The Drama Nerds Database

Every show that played Broadway and the West End.

Who wrote it, who was in it, which theatre, how long it ran, and every recording of it.

Try Sondheim, Gwen Verdon, or the Shubert Theatre.

Sheet music cover of Leave It to Jane, 1917.

109 years ago today

Leave It to Jane

Opened at the Longacre Theatre on August 28, 1917, and played 167 performances.

Sheet music cover, 1917. Music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by P. G. Wodehouse. Published by T. B. Harms & Co., New York

The longest runs on Broadway Every show, longest run first

How many times each one played, counting its longest-running production.

Collections All 2,356

Today's collection

Shows that played once

Shows that played once. Some are disasters — six opened and shut at the Nora Bayes in 1923 alone. Others are benefits and galas that were only ever meant to happen once. The data records how long a show ran, not what it was for, so we cannot tell you which is which.

  1. Barack on Broadway 2012 · New Amsterdam Theatre · 1 performance
  2. 8 2011 · Eugene Oneill Theatre · 1 performance
  3. Camelot 2011 · Shubert Theatre · 1 performance
  4. She Loves Me 2011 · Stephen Sondheim Theatre · 1 performance
  5. The Visit 2011 · Ambassador Theatre · 1 performance
  6. Brigadoon 2010 · Shubert Theatre · 1 performance
  7. Bernadette Peters: A Special Concert for Broadway Barks Because Broadway Cares 2009 · Minskoff Theatre · 1 performance
  8. Chance & Chemistry 2009 · Minskoff Theatre · 1 performance

See all 407 productions in this collection →

Staged again and again

Show Boat, Porgy and Bess, Gypsy, Oklahoma!, Fiddler. Shows revived three times or more.

  • Hamlet 1761
  • Macbeth 1768
  • The Merchant of Venice 1768

One-word titles

Sally. Irene. Sinbad. Maytime. Gypsy. Hair. Chicago. Rent. Titles cut down to a single word.

  • Cato 1750
  • Hamlet 1761
  • Cymbeline 1767

"A New Musical"

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn "A New Musical". Carnival in Flanders "A Musical Comedy". For a few years in the early fifties the billing was part of the title, because the producers were nervous…

  • A Tree Grows in Brooklyn “A New Musical” 1951
  • Three Wishes for Jamie “A New Musical Play” 1952
  • Anna Russell and Her Little Show “An Intimate Revue” 1953

Anyone can add to this

This catalogue is written by the people who use it. Every page has a correction link, every change is signed with the name of whoever made it, and anything can be undone. Reading needs no account; editing needs one so your work has your name on it.

  • 9,808 of the 10,373 shows here have no recording listed. Plenty of them were never recorded. Others were, and we have not found the record yet. If you have seen one, that is a gap you can close.
  • 9,594 shows have no picture on their page. A programme cover, a window card or a sleeve scan fills one in.
  • Cast lists run thin before 1950. If you have a playbill, you have something we do not.

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