Helen Hayes Theater

By decade105 productions across 8 decades

1. 1910s 9
2. 1920s 34
3. 1930s 38
4. 1940s 4
5. 1960s 6
6. 1970s 8
7. 1980s 4
8. 2000s 2

Counted from the productions we hold, which are Broadway and a partial West End. A quiet decade here can mean a dark theatre and can mean a gap in the record.

Longest runs hereby performances

1977	Gemini May 21, 1977 · Peter Mark Schifter	1,819 perf.
1920	The First Year October 20, 1920 · Michell Smith	760 perf.
1970	The Me Nobody Knows December 18, 1970 · Robert H. Livingston	586 perf.
2007	Xanadu July 10, 2007 · Christopher Ashley	512 perf.
1976	The Runner Stumbles May 18, 1976 · Austin Pendleton	396 perf.
1929	Let Us Be Gay February 19, 1929	353 perf.
1926	Two Girls Wanted September 9, 1926 · Winchell Smith	324 perf.
1933	One Sunday Afternoon February 15, 1933 · Leo Bulgakov	322 perf.

Ranked among the 93 runs here that carry a performance count. 12 do not, so a longer run may be sitting outside this table with an empty field.

Everything that played here105 productions

1912	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs November 7, 1912 · Original	72 perf.
1913	Prunella October 27, 1913 · Original	104 perf.
1913	The Philanderer December 30, 1913 · Original	103 perf.
1914	A Pair of Silk Stockings October 20, 1914 · Original	223 perf.
1914	The Truth April 14, 1914 · Revival	55 perf.
1916	Hush! October 3, 1916 · Original	39 perf.
1918	A Little Journey December 26, 1918 · Original	252 perf.
1919	Papa April 10, 1919 · Original	12 perf.
1919	Please Get Married February 10, 1919 · Original	160 perf.
1920	A Midsummer Night's Dream May 18, 1920 · Revival	7 perf.
1920	He and She February 12, 1920 · Original	28 perf.
1920	Mamma's Affair January 19, 1920 · Original	98 perf.
1920	Marry the Poor Girl September 25, 1920 · Original	18 perf.
1920	The First Year October 20, 1920 · Original	760 perf.
1922	A Serpent's Tooth August 24, 1922 · Original	36 perf.
1922	Michio Itow's Pin Wheel July 31, 1922 · Original	16 perf.
1922	Spite Corner September 25, 1922 · Original	121 perf.
1923	Chicken Feed September 24, 1923 · Original	144 perf.
1923	Polly Preferred January 11, 1923 · Original	184 perf.
1924	Pigs September 1, 1924 · Original	312 perf.
1925	Don't Bother Mother February 3, 1925 · Original	2 perf.
1925	The Master of the Inn December 21, 1925 · Original	41 perf.
1925	The School for Scandal October 22, 1925 · Revival	85 perf.
1925	The Sea Woman August 24, 1925 · Original	32 perf.
1926	Seed of the Brute November 1, 1926 · Original	80 perf.
1926	The Love City January 25, 1926 · Original	42 perf.
1926	The Wisdom Tooth February 15, 1926 · Original	160 perf.
1926	Two Girls Wanted September 9, 1926 · Original	324 perf.
1927	If October 25, 1927 · Original	27 perf.
1927	Lovers and Enemies September 20, 1927 · Original	2 perf.
1927	Romancin' Round October 3, 1927 · Original	24 perf.
1927	Trigger December 6, 1927 · Original	47 perf.
1928	Box Seats April 19, 1928 · Original	28 perf.
1928	Eva the Fifth August 28, 1928 · Original	63 perf.
1928	Gods of the Lightning October 24, 1928 · Original	29 perf.
1928	La Gringa February 1, 1928 · Original	13 perf.
1928	March Hares April 2, 1928 · Revival	19 perf.
1928	Married-and How! June 14, 1928 · Original	36 perf.
1928	Spring 3100 February 15, 1928 · Original	29 perf.
1928	That Ferguson Family December 22, 1928 · Original	129 perf.
1928	The Lady Lies November 26, 1928 · Original	24 perf.
1929	House Unguarded January 15, 1929 · Original	39 perf.
1929	Let Us Be Gay February 19, 1929 · Original	353 perf.
1930	Dora Mobridge April 19, 1930 · Original	9 perf.
1930	House Afire March 31, 1930 · Original	16 perf.
1930	Life is Like That December 22, 1930 · Original	32 perf.
1930	London Calling October 18, 1930 · Original	13 perf.
1930	Many a Slip February 3, 1930 · Original	56 perf.
1930	Mr. Samuel November 10, 1930 · Original	8 perf.
1930	The Traitor May 2, 1930 · Original	17 perf.
1931	The Left Bank October 5, 1931 · Original	242 perf.
1932	Honeymoon December 23, 1932 · Original	76 perf.
1932	The Girl Outside October 24, 1932 · Original	8 perf.
1933	One Sunday Afternoon February 15, 1933 · Original	322 perf.
1933	Our Stage and Stars November 11, 1933 · Original	6 perf.
1933	The World Waits October 25, 1933 · Original	30 perf.
1933	Two Strange Women January 10, 1933 · Original	15 perf.
1934	Broomsticks, Amen! February 9, 1934 · Original	41 perf.
1934	Continental Varieties October 3, 1934 · Original	44 perf.
1934	False Dreams, Farewell January 15, 1934 · Original	25 perf.
1934	Kykunkor June 10, 1934 · Original	65 perf.
1934	One More Honeymoon March 31, 1934 · Original	17 perf.
1934	Slightly Delirious December 31, 1934 · Original	8 perf.
1934	The Lady from the Sea May 1, 1934 · Revival	15 perf.
1936	Promise December 30, 1936 · Original	29 perf.
1937	Abie's Irish Rose May 12, 1937 · Revival	46 perf.
1937	Characters and Caricatures March 1, 1937 · Original
1937	Edna His Wife December 7, 1937 · Original	32 perf.
1937	The Bough Breaks November 19, 1937 · Original	3 perf.
1938	Colin and His Wife January 11, 1938 · Original
1938	Don Quixote January 4, 1938 · Revival
1938	Every Maid Her Own Mistress January 11, 1938 · Original
1938	Gloriana November 25, 1938 · Original	5 perf.
1938	Jack at the Opera January 11, 1938 · Original
1938	Love in a Coffee Cup January 11, 1938 · Original
1938	Peggy Perkins January 11, 1938 · Original
1938	The Brickdust Man January 4, 1938 · Revival
1938	The Grenadier January 11, 1938 · Original
1938	The Token January 11, 1938 · Original
1938	Thomas and Sally January 4, 1938 · Original
1938	True Blue or The Press Gang January 4, 1938 · Revival
1940	Reunion in New York February 21, 1940 · Original	89 perf.
1941	Tanyard Street February 4, 1941 · Original	23 perf.
1941	Twelfth Night December 2, 1941 · Revival	15 perf.
1941	Your Loving Son April 4, 1941 · Original	3 perf.
1963	Double Dublin December 26, 1963 · Original	4 perf.
1963	Tambourines to Glory November 2, 1963 · Original	24 perf.
1964	Baby Want a Kiss April 19, 1964 · Original	148 perf.
1964	Children of the Shadows February 26, 1964 · Original	17 perf.
1964	Each Had Six Wings March 11, 1964 · Original	14 perf.
1964	The Dybbuk February 3, 1964 · Revival	24 perf.
1970	The Me Nobody Knows December 18, 1970 · Original	586 perf.
1974	Medea and Jason October 2, 1974 · Revival	2 perf.
1974	My Sister, My Sister April 30, 1974 · Original	238 perf.
1975	Lamppost Reunion October 16, 1975 · Original	77 perf.
1975	Man on the Moon January 29, 1975 · Original	5 perf.
1976	The Runner Stumbles May 18, 1976 · Original	396 perf.
1977	Gemini May 21, 1977 · Original	1,819 perf.
1977	Unexpected Guests March 2, 1977 · Original	6 perf.
1980	Charlie and Algernon September 14, 1980 · Original	17 perf.
1981	Ned and Jack November 8, 1981 · Original	1 perf.
1982	Solomon's Child April 8, 1982 · Original	4 perf.
1982	The Curse of an Aching Heart January 25, 1982 · Original	31 perf.
2001	By Jeeves October 28, 2001 · Original	73 perf.
2007	Xanadu July 10, 2007 · Original	512 perf.

