Music Box Theatre

By decade144 productions across 11 decades

1. 1920s 14
2. 1930s 18
3. 1940s 14
4. 1950s 12
5. 1960s 19
6. 1970s 9
7. 1980s 15
8. 1990s 10
9. 2000s 13
10. 2010s 12
11. 2020s 8

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

1978	Deathtrap February 26, 1978 · Robert Moore	1,793 perf.
2016	Dear Evan Hansen December 4, 2016 · Michael Greif	1,670 perf.
1970	Sleuth November 12, 1970 · Clifford Williams	1,222 perf.
1964	Any Wednesday February 18, 1964 · Henry Kaplan	983 perf.
1993	Blood Brothers April 25, 1993 · Bob Tomson	840 perf.
1939	The Man Who Came to Dinner October 16, 1939	739 perf.
1944	I Remember Mama October 19, 1944	713 perf.
2013	Pippin April 25, 2013 · Diane Paulus	709 perf.

Ranked among the 142 runs here that carry a performance count. 2 do not, so a longer run may be sitting outside this table with an empty field.

Everything that played here144 productions

1921	Music Box Revue [1921] September 22, 1921 · Original	440 perf.
1921	Music Box Revue September 22, 1921 · Original	440 perf.
1922	Music Box Revue [1922-23] October 23, 1922 · Original	330 perf.
1923	Music Box Revue [1923] September 22, 1923 · Original	273 perf.
1924	Earl Carroll's Vanities [1924] September 10, 1924 · Original	133 perf.
1924	Music Box Revue [1924] December 1, 1924 · Original	184 perf.
1925	Cradle Snatchers September 7, 1925 · Original	478 perf.
1926	Chicago December 30, 1926 · Original	172 perf.
1926	Gentle Grafters October 27, 1926 · Original	39 perf.
1926	L'Illusioniste November 22, 1926 · Original	72 perf.
1926	Mozart November 22, 1926 · Original	32 perf.
1927	Paris Bound December 27, 1927 · Original	234 perf.
1928	Paris October 8, 1928 · Revival	195 perf.
1929	The Little Show April 30, 1929 · Original	321 perf.
1930	Once in a Lifetime September 24, 1930 · Original	406 perf.
1930	Topaze February 12, 1930 · Original	215 perf.
1931	Of Thee I Sing December 26, 1931 · Original	441 perf.
1931	The Third Little Show June 1, 1931 · Original	136 perf.
1932	Dinner at Eight October 22, 1932 · Original	232 perf.
1933	As Thousands Cheer September 30, 1933 · Original	400 perf.
1934	Merrily We Roll Along September 29, 1934 · Original	155 perf.
1935	Ceiling Zero April 10, 1935 · Original	104 perf.
1935	First Lady November 26, 1935 · Original	246 perf.
1935	If This Be Treason September 23, 1935 · Original	40 perf.
1935	Pride and Prejudice November 5, 1935 · Original	219 perf.
1935	Rain February 12, 1935 · Revival	47 perf.
1936	Stage Door October 22, 1936 · Original	169 perf.
1937	Of Mice and Men November 23, 1937 · Original	207 perf.
1938	Sing Out the News September 24, 1938 · Original	105 perf.
1939	From Vienna June 20, 1939 · Original	79 perf.
1939	Set to Music January 18, 1939 · Original	129 perf.
1939	The Man Who Came to Dinner October 16, 1939 · Original	739 perf.
1941	The Land Is Bright October 28, 1941 · Original	79 perf.
1942	A Kiss for Cinderella March 10, 1942 · Revival	48 perf.
1942	Star and Garter June 24, 1942 · Revival	609 perf.
1943	Feathers in a Gale December 21, 1943 · Original	7 perf.
1944	I Remember Mama October 19, 1944 · Original	713 perf.
1944	Over 21 January 3, 1944 · Original	221 perf.
1946	Christopher Blake November 30, 1946 · Original	114 perf.
1946	Mr. Peebles and Mr. Hooker October 10, 1946 · Original	4 perf.
1948	Summer and Smoke October 6, 1948 · Original	102 perf.
1948	The Cup of Trembling April 20, 1948 · Original	31 perf.
1948	The Linden Tree March 2, 1948 · Original	7 perf.
1949	Lost in the Stars October 30, 1949 · Original	281 perf.
1949	Mrs. Gibbons' Boys May 4, 1949 · Original	5 perf.
1949	They Knew What They Wanted February 16, 1949 · Revival	61 perf.
1950	Daphne Laureola September 18, 1950 · Original	56 perf.
1952	Flight Into Egypt March 18, 1952 · Original	46 perf.
1952	Much Ado About Nothing May 1, 1952 · Revival	4 perf.
1953	Picnic February 19, 1953 · Revival	477 perf.
1953	Touchstone February 3, 1953 · Original	7 perf.
1955	Bus Stop March 2, 1955 · Original	478 perf.
1956	Separate Tables October 25, 1956 · Original	332 perf.
1956	The Ponder Heart February 16, 1956 · Original	149 perf.
1957	Miss Lonelyhearts October 3, 1957 · Original	12 perf.
1957	The Dark at the Top of the Stairs December 5, 1957 · Original	468 perf.
1959	Five Finger Exercise December 2, 1959 · Original	337 perf.
1959	Rashomon January 27, 1959 · Original	159 perf.
1960	Invitation to a March October 29, 1960 · Original	113 perf.
1961	A Far Country April 4, 1961 · Original	271 perf.
1961	Daughter of Silence November 30, 1961 · Original	36 perf.
1961	Once There Was a Russian February 18, 1961 · Original	1 perf.
1962	Romulus January 10, 1962 · Original	69 perf.
1962	The Beauty Part December 26, 1962 · Original	85 perf.
