By Ben Lerner
If you read the Broadway’s Best Shows feature about the most-revived plays in Broadway history, you know Shakespeare is the clear leader, although he had a multi-century headstart over runners-up like Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, and Anton Chekhov. And that when focusing on twentieth-century American playwrights, Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (on Broadway until August 9!) take the cake.
But if we focus solely on musical theatre, which shows do you think we’ve seen on Broadway the most so far? Close readers of the last feature will note Gilbert & Sullivan’s operettas have been performed dozens of times, dating back to the 1870s. But when we zoom in on American Broadway musicals of the twentieth century, our winner is George & Ira Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, which premiered in 1935 and has been revived a whopping seven times since – most recently in 2012 with Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis. Sticklers may question its position, as it is an opera, but its eight Broadway productions solidify its status as a musical (and there are plenty of sung-through musicals in its company!)
That said, a more classic American musical ranks just behind with six revivals: Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein II’s Show Boat, which debuted in 1927 and was last revived in 1994, directed by Hal Prince. Tied with Show Boat is The Threepenny Opera by Berthold Brecht & Kurt Weill, but that show is classified more as a “play with music” and premiered in Germany.
When we look at the five-revival club behind Porgy and Bess and Show Boat, we’ll find some of the most well-known and beloved musicals from the Golden Age of Broadway – including some that are lovingly lampooned in this year’s Tony-winning best musical, Schmigadoon!. These include two Rodgers & Hammerstein classics: Oklahoma!, which debuted in 1943 and was most recently seen in 2019 as a stripped-down, immersive reimagining that won the Tony for Best Musical Revival, and Carousel (1945), last revived in 2018 starring Jessie Mueller and recent Tony winner Joshua Henry.
Outside of Rodgers & Hammerstein, there are four more classic musicals that have been revived five distinct times. Guys & Dolls was first performed in 1950 and last seen on Broadway in 2009, while Fiddler on the Roof premiered in 1964 and was last revived in 2015. Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents’ West Side Story debuted in 1957 and was revived most recently in a controversial production that closed for the COVID-19 pandemic and never returned. (Of course, the iconic 1961 film version was “revived” in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 remake starring Rachel Zegler!) Lastly, Jule Styne and Arthur Laurents’ Gypsy was first staged in 1959 starring Ethel Merman as Rose and has been revived five times: starring Angela Lansbury (1974), Tyne Daly (1989), Bernadette Peters (2003), Patti LuPone (2008), and, most recently, Audra McDonald (2024).
These four musicals are considered to be among the greatest of all time, especially West Side Story and Gypsy – both of which feature lyrics by a young Stephen Sondheim! (Sondheim musicals with both his music and lyrics are more modern, but Sweeney Todd and Company are in the lead with three revivals each.)
Also technically at five revivals is 1954’s Peter Pan, although four of those five revivals occurred in the 1990s starring Cathy Rigby: the 1990 revival returned for the 1991 holiday season, and the 1998 production returned in April 1999, only three months after closing its first engagement. In addition, if we see a Broadway transfer of Chez Joey – the recent reimagining of Rodgers and Hart’s Pal Joey that played a pre-Broadway engagement at Washington DC’s Arena Stage this spring – that show would hit five revivals, too. (It debuted back in 1940 and has been revived four times so far, most recently in 2008.)
Many of these most-revived shows originated before 1960, so the more modern musical classics may need some time to catch up. But of those waiting in the wings at four revivals each – The King And I, Brigadoon, Cabaret, Hello, Dolly!, My Fair Lady, and Man of La Mancha – which do you think is most due for #5? Of these, Cabaret was seen on Broadway most recently, with Eddie Redmayne in 2024, although the third revival in 2014 was technically a revival of the 1998 revival, both of which starred Alan Cumming. My Fair Lady, The King And I, and Hello, Dolly! all received large-scale fourth revivals in the 2010s – the former two at Lincoln Center and the latter at the Shubert. (Those productions of The King And I and Hello, Dolly! both won the Tonys for Best Musical Revival and Best Actress for their respective stars, Kelli O’Hara and Bette Midler).
That leaves Schmigadoon’s actual namesake, Lerner & Loewe’s Brigadoon, and Man of La Mancha as the most “overdue” to return. These two were last revived in 1980 and 2002, respectively, although Kelli O’Hara starred in Brigadoon for seven performances at New York City Center in 2017. (Unlike with City Center’s recent stagings of Once Upon A Mattress, Parade, and Ragtime, it did not transfer to Broadway.)
Now that you know the stats, which of these musicals would you like to see back on Broadway next? Or perhaps none of the above? I personally would love to see some 21st century gems like Avenue Q and The Drowsy Chaperone get their first-ever revivals!
