Longest Shows in Broadway History?

[BestOfBothWorlds]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 5:21pm

I was just thinking (since my mind likes statistics) about South Pacific and August: Osage County currently clocking in at 3+ hours, and I was wondering what people remember off the top of their heads, or if there's somewhere that actually stores run time as a stat (though I doubt it).

The Coast of Utopia obviously jumps to mind but I don't really count that as it was deliberately presented as three separate entities, even if they sometimes presented those entities on the same day.
Updated On: 11/11/08 at 05:21 PM

[NGD2225]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 5:26pm

Guys & Dolls is (I believe) 3 hours.

[winston89]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 5:32pm

I remember that the original production of Les Miserables ran over three hours and that they had to trim a few things that way the producers wouldn't have to pay the stagehands overtime.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 5:36pm

'Xanadu'!
90 mins was looooong!

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 5:42pm

NGD, all the Golden Age musicals are 3 or so hours, not just GUYS AND DOLLS.

Mourning Becomes Electra can run anywhere from 4 to 6 hours. Most O'Neill plays are very long...Long Day's Journey is 3.5...that's why the 2.5 hour runtime of the last MISBEGOTTEN revival was so startling. They were zooooming through that one.

[Nicole3293]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 5:46pm

Laramie Project is about 3 and a half hours too. At least it was when I saw it at a Highschool.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 5:48pm

2nd preview of 'Side Show' on Broadway was 3hr 20m -Fabulous!
1st preview of 'Dr Dolittle' in London 3h 55m -Mind numbing!

[Ryan4]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 5:52pm

The Kentucky Cycle was like 6 hrs, right? 2 Parts, I think, but on the same day...

[morosco]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 5:53pm

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby was performed in 2 separate performances (part 1 and part 2). Many would see part 1 as the matinee then grab a quick bite and then see part 2 for the evening performance.

[Pianolin717]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 5:56pm

well look at what has happened to americas attention span.. lol
now musicals run from 90 to 2.5 hours... and we cant watch anything longer? shame

[philly03]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 5:57pm

Not that it made it to Broadway, but the Gone with the Wind The Musical starring Jill Paice this past year clocked in at what just over 4 hours at the first performance? Althuogh I have to admit I think an extremely long play is far less entertaining!

[BNN]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 5:59pm

I don't think it has to do with attention span, could you really squeeze another half hour into Xanadu or Drowsy, and keep it interesting? Could you do it with A Chorus Line?

Some material and stories can pull off 3 hours, some cannot.

[Pianolin717]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 6:02pm

well i think A chorus line could have done more... i think it should have been longer, with some form of intermission worked it
the time flew by! and i wanted it to be much longer than it was

[BestOfBothWorlds]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 6:03pm

Saying shows run "from 90 minutes to 2.5 hours" isn't exactly accurate, as it makes it sound like 2.5 hours is the outside. Actually, the average runtime of shows currently on Broadway (including those in previews, but not the ones starting later this week) is 147 minutes. (I just calculated it, I'm a dork, yes.) So, it stands to reason that theatregoers still have plenty of an attention span, at least a half-hour more than your average moviegoer (movies average about two hours) or 90 minutes more than your average tv watcher (and that number grows if you count TiVo!)

I was just curious how often we see these three-and-a-half-hour-two-intermission type deals. Not very, seems to be the answer, but there have been some.

And, man, reading Long Day's Journey Into Night was like slogging through a novel. Good stuff, though.
Updated On: 11/11/08 at 06:03 PM

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 6:07pm

'August' feels like 1hr even after seeing it 3 times now.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 6:09pm

adding an intermission to A Chorus Line totally ruins the claustrophobic feeling the creators were going for.

[dg22894]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 6:13pm

Coast of Utopia (Even individually it is still long)
Gone with the wind Updated On: 11/12/08 at 06:13 PM

[Paul W. Thompson]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 6:14pm

I believe that "Les Mis" ran 3 hours and 15 minutes for the first several years of its run. Cameron Mackintosh trimmed enough so that it went under three hours, in order to avoid union overtime payments and "extend the profitable run" of the show.

Before the 1970s most musicals did run close to three hours, if not more. Almost all of them ran longer in tryouts or previews than when they opened, but in my mind "My Fair Lady" and "Fiddler on the Roof" are especially long as presented on their original opening nights, but this was in an era when the scene changes of a usual musical took place behind a closed curtain, etc.

And this is with only one intermission!

Older shows could run even longer, I think. "The New Moon" and other American operettas were three hours and counting, I believe.

The original "A Chorus Line"'s running time of two hours and ten minutes with no intermission was pretty revolutionary for its time, both for the lack of intermission and for the shortness of the full span.

Updated On: 11/11/08 at 06:14 PM

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 6:19pm

Angels in America
The Cider House Rules

Don't think it was on Broadway, might have been a part of a Lincon Centre Production, The Seven Streams Of The River Ota, which came in at just on seven hours

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 6:32pm

Strange Interlude (original version) started at 4:00 p.m., broke for dinner at 7:30 p.m., resumed at 8:30 p.m. and didn't get out until around 11:00 p.m. Mourning Becomes Electra (original) ran somewhat longer, again with a dinner break. Neither was written to be done separately -- they were considered one play and there wasn't an option to see part of it one night and part of it another.

Updated On: 11/11/08 at 06:32 PM

[Weez]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 6:36pm

'Angels in America' deserves another mention; seven hours in Hammersmith, and I felt every minute, but they were AWESOME minutes. I honestly didn't care I was spending an entire sunny Saturday in Hammersmith.

[Mamie]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 7:13pm

I think the longest I saw was "A Long Days Journey Into Night" with Vanessa Redgrave and Brian Dennehy in 2003. It ran over 4 hours and had 2 intermissions.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 7:17pm

The original 'Les Miserables' at the Barbican was 3hrs 40mins for its run there. Cameron started hacking it down when it got its West End transfer to the Palace.

[TheaterAddict7652]

Posted: 11/11/08 at 7:24pm

The Lord of the Rings musical, when it was in previews in Toronto, was something like five hours long.

Posted: 11/12/08 at 12:53am

I echo Angels in American. each half ran three and a half hours but didn't feel that long. The last revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night with Vanessa Redgrave and Brian Denehey started at 7pm and ended at the stroke of 11pm and didn't feel nearly that long.