When a musical or play comes back to Broadway in a revival, the biggest question is usually how it will compare to its Broadway premiere. Most commonly, the revival plays for a shorter time, but there are multiple shows that beat the odds and outplayed the original run.
Flip through the 17 shows below to see if you know which production ran longer:
Anything Goes: 1934 vs. 2011
REVIVAL: 521 performances (original 420)
Joan Marcus
Cabaret: 1966 vs. 1998
REVIVAL: 2,377 performances (original 1,165)
Joan Marcus
Cats: 1982 vs. 2016
ORIGINAL: 7,485 performances (revival 593)
Martha Swope / The New York Public Library
Chicago: 1975 vs. 1996
REVIVAL: 8,851 performances as of March 4, 2018 (original 936)
Dan Chavkin
Falsettos: 1992 vs. 2016
ORIGINAL: 486 performances (revival 84)
Gypsy: 1959 vs. 2008
ORIGINAL: 702 performances (revival 332)
Friedman-Abeles/©NYPL for the Performing Arts
Kiss Me Kate: 1948 vs. 1999
ORIGINAL: 1,077 performances (revival 881)
Oh! Calcutta!: 1969 vs. 1976
REVIVAL: 5,959 performances (original 1,314)
Peter Pan: 1954 vs. 1979
REVIVAL: 554 performances (original 152)
Ragtime: 1998 vs. 2009
ORIGINAL: 834 performances (revival 65)
Catherine Ashmore
The Rocky Horror Show: 1975 vs. 2000
REVIVAL: 437 performances (original 45)
She Loves Me: 1963 vs. 1993
REVIVAL: 354 performances (original 301)
Martha Swope/©NYPL for the Performing Arts
Spring Awakening: 2006 vs. 2015
ORIGINAL: 859 performances (revival 135)
South Pacific: 1949 vs. 2008
ORIGINAL: 1,925 performances (revival 996)
John Swope / The New York Public Library
Sweeney Todd: 1979 vs. 2005
ORIGINAL: 557 performances (revival 349)
West Side Story: 1957 vs. 2009
REVIVAL: 748 performances (original 732)
Joan Marcus
Zorba: 1968 vs. 1983
REVIVAL: 362 performances (original 305)
