Who has the most Broadway credits?

[bially082]

Posted: 12/4/05 at 1:02am

I just finished watching Moon Over Broadway again. This time I watched it with the commentary ON. And Philip Bosco only made his ego seem bigger to me. His ego is SO HUGE! I decided to look him up on IBDB to see if he was justified in having this massive ego, and holy crap, he has 50 Broadway Credits! That's a lot. i don't recall coming accross any performer who has had that many roles on Broadway. So the question here is- Can anyone find a performer who beats him? Role size doesn't matter, but they have to be ON STAGE APPEARANCES by an actor or actress. 50 is a lot in less than 50 years. I'd say his ego is huge, but at least he has something to back it up...

[bially082]

Posted: 12/4/05 at 1:25am

Anyone have any ideas?

[bially082]

Posted: 12/4/05 at 1:33pm

Thanks for noticing that. I never knew there waas a rep company on Broadway.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/4/05 at 2:18pm

Lots of performers from the 1910s through 1930s have 50+ credits, partly because there were so many more shows in a season in those days and even the hits often only ran a few months, so it wasn't unusual for a performer to be in 3 or 4 shows a season.

Without counting up the numbers, some of the performers with a long list of credits:

Eva Le Galliene
Helen Hayes
Ethel Barrymore
Katharine Cornell

PS There have been several rep companies on Broadway over the years.

Updated On: 12/4/05 at 02:18 PM

[Conor]

Posted: 12/4/05 at 2:30pm

wow, what an interesting question. What about for modern, post-rep Broadway? Who has the most then?

[SharonZ]

Posted: 12/4/05 at 2:33pm

I don't know about actors, but look at Paul Huntley's wig design credits. He's amazing.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/4/05 at 2:49pm

You're not going to find anyone working today with 50+ credits. Shows run too long now and performers often stay with shows for YEARS at a time -- something that never happened back in the old days. Even a 50 year veteran like Chita Rivera has fewer than 20 credits. Frances Sternhagen has 25 in 50 years.

Nathan Lane is one of the busiest stage actors of his generation with over 15 Broadway credits in just over 20 years.

[Pippin]

Posted: 12/4/05 at 4:09pm

Doesn't Jerry Orbach hold the record for most shows? or is the most number of performances out of any other actor?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/4/05 at 4:15pm

Neither.

Orbach did 9 Broadway shows -- hardly a record of any kind (there are hundreds of performers who have more than 20 shows to their credit).

And I'm not sure how many performances he has, but it certainly wouldn't be anywhere near the record for most ever -- not even close.

[pab]

Posted: 12/4/05 at 4:29pm

Pippin, you might be confused with the fact that Jerry Orbach originated the role of El Gallio in "The Fantasticks" which ran for over seventeen thousand performances before it closed in 2002 and was an Off-Broadway production. He opened in the show in 1960 but by 1961 he made his Broadway musical debut as Paul in Carnival.

Updated On: 12/4/05 at 04:29 PM

[Pippin]

Posted: 12/4/05 at 4:33pm

I could have sworn that somewhere I heard that as a leading man, Orbach has had the most hours logged on a broadway stage, but I have no idea where I heard it, but if he only has done 9 shows, well, that blows my theory out of the water.