All Best Musical Winners Ranked by Number of Performances

[MadsonMelo]

Posted: 10/17/22 at 1:05am

I used IBDB to gather info around how many performance all the Best Musical winners had during their original run.

If anything is wrong, point so I can correct.

1. The Phantom of the Opera - 13,981

2. The Lion King - 10,389

3. Cats - 7,485

4. Les Miserábles - 6,680

5. A Chorus Line - 6,137

6. Rent - 5,123

7. The Book of Mormon - 4,783

8. Jersey Boys - 4,642

9. 42nd Street - 3,486

10. Fiddler on the Roof - 3,242

11. Hamilton - 2,997

12. Hello, Dolly! - 2,844

13. My Fair Lady - 2,717

14. Hairspray - 2,642

15. Avenue Q - 2,534

16. Kinky Boots - 2,505

17. The Producers - 2,502

18. Annie - 2,377

19. Man of La Mancha - 2,328

20. South Pacific - 1,925

21. La Cage aux Folles - 1,761

22. Dear Evan Hansen - 1,672

23. The Wiz - 1,672

24. Crazy for You - 1,622

25. Ain’t Misbehavin’ - 1,604

26. Spamalot - 1,575

27. Evita - 1,567

28. Hadestown - 1,468

29. The Sound of Music - 1,443

30. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying - 1,417

31. The Music Man - 1,375

32. Moulin Rouge! - 1.321

33. Billy Elliot - 1,312

34. The King and I - 1,246

35. 1776 - 1,217

36. Guys and Dolls - 1,200

37. In the Heights - 1,184

38. Once - 1,168

39. Memphis - 1,165

40. Cabaret - 1,165

41. Fosse - 1,093

42. Kiss Me, Kate - 1,077

43. The Pajama Game - 1,063

44. Damn Yankees - 1,019

45. Contact - 1,010

46. Big River - 1,005

47. The Will Rogers Follies - 981

48. Sunset Boulevard - 977

49. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum - 964

50. A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder - 905

51. Kiss of the Spider Woman - 904

52. Thoroughly Modern Millie - 903

53. Applause - 896

54. City of Angels - 879

55. Spring Awakening - 859

56. Raisin - 847

57. Titanic - 804

58. Fiorello! - 795

59. Nine - 729

60. Company - 705

61. Jerome Robbins' Broadway - 633

62. Two Gentlemen of Verona - 614

63. Kimberly Akimbo - 612

64. The Mystery of Edwin Drood - 608

65. Bye Bye Birdie - 607

66. A Little Night Music - 601

67. The Band’s Visit - 588

68. Fun Home - 583

69. Kismet - 583

70. Wonderful Town - 559

71. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - 557

72. Redhead - 452

73. Hallelujah, Baby! - 293

74. A Strange Loop - 293

75. Passion - 280

In case of a tie, I counted the amount of previews!

Updated On: 4/29/24 at 01:05 AM

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 10/17/22 at 8:38am

Damn, didn’t expect to see Sweeney so near the bottom.

[GoldenGiggery]

Posted: 10/17/22 at 9:57am

Here’s hoping Moulin Rouge is able to break the 1K performance mark. Tourists seem to REALLY love it.

[dented146]

Posted: 10/17/22 at 2:34pm

That is a very interesting post. Thank you.

[pethian]

Posted: 10/17/22 at 6:18pm

What an interesting post. Thank you for all the effort to compile this.

So, with approximately 416 performance equaling a year, this means only three shows have won the Best Musical Tony and failed to run at least a year.

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 10/17/22 at 9:36pm

crazy that as of Phantom closing only two of those original productions will still be running (Book of Mormon and Lion King)

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 10/17/22 at 9:45pm

Ummm. Moulin Rouge and Hadestown are also still running and should still be open when Phantom closes, unless you know something we don’t?

[jagman1062]

Posted: 10/17/22 at 10:42pm

How have you accounted for the shows still running and projected to be running after January15? Did you estimate the number of performances these shows will have had on January 15 or are their numbers a snapshot of what was reported on the day you gathered the data? Just curious.

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 10/17/22 at 10:48pm

Hadestown will likely not be running on Broadway past January. For the most part, their total gross by week has decreased starting around mid-late June. Not a good sign.

Moulin Rouge! is up in the air. It's a very expensive show to run. 

