Revivals playing the same theatre as the original productions

BroadwayNYC2 said: "The original West Side Story planed the Broadway for a bit in between runs at the Winter Garden. Not sure why it transferred for a short while and then transferred back

Gypsy on the other hand seems to have the opposite problem. The show seems to have played every major music house in its many revivals, but never repeats."

Gypsy has indeed repeated theatres, both the '89 revival with Tyne Daly and the '08 revival with Patti LuPone ran at the St. James (the '89 revival did transfer to the Marquis for a few months when Tyne Daly returned to the role after Linda Lavin concluded her run at the St. James in early '91).

The original production of Awake and Sing! and the 2006 LCT revival both played the Belasco.

The original production of The Elephant Man and the recent Bradley Cooper revival played the Booth.

The original production of A Streetcar Named Desire and the Alec Baldwin/Jessica Lange revival in the early 90s both played the Barrymore.

The original production of The Gin Game and the most recent James Earl Jones/Cicely Tyson revival played the Golden.

Had it officially opened, the Laurie Metcalf revival of ...Virginia Woolf? would have played the Booth as did the recent Tracey Letts/Amy Morton revival (although the original played the Rose, which is now the Nederlander).

Updated On: 5/10/20 at 10:44 PM

Hair's original Broadway run (1968-1972) and the short-lived revival (1977) both played at the Biltmore.

JBroadway said: "jagman1062 said: "Had it officially opened, the Laurie Metcalf revival of ...Virginia Woolf? would have played the Booth"



For the sake of this discussion, I think it's fair to say that this recent revival did in fact play the Booth- no hypotheticals necessary. It had9 whole performances after all, so thousands of people saw it (regrettably - I was not one of them. When will I stop bringing up how sad I am about this fact, you ask? Who knows! I need to vent somewhere...)"

I always thought that a show had to have an official opening night to be considered to have actually played on Broadway, but for the sake of this thread, I agree that it qualifies. I, too, am disappointed that I didn't get to see this production - my tickets were for April 26. I can only hope that it will be remounted some time in the future with Metcalf reprising Martha.

jagman1062 said: "I always thought that a show had to have an official opening night to be considered to have actually played on Broadway"



I think it sort of depends on who you ask, and what exactly they're measuring. Some don't count previews as "real performances," but of course, they quite literally are - in the sense that it is a literal performance in a Broadway theatre. Especially these days, when previews are barely any different from performances after opening, and the tickets cost the same.

Speaking as someone who sees most Broadway shows in previews, it's hard for me to imagine saying that a show didn't play Broadway if it only played previews. I can see why they might not be eligible for awards, and why they wouldn't be reviewed, but I think it's fair to say that they played Broadway.

For example, I saw The Minutes in previews, and if someone wanted to know, they might ask me "Where did you see The Minutes? At Steppenwolf, or on Broadway?" And it would be fair and accurate for me to say "I saw it on Broadway" - because that's where it was playing: on Broadway. And the fact that they haven't had (and may never have) an official opening night doesn't change that.