Person with the most Broadway credits?

[shrekster224]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 4:43pm

Who holds the record for having the most Broadway shows under their belt, be it ensemble or lead?

I think Lisa Gajda's 15/16 show resume is pretty impressive, but there's probably people with more.

[CockeyedOptimist2]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 4:49pm

No idea if he holds any sort of record, but according to ibdb, John Cullum has 28 Broadway credits to his name. Pretty darn impressive!

[binau]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 4:50pm

LuPone has 26 listed on ibdb..

[jamiekennywicked]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 4:53pm

While there are more performers with more credits, Michael X. Martin never seems to be out of work for too long.

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 6:37pm

I was thinking Phip Bosco, then looked it up on IBDB, and Voila - 52! I think I saw most of them since 1972. A great actor and nice guy.

[morosco]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 6:47pm

Obviously not a performer but wig designer extraordinaire Paul Huntley has well over 200 Broadway shows to his credit.

[broadwaybabytn]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 7:28pm

People I found with over 20 credits who had not already been mentioned:

Rosemary Harris has 26
John McMartin has 24
Julie Harris has 33
John Gielgud had 23
Helen Hayes had 43
Jessica Tandy had 29
Basil Rathbone had 23
Uta Hagen had 22
Jose Ferrer had 40
Shirley Booth had 32
David Wayne had 22
Alfred Lunt had 37
Lynn Fontanne had 29

[broadwaybabytn]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 7:31pm

Oh, and 29 for Tom Aldredge.

[shrekster224]

Posted: 2/21/12 at 9:26pm

The wig designer makes sense though, because once they design the wigs and possible replacement wigs they are done with the show and the hair department takes care of the rest, they can move onto the next show just like that. Same thing with a choreographer, once they set everything, associate choreographer and dance captains maintain the show while they can be working on other shows, so their numbers will be much higher than performers.

52 is a heck of a lot! One can dream...

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 2/22/12 at 12:42pm

Phil Bosco IS a really nice guy, and wonderful actor.

[newintown]

Posted: 2/22/12 at 12:54pm

I confess - I read the original post and thought, "Who the hell is Lisa Gajda?" So I looked her up; I've even seen several shows she's been in, and have no recollection of even reading her name.

I wonder if she holds a record of being in the most Broadway shows without ever originating even a featured role?

[Calvin]

Posted: 2/22/12 at 3:24pm

Marian Seldes is in the over-20 club, too, with 24.

[broadwaybabytn]

Posted: 2/22/12 at 6:00pm

Some more:
Howard Da Silva had 34
Alfred Drake also had 34

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 2/23/12 at 1:26pm

My guess is Eva Le Gallienne.

IBDB shows 69 Broadway acting appearances, almost all starring roles. And many more plays which, like many of those she appeared in, she produced, directed and or translated.

[mikem]

Posted: 9/12/20 at 11:53am

I'm reviving this very old thread because I was looking at the casting of the original run of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and ran across the name of Shepperd Strudwick, whom I had never heard of before.  It turns out he appeared in 30 Broadway shows between 1928 and 1981, getting his first Tony nomination with his final appearance, in To Grandmother's House We Go.

He was also a very steady Broadway performer, typically appearing at least once every 2 or 3 years over more than 5 decades. His longest absence from the Broadway stage was only 7 years.  A long Broadway career.

A few of the other performers listed have added to their totals.  Michael X Martin is now up to 18 Broadway shows.

[itsjustmejonhotmailcom]

Posted: 9/12/20 at 3:23pm

morosco said: "Obviously not a performer but wig designer extraordinaire Paul Huntley has well over 200 Broadway shows to his credit."

Charles LaPointe (also a wig & hair designer) has 67 credits. Not many wig designers working on Broadway but those that do work a lot!

[Jarethan]

Posted: 9/12/20 at 11:43pm

I guess the sheer volume of shows that used to be produced, coupled with the lack of lucrative television employment, were big factors behind some of those numbers of shows.  

I remember reading some years ago, I think on this board, where someone commented that something with Bernadette Peters was not as successful as it might have been had she not been 'over-exposed' on Broadway.  this triggered me to look at BP's exact record on Broadway...in 61 years, she has been in 16 shows, her first for 2 weeks at age 11, and her second as a standby in a show that ran for 3 days, and her third on a play that ran for one performance.  Leaving those out, and adjusting the years, that translates into 13 shows in 53 years.

It would be interesting to see how many actual performances those people gave on Broadway.  A lot of those high numbers reflected a lot of short-runs, especially by today's standards, whereas -- continuing to use BP -- she actually played on Broadway for a cumulative total of 109 months, which I imagine could go against many of those people.  Nothing particularly relevant, but another way of looking at someone's time on there Great White Way, number of shows, number of elapsed years, number of actual performances.

 

[BobbyPatrick4]

Posted: 7/15/22 at 12:30am

Clarence Derwent (of the award fame) had 60 Broadway credits but, though he was predominantly an actor, a few of those credits are for staging.

[Hairspray0901]

Posted: 7/15/22 at 9:59am

Cameron Adams comes to mind - while she doesn’t have the *most*, she certainly has one of the most impressive careers of this generation of performers with 13 Broadway shows under her belt. I’m always happy to see her name/headshot in my playbill! 

[Dollypop]

Posted: 7/15/22 at 10:47am

Loretta Swit----2

[Bill Snibson]

Posted: 7/15/22 at 10:52am

Double digits are so impressive. 

Michael X. Martin 18

Lisa Gajda 16

Matt Wall 16

T. Oliver Reid 13

Cameron Adams 13