[SeanD2]

Posted: 10/18/22 at 10:29am

I don't think we can get at the data for the older shows, but what I'd really be interested in is how many people saw each of these in their original runs. I imagine that would shift some of the order around given theater capacity and how long they ran with lower capacity percentages.

[MadsonMelo]

Posted: 10/18/22 at 11:42am

jagman1062 said: "How have you accounted for the shows still running and projected to be running after January15? Did you estimate the number of performances these shows will have had on January 15 or are their numbers a snapshot of what was reported on the day you gathered the data? Just curious."

 

I didn't make that clear, but ''A Strange Loop'' is the only one with numbers from january. The other winners still open have the current numbers as of October 9.

 

I will update eventually if anyone else closes.

 

I did make a quick math and by the end of 2023, ''Hamilton'' will likely be #11 ahead of ''Hello, Dolly!''

[leefowler]

Posted: 10/18/22 at 1:12pm

Fascinating list! Thanks for posting that.

 

Most people here probably already know this, but Hallelujah Baby had in fact already closed at the time it won the Tony for best musical.

[MadsonMelo]

Posted: 10/18/22 at 5:16pm

It was very good to do the list, I still can believe Sondheim has 2 shows in the top 10 of winners with least performances, and that one of them is Sweeney!

[Lumiere2]

Posted: 10/18/22 at 5:23pm

BoringBoredBoard40 said: "crazy that as of Phantom closing only two of those original productions will still be running (Book of Mormon and Lion King)"

There will actually be five as of March 1st 2023: Lion King, Book of Mormon, Hamilton, Hadestown, and Moulin Rouge are all selling tickets beyond that date.

[MadsonMelo]

Posted: 6/24/23 at 9:51am

I updated the data, put ''Kimberly'' on the list and noticed that ''Loop'' ended up with the amount of official performances as ''Hallelujah'', but played few previous.

Those are the ''Best Musical'' winners still playing on Broadway:

2. The Lion King - 10,025

8. The Book of Mormon - 4,423

14. Hamilton - 2,637

39. Hadestown - 1,108

49. Moulin Rouge! - 961

75. Kimberly Akimbo - 252

[uncageg]

Posted: 6/24/23 at 12:21pm

TotallyEffed said: "Damn, didn’t expect to see Sweeney so near the bottom."

 

I saw it the summer of 1979. I got my ticket at TKTS. I remember knowing I could probably get one there because the blood in the show was a big thing then and it seemed to be keeping people away from seeing it. It made me really want to see it and glad I did!

 

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 6/24/23 at 12:45pm

Hamilton is about to EXCEED Hairspray?! Does time really move THAT fast?!

[MadsonMelo]

Posted: 4/29/24 at 1:28am

I updated the data now ''Kimberly Akimbo'' is over with 612 performances at #63. For a ''little show'', it didn't even finished on the bottom 10 and surpassed basically all others ''little shows'' that won recently like ''Fun Home'', ''The Band's Visit'' and ''A Strange Loop''.

Those are the ''Best Musical'' winners still playing on Broadway:

2. The Lion King - 10,389

7. The Book of Mormon - 4,783 (+1 position surpassing ''Jersey Boys'' since last data)

11. Hamilton - 2,997 (+2 surpassing both ''My Fair Lady'' and ''Hello, Dolly!'', it will crack top 10 by end of this year, I guess)

28. Hadestown - 1,468 (entered top 30!)

32. Moulin Rouge! - 1.321 (almost top 30!)

[Zeppie2022]

Posted: 4/29/24 at 8:18am

Thanks for compiling this list and updating it. With a couple of exceptions (Hadestown, Moulin Rouge), recent winners (A Strange Loop, Band's Visit, Fun Home, Kimberly Akimbo etc.) have not run very long for Best Musical winner. I am betting the winner of the Best Musical Tony this year follows that trend and runs 1-2 years at most. None of the new shows this year have that commercial aspect of it to sustain a 5-10 year run IMO. Does anybody think "Book Of Mormon" will run long enough to surpass "Cats" in the #3 slot? Will "Hamilton" be one of those shows that runs forever?

[DCDrama2]

Posted: 4/29/24 at 8:31am

This is really interesting. I'd love to see revival stagings and performances added next to the original count just for kicks.

Ex: Cats - 7,485 (1:593)