Which Shows Have Been Revived the Most in the 21st Century?

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This time, the reader question was: What is the history of performers from Mexico on Broadway?

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Three of this season’s plays and two of this season’s musicals are already getting revived for the second or third time this century! Twenty-five years into the 21st century and Broadway has already seen multiple revivals of Glengarry Glen Ross, Our Town, Romeo and Juliet, Gypsy, and Sunset Boulevard. 

Glengarry Glen Ross, the David Mamet manifesto about desperate, testosterone-fueled real estate agents currently has the distinction of being the rare play to play the Palace. Kieran Culkin is starring in the fiery role of Ricky Roma with Bob Odenkirk and Bill Burr also headlining. The current all-male cast is carrying the mantle after three previous Broadway productions, two of them in the 21st century. Glengarry won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1984; it was nominated for the Tony but lost to Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing—which wasn’t eligible for the Pulitzer. Joe Mantegna won the Tony for his take on Ricky Roma in the original production; the more recent revivals have featured performances from Liev Schreiber (who also won the Tony as Ricky in 2005), Alan Alda, Al Pacino, and Bobby Cannavale. 

Thornton Wilder’s classic Our Town received its 4th and 5th Broadway revivals in 2002 and 2024, first led by Paul Newman in his first Broadway appearance in nearly 40 years and then by Jim Parsons earlier this season. The frequently licensed play won the Pulitzer for Drama in 1938 and has proven timeless. 

This season’s Gen-Z-coded Romeo and Juliet cleverly altered its title to “Romeo + Juliet" but it’s still the Shakespeare play we know well at heart. Shakespeare’s classic text about star-crossed lovers is catnip for young stars and those who want to place them center stage; it provides two juicy hormonally-charged roles. This season’s Circle in the Square revival put Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler at the center of the square. The other 21st century revival of the show found Orlando Bloom entering on a motorcycle as Romeo and sweeping Condola Rashad as Juliet off her feet. Romeo and Juliet has been seen on New York stages constantly since the 1700s, from the stages of lower Manhattan in the 18th century to the Delacorte during Shakespeare in the Park and beyond. 

Like Glengarry and Romeo and Juliet, Gypsy is ripe for revivals because of the opportunity it gives to fantastic actors. The show is widely considered one of the greatest musicals of all time, with the role of Rose a crown jewel in any actor’s career. This season, Broadway presented the legendary multiple Tony Award-winning Audra McDonald in a new take on Gypsy helmed by multiple Tony Award winner George C. Wolfe. Having three Black women at the show’s center as Rose, Louise, and June has made audiences contend with the history of Black performers in the spaces the characters occupy in the story. Like Glengarry, Gypsy has already been revived not once but twice in the current century prior to this season’s production. 2008 saw Patti LuPone’s Rose bringing Broadway traffic to a standstill with its epic fierceness and 2003 saw the beloved Bernadette Peters as an unexpected choice for the role. Incidentally, all of Gypsy’s revivals of the 2000s have played 44th Street.

Perhaps a slightly more unlikely selection for multiple revivals, Sunset Boulevard only premiered on Broadway in 1994 but has already been revived twice in the 2000s. The current reimagining (retitled Sunset Blvd.) starring Nicole Scherzinger and Tom Francis is the minimalist work of director Jamie Lloyd. A 2017 revival was the much the opposite. This new production was directed by Lonny Price but was very much in the vein of the original creatively, with Glenn Close even reprising her Tony Award-winning turn as Norma Desmond. 

Including this season’s five shows above, Broadway has seen 42 shows receive multiple revivals in the 21st century. 27 plays and 15 musicals have been brought back to Broadway at least twice since January 1, 2001. 

Interestingly, the only other two works of Shakespeare besides Romeo and Juliet to be revived more than once this century are Macbeth and King Lear—and Macbeth happened four times! Broadway saw a 2008 Patrick Stewart Macbeth, two Macbeths in 2013: one-man Alan Cumming Macbeth and Lincoln Center Ethan Hawke Macbeth, and a 2022 Daniel Craig Macbeth. Before the 2004 King Lear starring Christopher Plummer, the Shakespearean tragedy hadn’t seen on Broadway since the 1960s. It received another very different revival in 2019 starring Glenda Jackson. 

As far as musicals that took big swings at really different concepts in their revivals, we have Fiddler on the Roof and Oklahoma! Fiddler’s 2004 David Leveaux revival starring Alfred Molina was a divisive new take on the Golden Age musical, characterized by its understated performances and minimalist design. In 2015, a more traditional Fiddler returned to Broadway, led by Danny Burstein and directed by Bartlett Sher. Oklahoma!, the only Rodgers and Hammerstein title to thus far be revived on Broadway twice this century received one revival that might be categorized as traditional in 2002 and another that was re-conceived and considered subversive in 2019. 

