Hi all!
I was just wondering what play or musical had the longest run time in history. Either in multiple parts (like the 8 and 1/2 hour 2 part Nicholas Nicklebly) or just in one shot! I tried googling it but all I get it results for longest running shows! Thanks!
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
Paul Claudel's play, Le Soulier de Satin (The Satin Slipper) is 11 hours long.
The Iceman Cometh is all in one shot and it's nearly 5 hours long. Taylor Mac also just did a 24-hour performance piece, but I'm not sure if one could consider that a play in the traditional sense.
Broadway Star Joined: 11/24/16
I know a theater company where I live did The Iliad as a 12 hour play. No intermission. (People were, however, allowed to come and go as they pleased)
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/29/08
Besides Iceman, my recent memory comes up with:
Long Day's Journey Into Night: ~ 4 hours
Ivo van Hove's Kings of War: ~4.5 hours
Angels in America: 3 hours + 3.5 hours = ~ 6.5 hours total
Intelligent Homosexual's Guide... = ~ 4 hours
Coast of Utopia: I believe the marathon performances (3 parts) ran 8 or 9 hours?
Isn't The Flick pretty long?
The Flick is a little over 3 hours, yes...
And bless anyone who can appreciate plays of this magnitude...as much as I wish I had the focus-span, they just aren't for me...
Robert Wilson likes to occupy time. His only show on Broadway (I think), A Letter To Queen Victoria, ran nearly four hours, his opera Einstein on the Beach is an intermissionless nearly five hours, and his "silent opera" The Life And Times of Joseph Stalin was a full twelve hours. I could swear he did a twenty-four hour show at some point. His longest was more like a progressive environmental installation piece in Iran called "Ka Mountain", which contained a full week of activity.
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/20/08
Elevator Repair Service's adaptation of The Great Gatsby was around 6 hours, I believe.
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