What is the longest-running Broadway musical in history?
Answer
The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera is the longest-running Broadway musical in history.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical opened on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre on January 26, 1988. It closed there on April 16, 2023, after 13,981 performances, making it the longest-running show in Broadway history. The production’s final performance came more than 35 years after its opening.
The musical is based on Gaston Leroux’s 1910 French novel Le Fantôme de l’Opéra. Lloyd Webber composed the music, Charles Hart wrote the lyrics, and Richard Stilgoe co-wrote the book with Lloyd Webber. The story centers on Christine Daaé, the masked Phantom, and the Vicomte Raoul at the Paris Opéra.
The record concerns Broadway performance longevity, not the number of productions worldwide. Chicago, which opened in 1975 in its original production and returned in 1996, is the longest-running currently open Broadway show after Phantom’s closure.