In the literature8 passages

• The following songs were dropped in preproduction: “You Never Had It So Good,” “Wake Up, Little Theatre,” and various sequences from “Me and Juliet.”Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals, The - Dan Dietz
• • The Little Theatre Guild of Great Britain (LTG), founded in 1946, represents amateur companies which are generally larger and control their own premises. It has 103 members located in England, and boasts Sir Ian McKellen as a Patron. He has said: ‘Like many professional actors, I am a graduate of the Little Theatre Guild, whose member t…So You Want To Be In Musicals_ (So You Want to Be_. (Nick Hern Books)) - Ruthie Henshall
• When Kauffmann arrived at the Helen Hayes Theater on February 15, the night before Friel's play was scheduled to open, the marquee was dark. The performance had been cancelled, ticketholders were informed, because a rat had been discovered in the generator. Kauffmann was especially grieved on behalf of his wife, when the pair became a pub…David Merrick - The Abominable Showman_ The Unauthorized Biography (Applause Books) - Howard Kissel
• Wallace got back to work quickly, starring in Nuts to You , a revue produced by the Harlem Showcase at the YMCA Little Theatre on West 135th Street. “Royce Wallace is known to many people here and abroad,” declared the Amsterdam News . 94 In fact, her stock seemed to be rising, as she took on more prominent roles, “heading” a “summer show…Bernstein Meets Broadway_ Collaborative Art in a Time of War (Broadway Legacies) - Carol J. Oja
• I saw the original production of La Cage aux Folles at the Palace and it rocked my world. I was just a little theatre nerd in the 1980s and it was so big and gay and fabulous—it blew me away. It was larger than life. It gave the Palace this really specific feeling for me that has always lasted.Untold Stories of Broadway, Volume 2 PART 1, The - Jennifer Tepper

What this page does not know

• What played here before Broadway record-keeping starts, and what played here outside it: concerts, benefits, film runs, anything that was not a listed production.
• How long 12 of these runs lasted. We don't have a performance count.
• When 73 of these runs ended. They carry an opening date and no closing date, and they are old enough that they certainly closed. Nobody wrote down the date.
• Who built it.