Saw "The Things That Were There" at Bushwick Starr yesterday which ran only 45 minutes and it got me wondering. What is the shortest runtime of a Broadway show? How short a show before it becomes rude to charge for tickets?
90-100 minutes is a pretty standard run these days. I don’t remember that being common when I started seeing shows 10-11 years ago.
Less than 90 minutes is quite uncommon though. The shortest I ever remember seeing was Colin Quinn: Long Story Short (75 minutes) and Meteor Shower (85 minutes)
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I was pretty surprised by the short and sweet run time of The Lifespan of a Fact a few weeks ago - I was on the street by 9:22 after an 8:00 p.m. show, and they started a couple of minutes late.
The shortest run time I can remember attending was 'For Colored Girls...', which lasted 70 minutes the night I saw it, but was said to run 73 minutes. I was not annoyed, to be honest, because I was bored by much of it, despite the great reviews. Living in NJ but working in NYC, I would only see a show that short on a work night; I felt it was too short to spend hours traveling to and from Manhattan. Although I no longer live in NJ, I still have an issue paying Broadway prices for short plays. My solution is to pair a short play with a longer play on a two show day, and get the cheapest seats I can get for the short play.
I admit that I have already thoroughly enjoyed Lifespan and American Son (I paired the latter with Torch Song); however, I still feel that these short plays -- and i include Doubt and especially ADHP2 in this categorization -- lack 'texture' because they either don't take the time to let us know much about the characters (if familiar with ADH, that was not an issue) and / or their focus was too narrow, even if it was a substantial topic.
For example, wouldn't you like to know more about Daniel Radcliffe's background in Lifespan (OCD, ADHD, Genius, all three? or more about the the parents in American Son? or have met the character of the son? I would. Oh, well, just the ramblings of a madman.
The shortest run time I can remember attending was 'For Colored Girls...', which lasted 70 minutes the night I saw it, but was said to run 73 minutes. I was not annoyed, to be honest, because I was bored by much of it, despite the great reviews. Living in NJ but working in NYC, I would only see a show that short on a work night; I felt it was too short to spend hours traveling to and from Manhattan. Although I no longer live in NJ, I still have an issue paying Broadway prices for short plays. My solution is to pair a short play with a longer play on a two show day, and get the cheapest seats I can get for the short play.
I admit that I have already thoroughly enjoyed Lifespan and American Son (I paired the latter with Torch Song); however, I still feel that these short plays -- and i include Doubt and especially ADHP2 in this categorization -- lack 'texture' because they either don't take the time to let us know much about the characters (if familiar with ADH, that was not an issue) and / or their focus was too narrow, even if it was a substantial topic.
For example, wouldn't you like to know more about Daniel Radcliffe's background in Lifespan (OCD, ADHD, Genius, all three? or more about the the parents in American Son? or have met the character of the son? I would. Oh, well, just the ramblings of a madman.
...I’m interested in how you would employ the device of meeting the son in American Son considering that would entirely disrupt the real-time setting of the play.
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While it's not played on broadway, but might be of interest, the shortest professionally-produced musical I believe is 21 Chump Street, clocking in at just over 15 minutes. I believe it was part of a set of programming, not a standalone though.
It was never on Broadway, but Sarah Ruhl's Melancholy Play is very short (the production I saw ran 65 minutes). The musical adaptation lasts a little longer, though.
Whenever I see it, I am always surprised by how short Joseph... is. When performed without an intermission, the show runs barely over an hour. I suppose the endless megamix adds substantially to that run-time, though. Many of Lloyd-Weber's works are actually rather short for musicals--Superstar and Evita each around 100 minutes, plus intermission. This is because they are sung-through shows based on concept albums where each act was written for one disc.
^How the hell did that show ever got produced on Broadway
"Okay, we've got this script that's about women's issues written by a demonstrable chauvinist, it's not even an hour long, the author hasn't had a good play since 2008 and hasn't had a great play since 1995, and it stars an actress who's faded into obscurity, and another actress who's almost unknown outside the theatre community."
quizking101 said: "...I’m interested in how you would employ the device of meeting the son in American Son considering that would entirely disrupt the real-time setting of the play."
One possibility would be flashback; but who says that the entire show has to be real-time?
not on Broadway but SoHo Rep a few years ago producted a play called Generations. it was brilliant and the staging was really unique, but i remember being shocked when I askled the box-office person how long it was "its 35 minutes"
now that was short.
Also the theater for one pieces were like 3-5 minutes.
This isn't Broadway related, but I watched a parody called Fleetwood Macbeth that had a 45 minute first act. A 20 minute intermission. Followed by a 7 minute second act.
I don’t know if you’d count this, but there is a Samuel Beckett play called ‘Breath’ which is supposed to last for 35 seconds. It was technically on Broadway as part of Oh! Calcutta!
joined:10/14/18
joined:
10/14/18
Posted: 11/4/18 at 10:20am