Broadway is an American institution with more than 100 years of history. In that time, dozens of productions, mostly musicals, have played thousands of consecutive performances over the course of several years. The Phantom of the Opera is the longest-running show in Broadway history with 13,981 performances from January 26, 1988 to April 16, 2023. Each of the 19 longest-running shows are musicals, all of which have had more than 3,200 performances, and only four of the 40 longest-running productions in Broadway history are plays.
“Straight plays can’t offer comparable razzle-dazzle, which means they’re a harder sell to a tourist crowd, unless they have major stars involved,” wrote Alexis Soloski in a 2017 article for The Guardian questioning why plays struggled to attract audiences during a record-breaking year for musicals.
Whatever the reason, some plays have enjoyed greater longevity than others. Only one of the five longest-running plays, however, opened in the last 50 years. Here’s a look at each of those plays.
1. Life with Father (3,224 Performances)
Adapted from Clarence Day’s autobiographical collection of stories in 1935, Life with Father is a play written by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It opened on November 8, 1939 and closed July 12, 1947, running for 3,224 performances. It was shown at the Empire Theatre, Bijou Theatre, and Alvin Theatre.
Life with Father humorously depicted the life of an overburdened Wall Street broker and his family in the late 19th century. The cast included Howard Lindsay as Day’s father Clarence “Clare” Day Sr. and his real life wife Dorothy Stickney as Lavinia “Vinnie” Day. William Powell and Irene Dunne starred as the husband and wife in the 1947 film adaptation, directed by Michael Curtiz, and CBS aired a Life with Father TV series from November 1953 to July 1955.
Despite its box office success, there haven’t been any major revivals of the play in New York since 1967, in part due to its outdated take on gender politics and large 16-character cast.
2. Tobacco Road (3,182 Performances)
Based on Erskine Caldwell’s novel of the same name, Tobacco Road is the second-longest running play and the 21st longest-running Broadway production of all-time. Adapted for the stage by Jack Kirkland, it opened at the Theatre Masque, now known as the John Golden Theatre, on December 4, 1933. It later transferred to the 48th Street Theatre and Forrest Theatre, running for a combined 3,182 performances before closing on May 31, 1941.
Tobacco Road tells the story of a poverty-stricken family in rural Georgia. The Lester family, once successful sharecroppers, adjust to their new reality in the now desolate farm country. The play was revived three times on Broadway from 1942 to 1950, although concerns of it being immoral and sensationalist led to its banishment elsewhere, including in Detroit and Chicago.
3. Abie’s Irish Rose (2,327 Performances)
Abie’s Irish Rose, a comedy written by Anne Nichols, became the longest-running Broadway play in the 1920s, when it surpassed the previous record of 1,291 performances set by the 1918 comedy Lightnin’. The play, detailing the controversial relationship between an Irish Catholic girl and a young Jewish man, received unfavorable reviews upon opening on May 23, 1922 at the Fulton Theatre, but ran for 2,327 performances until it closed on October 22, 1927. George Brent, who later appeared in several films alongside Bette Davis, was the male lead and Peggy Parry was the female lead.
Abie’s Irish Rose had Broadway revivals in 1937 and 1954 and inspired a pair of films and a weekly NBC radio series.
4. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2,207 Performances)
As of May 18, 2025, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child had run for 2,207 performances since opening at the Lyric Theatre on April 22, 2018. Set nearly two decades after the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final novel in J.K. Rowling’s acclaimed fantasy series, the play follows the second son of Harry, Albus Severus Potter, who works as an official at the Ministry of Magic. It is the most awarded new Broadway play of all-time, winning six Tony Awards, including Best Play, and five Drama Desk Awards, in 2018. Before debuting on Broadway, its West End production won a record-breaking nine Laurence Olivier Awards in 2017.
The original Broadway cast included Jamie Parker (Harry Potter), Noma Dumezweni (Hermione Granger), and Sam Clemmett (Albus Potter). The show has since gone global, with productions in Melbourne, Hamburg, and Tokyo, among other major cities. It was originally a two-part play with a runtime of about five hours, but has been condensed to a single show that runs just under three hours.
5. Gemini (1,819 Performances)
The most recent production on the list of longest-running plays, Albert Innaurato’s Gemini premiered at Little Theatre on May 21, 1977 and ran for 1,819 performances until closing on September 6, 1981. The play, set in a blue-collar South Philadelphia neighborhood, centers on the 21st birthday party of Harvard student Francis Geminiani and the dysfunctional guests in attendance.