Longest Shows...

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 4:07pm

I was just reading production info on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and the show run time is 2 hours and 50 minutes long with TWO intermissions (15 minutes). I know the Sound of Music is long, but what others are really long? Any others require two intermissions??

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 4:10pm

I'm not sure length would necessarily necessitate a second intermission, it's more a production decision. Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'Cinderella' is written with two intermissions and its not all that long.

'Les Mis' and 'Showboat' both shoot over 3 hours, generally. I think 'Molly Brown's pretty damned eternal too.

[Cadriel]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 4:13pm

Plays tend to have a variable number of acts. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof has three acts. There is an intermission between each act, giving you two intermissions.

Many shows run over 3 hours (both Chess and Les Misérables were trimmed from 3:15 to just under 3 to cut costs); I think the play The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby was of the sort where they had to let you out for a while so you could eat dinner. Can anyone give an actual time on it?

-Wayne

[ChristineDaae]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 4:13pm

Wasn't La Boheme long?

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 4:16pm

Nickelby was around 9 hours long.

[robbiej]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 4:23pm

Angels in America was closing in on the 7 hour mark. Each part had two intermissions (although Perestroika had 5 acts).

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 4:30pm

I would just think two intermissions is a lot. The bar must get a lot of moola!

[WOSQ]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 4:36pm

O'Neill loved to overwrite. Strange Interlude, Mourning Becomes Electra, Iceman Cometh and Long Day's Journey all clock in at over 4 hours.

Long Wharf did a production of Mourning Becomes Electra last winter that ran "only" 3:15 (normally about 5) because the director and dramaturg went after it with hedge shears and removed huge sections of the play that were utterly unmissed.

Nickleby was performed in two parts and you bought one expensive ticket for the two parts. You had a choice of seeing it all in one day, matinee and evening, or in successive nights.

There was an adaptation of Great Expectations done by the Sydney Theatre Co last November that came in at about 4. Neither one of these Dickens stories gave the audience the proverbial fanny fatigue in the least.

August Wilson writes long. All are about 3 hours.

Let's not even discuss The Ring.

If its good, it doesn't matter how long it is. If its bad, 20 minutes is a lifetime.

[Shawk]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 4:44pm

To my knowledge, La Boheme is really not all that long.

[sheekala]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 5:37pm

Many, many years ago I attended a production of GREASE which ran over THREE HOURS, by the end of it there wasn't any "worse things they could do!"

[Scooter]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 5:53pm

proof of the misconception of opera! boheme was only 2:15

[robbiej]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 6:06pm

Oh Sheekala,

This wasn't at Woodridge High School in Woodridge, NJ circa spring of '89, was it???

I never sat through a longer production of anything in my LIFE!

Updated On: 10/9/03 at 06:06 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 6:13pm

LA BOHEME is really a short opera. However, when performed at the Met, there are half hour intermissions. Still, Acts One and Two are combined with only a brief pause between the acts.

[sheekala]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 6:21pm

HAH! robbiej, this production was in Chicago, and it add insult to injury the "Rizzo" looked like Danny Devito, poor gal!

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 7:03pm

I just pictured danny devito singing "there are worse things I could do..." hope I can sleep tonight.

[Becky]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 7:13pm

I'm not sure if this is normal (I'm not familiar with other productions of this) but I attended a production of My Fair Lady that was well over 3 hours. At intermission I looked up and it was after 10pm.

I didn't care for it mostly because of that fact.

[Rypm25]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 7:21pm

A few years ago I saw Indiscretions on Broadway which was 3 acts with two intermissions.

[StateOfJade]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 7:23pm

Oh dear, that IS a frightening image! Take some Nyquil.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 7:33pm

Metro seemed like it went on for days

[theatrediva10086]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 7:54pm

Compared to the other shows listed I know this isnt as long, but As You Like was given a running time of 2 hours and 55 minutes for the current touring production...
And, before Les Mis closed, wasnt it pulling close to the three hour mark and they had to shave a few minutes off of it?

Posted: 10/9/03 at 8:17pm

THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF NICHOLAS NICKLEBY ran for approximately 9 hours: in two parts of 4+ hours each.

A once in a life-time theatre experience. This is what makes one love theatre.

It's recently available on DVD. The Royal Shakespeare Company production, not the recent movie, please.

Bulldog.

[newyorkuniq]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 9:47pm

Boheme didn't seem long because it was so stunning...Long Days Journey takes the cake for me. It really dragged.

[Mattio98]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 9:50pm

I heard that Long Day's Journey Into Night was VERY long

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/9/03 at 10:00pm

FORBIDDEN BWY perfectly lampooned the Hal Prince staging of SHOWBOAT:

"Old show SHOWBOAT
They call it 'slowboat'
They should cut sumpthin'
But don't cut nuthin'
It just keeps goin'
It keeps on goin' along"

God, was that a tush killer!

As far as NICHOLAS NICKLEBY was concerned, it was a memorable experience in the theater. Yes, it was long, but it was riviting and at points the audience was literally dancing in the aisles--with the musicians. There was also a muffin fight, where the audience tossed English muffins at the actor playing Nicholas' mean uncle.

The restaurants near the theater offered NICKLEBY specials. You pre-paid for your dinner before the show (which I think started at noon) and chose your main course. Then you rushed to that restaurant during the one hour dinner break. Your name was at the place on the big round table where you sat with others who were seeing the show and your salad was already on the table waiting for you. The entre was served in record time, followed by coffee and dessert. Conversation, of course, was about the show. We were out of the restuarant and back in our seats with time to spare before the second half.

At about 9:30 PM, euphoria set in and the audience and the actors seemed to mesh. It was one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had in the theater. In fact, Roger Rees and I were talking about it at the BC/EFA Flea Market a few weeks ago, As you know, he was Nicholas in the first production of the show that was done on BWY.

[magruder]

Posted: 10/10/03 at 2:00am

The Most Happy Fella, Anyone Can Whistle and No, No, Nanette are all three act musicals.