Longest Tour Stop Ever?

[Quiche2]

Anyone know what some of the longest tour stops in history are? Just curious.

[ChiChi]

Oooh. I'd be interested in knowing this too!!! Great question!

[BrodyFosse123]

Both the 1st National Tours of MISS SAIGON and SUNSET BLVD. did like 3 month stays in each city back in the 1990s.

[ChiChi]

I was watching a documentary about the touring Phantom and someone mentioned that it would actually only play a max of 12 venues a year becuase of how elaborate the show was. Phantom always played at least a month when it came to Phoenix.

[LizzieCurry]

When the Les Miz tour was in Toronto in 1998, it ran from July to I think December. (That was also when Colm Wilkinson returned.)

[Quiche2]

^^ Wow. That is probably the longest ever I would imagine. That's like 5 months.

[bobs3]

I seem to recall that when THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA initially went on tour, the minimum run was 12 weeks in each city because of (as a previous poster mentioned) the complexity of the sets.

A scaled down version of the show later went on a national tour but without some of the shows best visual effects.

The long run at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles (5 years) paid for an expensive renovation of the Ahmanson once the show closed. During those 5 years, the Center Theater Group moved its subscription seasons to the Doolittle Theater in Hollywood.

[ChiChi]

I'd never hear of a tour of Phantom that had been stripped down up until the newly designed one.

[LizzieCurry]

I think all that had been changed for the Phantom 3NT was that the candles came in from the wings instead of from underneath the stage, and maybe the chandelier was lighter.

[ChiChi]

I'm not sure which tour came through Tempe in 1994, but the stage manager told me that the tour chandelier was made from aluminum for all tours to make it lighter to handle and that the size was just a smidge smaller.

[JoeKv99]

There have been plenty of tours that have stayed in Chicago for months or even years- Joseph played here for 18 months 1993-1995. I recall at the time people saying that in the 50's, Oklahoma and King and I each played for a year or more.

[finebydesign]

The first tour of the Lion King sat down for few months if I remember correctly.

[allyk]

Lion King sat down for, I believe 10 months or so, in Boston back in 2004. I also remember Wicked being there for about 2 months back in 2006 and again in 2007.

[ChiChi]

So when a show, after opening on Broadway, sits down in someplace like Chicago for a sit down like Wicked, is that generally the start of a tour?

[Mister Matt]

Wicked arrived in Chicago on tour first, for about 4 weeks I believe, with Stephanie J. Block. The sit-down opened later and was not part of the national tour.

[ChiChi]

Had the Chicago sit down of Wicked been planned, or did the tour do so well there that they decided to open a sit down. I've always wondered about how all of this works.

[CATSNYrevival]

Didn't the Lion King tour also sit down in LA for a while at the Pantages? I would imagine the longest tour stop is probably one of the tours that sat down for an extended run.

[Mister Matt]

The tour stop of Wicked in Chicago was announced long before the sit-down. I believe it was the speed of the advance ticket sales that prompted the sit-down production, which I believe was announced shortly before the tour stop opened (but didn't go on sale right away).

[ChiChi]

Very interesting. Thank you Mister Matt.

[Mister Matt]

Sorry, wrong thread.

[Jon]

Yes, the original tour of OKLAHOMA in the 1940's played over a year in Chicago.

[ChiChi]

Were tours as elaborate back then? DId people see virtually the same show as on Broadway?

[Quiche2]

ChiChi, I am 17 and started seeing tours around the time I was 9 or 10, when I became intersted in the theatre, so I can't say for sure, but I imagine it was close, but not as elaborate as today. My reasoning is back then they didn't have all the heavy machinery or tools to set up big sets every few weeks in a completely different enviorment every time. They were probably scaled down alot. The Bway production I assume were bigger because the sets were there for much longer and they didn't have to take them apart once or twice a month.

[morosco]

Aren't some of these long runs not really tours? I'm thinking specifically of PHANTOM and LION KING in Los Angeles as examples. I think the producers of these shows determined Los Angeles to be "point of organization" meaning that the majority of the show was cast with local Los Angeles talent. And since it was considered point of organization those actors were not paid per diems as they would if they were traveling and staying in hotels. Saves the producer a lot of money. And I think I remember when one of those big shows ended it's run in L.A., the producers officially closed the show for a while and then determined San Francisco as point of organization and cast locally there for that production.

Maybe I'm wrong or maybe things have changed.

[Far From Home]

Lion King did 10 months in San Francisco in 2004.

[qolbinau]

How do we distinguish between 'sit down productions' and 'tours'?

I feel that if they move into a city and haven't booked the next leg then it isn't really a 'tour'. Thoughts on this definition?