Of course, Shakespeare isn’t the only classic, pre-20th century playwright. Broadway received its 9th and 10th revivals of Henrik Ibsen’s ever-relevant An Enemy of the People in 2012 and 2024. The play about corruption was revived by MTC with Boyd Gaines at its center in 2012 and then just this past season Jeremy Strong took a crack at the central role at Circle in the Square. Ibsen is also behind Hedda Gabler, which has received the two 21st century revivals, speaking to feminism both in previous eras and today. A 2001 revival was led by Kate Burton and a 2009 revival was led by Mary-Louise Parker. 

The French-originating Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand has been adapted countless times for multiple mediums. It’s no wonder that the tale of disguised courtship written in 1897 has been seen in two recent Broadway productions. 2007 saw Kevin Kline taking on the role with the love triangle filled out by Jennifer Garner and Daniel Sunjata and 2012 saw a Roundabout revival with Douglas Hodge. 

While the original 18th century novel that the play is based on is French, Les Liaisons Dangereuses is a 1985 play that originated in the UK which has been revived twice on Broadway this century. Waiting for Godot meanwhile did first premiere in France in 1953, prior to its five Broadway productions, three of which have been this century. Betrayal, Noises Off, and The Elephant Man all premiered in the UK years before multiple Broadway revivals in the 21st century. 

And considering American-grown playwrights, there are a good amount with the same honor of multiple revivals this century. Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun was seen in 2004 with a cast including Sean “P. Diddy” Combs in his only Broadway appearance and in 2014 with a cast including Denzel Washington. Prior to these, the landmark play had not been seen on Broadway since its original production in 1959. Notably, Hansberry is the only woman and the only Black writer with multiple revivals in the 21st century. 

Eugene O’Neill frequently has his work revived on Broadway but Long Day’s Journey Into Night is his only show that thus far has been revived twice this century. His final play and masterwork was seen in 2003 with a cast including Philip Seymour Hoffman and Vanessa Redgrave and in 2016 with a cast including Jessica Lange. 

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? fits into the conversation in a unique way since it has received two proper 21st century revivals and then one additional production that never opened. The Albee monument was seen in 2005 with Bill Irwin, Kathleen Turner, David Harbour, and Mireille Enos and in 2012 with Amy Morton, Tracy Letts, Carrie Coon, and Madison Dirks. Then in March of 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown, a revival starring Laurie Metcalf began previews, halted for the shutdown, and never got back up.

As far as prolific playwrights with multiple plays revived multiple times in the 2000s, Arthur Miller beats everyone, even William Shakespeare, in the numbers game. Miller’s A View from the Bridge, All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible have all been revived on Broadway more than once this century. Tennessee Williams is right up there as well, with his A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and The Glass Menagerie each seen at least a couple times on Broadway this century. The beloved Noël Coward’s words have been behind revivals of Present Laughter and Private Lives. And in addition to Glengarry, David Mamet is also the scribe behind multiple revivals of American Buffalo in the 2000s.  

And on the other end, as far as prolific musical theatre writers with multiple shows revived more than once in the 2000s, Sondheim bests all others by far. Company, Gypsy, Follies, Into The Woods, Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, and West Side Story have all been revived at least twice on Broadway this century. While the original productions of many Sondheim shows might not have had record-breaking runs, they have proved they have massive staying power and potential for revival. Among Sondheim’s collaborators who racked up at least two revivals of their shows are George Furth, Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne, James Goldman, James Lapine, Hugh Wheeler, and Leonard Bernstein. Laurents, responsible for the books of both Gypsy and West Side Story, also penned the book to La Cage Aux Folles, which was revived in both 2004 and 2010, following its original 1983 smash hit premiere. 

A few musicals had revivals that were essentially just… revivals of their revivals. The 2014 retake of Cabaret directed by Sam Mendes and starring Alan Cumming was essentially a revival of the hit 1998 revival of the show. Forever Tango’s 2013 return was a revival of its 2004 revival. Hair’s 2011 revival was a tour stop for the national tour of the 2009 Broadway revival. Contrastingly, while Les Misérables is typically produced in a standard way, it did receive two distinct 2000s productions, in 2006 and 2014. One play had a revival of its revival: Take Me Out by Richard Greenberg. Its fall 2022 bow was essentially a return engagement of its spring 2022 run.

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