Is Act Two ever longer than Act One in a musical?

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 11/12/21 at 1:19pm

Or is that never a thing? 

 

 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 11/12/21 at 1:26pm

This doesn't answer your question, but I have always been perplexed by some of the long golden age titles like SOUND OF MUSIC and MY FAIR LADY which have 90-minute first acts and 50-minute second acts. The stories get so frontloaded. (And sometimes the second act is largely reprises)

MFL being the most egregious of all: in its original production, the embassy ball was the finale of act 1!!!!! Because they needed intermission to switch the set back to Higgins' house. "You Did It" is, as a result, a recap for everything the audience might have forgotten during intermission. In that format, act 1 is unbearably long...the LCT revival was smart to move the intermission.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 11/12/21 at 1:38pm

The Most Happy Fella is written in 3 acts - when I worked on a production of it a few years ago, we did a full intermission after Act 1, and only a short pause after Act 2. So if you don't count the short pause, it really felt like a 60m / 90m split. 

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 11/12/21 at 2:09pm

Not a musical, or really answering your question...but, reading this made me think about the 2012/2013 revival of "Picnic" at Roundabout. The play is 3 acts long, and usually (at least in productions I've seen have  two 10 intermissions between acts. This time they decided to have the first act run about 1:20hrs, then act two was only 30 minutes, with a 15 minute intermission. I thought, I would have given up the intermission and just plowed through.

[kdogg36]

Posted: 11/13/21 at 9:48am

rattleNwoolypenguin said: "Or is that never a thing?"

I'm guessing there are some other examples, but the running lengths of the CDs from the Original London Cast Album of Aspects of Love show that Act One is 66:35 and Act Two is 71:31.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 11/13/21 at 10:38am

I believe Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has a longer second act of you count the megamix (assuming it's in the production).

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 11/13/21 at 11:52pm

Having just finished a run of it, I know for sure that Act 2 of Smokey Joe's Cafe is longer than Act 1.

[BroadwayRox3588]

Posted: 11/14/21 at 12:33am

I could be wrong here, but the second act of Flying Over Sunset felt longer than the first.

[Jingjo2]

Posted: 11/14/21 at 12:33pm

I remember Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the west end has act 1 running a little over 50 minute and the second act was about 1.30 hours long. Because the way the story was structured, they didn't even get to the factory until the act 1 closing number. And they have to convert a huge set for act 2 opening.

However, I can't say the same thing with Broadway. Cause they reworked the show and threw away the big set to make it tour-able. The Broadway production was so horrendous that both acts feel equally too long.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 11/14/21 at 2:12pm

I would say yes that's the standard, but there's always exceptions. 

I think most of the "Traditional" shows are 90mins first act, 60min second act.