London’s Longest Running Shows
Tuesday 13th April, 4.32pm
Exciting and exhilarating, the West End is home to many of the world’s most famous and successful theatre productions.
Some shows come and swiftly go; Too Close to the Sun, Behind the Iron Mask and Breakfast at Tiffany’s for example. Others open and enjoy long and lucrative runs, just look at Cats, Les Misérables London and Blood Brothers the musical.
The Mousetrap, the West End's longest-running show.
Theatreland has a high standard to maintain and while some shows don’t cut the mustard — Too Close to the Sun flopped after a few mere weeks on the big stage — others seem to close without much in the way of obvious reasoning. West End favourite, Hairspray, ended its West End run on March 31 after two-and-a-half years at the Shaftesbury Theatre. Don’t worry if you’ve not seen it yet, there’s still time to catch the touring production.
Speaking about the closure of the award-winning show, Stage Entertainment UK chief executive Bill Taylor said: “Every show, even a big, glorious hit show like this one, has a natural life and for now it’s time for Hairspray to leave London.”
It seems it is praiseworthy indeed if a show can stand the test of time; playing in the West End for years.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats, based on Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Elliot, opened on 11 May 1981 at the New London Theatre. A great success, Cats ran until 2002 setting a record for the longest-running West End musical with an impressive 8,949 performances during 21 years on stage. Cats also became the longest-running Broadway show, running from 1982 — 2000. Marlene Danielle performed in the Broadway show for its entire run. Cats has won numerous awards including the Laurence Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Musical.
Les Misérables, composed in 1980 by the French composer Claude-Michel Schönberg, opened on 8 October 1985 at the Barbican Theatre and still plays today at the Queen’s Theatre. Unpopular when it first opened, Les Misérables eventually endeared itself to audiences and on 8 October 2006 overtook Cats as the longest running musical in the West End, celebrating 21 years and 9,500 performances in Theatreland.
Lloyd Webber’s and Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers London have also exceeded Cats’ astonishingly long West End run. Phantom, based on the French novel Le Fantome de l’Opera by Gaston Leroux, opened at Her Majesty’s Theatre on 9 October 1986 where it is still going strong. Dubbed as the most successful entertainment project ever, the musical is said to have grossed more than $5 billion worldwide by 2007. In 2008 it reached its 9,000th performance.
Blood Brothers opened briefly at the Lyric theatre in 1983 before being revived at the Albery Theatre on 28 July 1988 and transferring to the Phoenix Theatre in 1992. The show has starred big names including four of the Nolan sisters and former Spice Girl, Melanie Chisholm, all of who played mother of separated twins, Mrs Johnstone.
The longest running show in the world is of course Agatha Christie’s murder mystery, The Mousetrap, which opened at the Ambassador’s Theatre in 1952. These days the show calls St Martin’s theatre home and is going strong with audiences still amazed by the clever twist in the tale.
A handful of West End productions have survived the test of the time and for this they deserve plenty of recognition. Good ticket sales indicate a show’s success but as Hairspray proves, not all successful shows enjoy a long run.