1963	Dear Me, The Sky is Falling March 2, 1963 · Original	145 perf.
1963	Have I Got a Girl for You! December 2, 1963 · Original	1 perf.
1963	Love and Kisses December 18, 1963 · Original	13 perf.
1963	Semi-Detached October 7, 1963 · Revival	16 perf.
1964	Any Wednesday February 18, 1964 · Original	983 perf.
1966	Hostile Witness February 17, 1966 · Original	156 perf.
1966	How's the World Treating You? October 24, 1966 · Original	40 perf.
1967	The Homecoming January 5, 1967 · Original	324 perf.
1967	There's a Girl in My Soup October 18, 1967 · Original	322 perf.
1969	Angela October 30, 1969 · Revival	4 perf.
1969	Harkness Ballet January 13, 1969 · Original
1969	Love Is a Time of Day December 22, 1969 · Original	8 perf.
1969	The Watering Place March 12, 1969 · Original	1 perf.
1970	Charles Aznavour February 3, 1970 · Original	23 perf.
1970	Inquest April 23, 1970 · Original	28 perf.
1970	Sleuth November 12, 1970 · Original	1,222 perf.
1974	Absurd Person Singular October 8, 1974 · Original	591 perf.
1974	Rainbow Jones February 13, 1974 · Original	1 perf.
1976	Comedians November 28, 1976 · Original	145 perf.
1976	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? April 1, 1976 · Revival	117 perf.
1977	Side by Side by Sondheim April 18, 1977 · Original	384 perf.
1978	Deathtrap February 26, 1978 · Original	1,793 perf.
1982	Agnes of God March 30, 1982 · Original	599 perf.
1982	Special Occasions February 7, 1982 · Original	1 perf.
1983	Brothers November 9, 1983 · Revival	1 perf.
1984	Alone Together October 21, 1984 · Original	97 perf.
1984	End of the World May 6, 1984 · Original	33 perf.
1984	Open Admissions January 29, 1984 · Original	17 perf.
1985	Hay Fever December 12, 1985 · Revival	124 perf.
1985	The Octette Bridge Club March 5, 1985 · Original	24 perf.
1986	Loot April 7, 1986 · Revival	96 perf.
1987	Les Liaisons Dangereuses April 30, 1987 · Original	149 perf.
1987	Sweet Sue January 8, 1987 · Original	164 perf.
1988	Mail April 14, 1988 · Original	37 perf.
1988	Spoils of War November 10, 1988 · Original	36 perf.
1989	A Few Good Men November 15, 1989 · Original	497 perf.
1989	Welcome to the Club April 13, 1989 · Original	12 perf.
1991	Lucifer's Child April 4, 1991 · Original	28 perf.
1991	Park Your Car in Harvard Yard November 7, 1991 · Original	124 perf.
1992	A Small Family Business April 27, 1992 · Original	48 perf.
1993	Blood Brothers April 25, 1993 · Original	840 perf.
1995	Swinging on a Star October 22, 1995 · Original	96 perf.
1996	State Fair March 27, 1996 · Original	110 perf.
1997	Barrymore March 25, 1997 · Original	236 perf.
1997	The Diary of Anne Frank December 4, 1997 · Revival	221 perf.
1999	Amadeus December 15, 1999 · Revival	173 perf.
1999	Closer March 25, 1999 · Original	172 perf.
2000	Macbeth June 15, 2000 · Revival	13 perf.
2000	The Dinner Party October 19, 2000 · Original	364 perf.
2002	Amour October 20, 2002 · Original	17 perf.
2002	Fortune's Fool April 2, 2002 · Original	127 perf.
2003	Cat on a Hot Tin Roof November 2, 2003 · Revival	145 perf.
2004	Dame Edna: Back with a Vengeance November 21, 2004 · Original	163 perf.
2005	In My Life October 20, 2005 · Original	61 perf.
2005	Primo July 11, 2005 · Original	35 perf.
2006	Festen April 9, 2006 · Original	49 perf.
2006	The Vertical Hour November 30, 2006 · Original	117 perf.
2007	Deuce May 6, 2007 · Original	121 perf.
2007	The Farnsworth Invention December 3, 2007 · Original	104 perf.
2009	Superior Donuts October 1, 2009 · Original	109 perf.
2010	La Bête October 14, 2010 · Revival	101 perf.
2010	Lend Me a Tenor April 4, 2010 · Revival	153 perf.
2011	Jerusalem April 21, 2011 · Original	141 perf.
2011	Private Lives November 17, 2011 · Revival	53 perf.
2012	Dead Accounts November 29, 2012 · Original	44 perf.
2012	One Man, Two Guvnors April 18, 2012 · Original	159 perf.
2012	Shatner's World: We Just Live in It February 16, 2012 · Original	17 perf.
2013	Pippin April 25, 2013 · Revival	709 perf.
2015	King Charles III November 1, 2015 · Original	103 perf.
2015	The Heidi Chronicles March 19, 2015 · Revival	53 perf.
2016	Dear Evan Hansen December 4, 2016 · Original	1,670 perf.
2016	Shuffle Along, Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed April 28, 2016 · Original	100 perf.
2022	Walking with Ghosts October 27, 2022 · Original	25 perf.
2023	Bob Fosse's Dancin' March 19, 2023 · Revival	65 perf.
2023	Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch September 27, 2023 · Revival	151 perf.
2024	Suffs April 18, 2024 · Original	300 perf.
2025	Art September 16, 2025 · Revival	110 perf.
2025	The Picture of Dorian Gray March 27, 2025 · Original	96 perf.
2026	Giant March 23, 2026 · Original	105 perf.
2026	Inter Alia December 1, 2026 · Original

