84
Jan 23, 2024
Hadestown lists as active but isn't highlighted.
+1
Level 46
Mar 1, 2024
I remember being a little kid in NY and hearing about The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and thinking wow they have a play that uses a curse word.