Photos12 Shows That Unfold in Real-Time OnstageWhile many plays and musicals feature jumps or lapses in time, the plots of these twelve shows take place over the same amount of time it takes to perform them.
By
Nathan Skethway
January 08, 2022
Almost all theatrical productions rely on a certain amount of suspension of disbelief; one of the dramatic factors which require that suspension is the timeline over which a show takes place. Most plays and musicals are divided into acts and scenes, with the potential for significant jumps in time between them.
However, there are also shows that feature no time jumps at all and instead take place within the specific window of time necessary to perform them, or "real-time." Some are plays set in offices, living rooms, dining rooms, or bedrooms, such as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf or God of Carnage; others are musicals set up as a concert, such as Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Even Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, which features the unbroken action of a single night in a junk yard, falls within this category.
Check out the gallery below to see twelve plays and musicals that take place in real-time.
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12 Shows That Unfold in Real-Time Onstage
12 Shows That Unfold in Real-Time Onstage
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The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn, Rachel Sheinkin, Rebecca Feldman, and Jay Reiss
Michael Shannon and Audra McDonald
Deen van Meer
Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Matthew Murphy
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee
Friedman-Abeles / The New York Public Library
Kerry Washington, Steven Pasquale, and Jeremy Jordan in American Son
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