In the literature8 passages

• Based on Alan Paton’s 1948 novel Cry, the Beloved Country , the musical was originally produced on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre on October 30, 1949, for 281 performances with Todd Duncan (Stephen Kumalo), Leslie Banks (James Jarvis), and Julian Mayfield (Absalom Kumalo). Besides the current production by the New York City Opera Compa…Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals, The - Dan Dietz
• Miss Lonelyhearts by Howard Teichmann (Music Box Theatre, October 3, 1957, 12 performances)Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals, The - Dan Dietz
• Side by Side by Sondheim opened in New York at the Music Box Theatre on 18 April 1977 after five preview performances. There were 29 songs presented in the show, plus a medley of perhaps a dozen more, including numbers dropped from Sondheim shows during either rehearsals or out-of-town tryouts. The stage was bare except for two pianos and…Harold Prince_ A Director's Journey - Carol Ilson
• 4 . For example, “Music Box Theatre, Expensively Built / Cost Over $1,000,000 to Date—May Be Scaled at $4—Open in Sept.” ran a subhead on a page-one Variety article of July 22, 1921. And a New York Times column, “Gossip of the Rialto,” Aug. 7, 1921, similarly noted that the theater cost one million, “twice the $500,000 that was originally…Irving Berlin's American Musical Theater (Broadway Legacies) - Jeffrey Magee
• Raúl was then set to play Zangara in the revival of Assassins , which was going to play the Music Box Theatre. However, after September 11th the show was canceled because of the theme. Unfortunately, Raúl had already quit tick, tick… BOOM! , so he had no gig. Out of the blue, The Roundabout called and offered him the role of the Emcee in…Seth's Broadway Diary, Volume 1_ Part 1 - Seth Rudetsky

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 2 of these runs lasted. We don't have a performance count.
• When 17 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.