Which Broadway Show Has Been Revived the Most?

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This month, the reader question was "What Broadway show has been revived the most?" Taking both plays and musicals into account, and considering works in repertory, these were the findings.

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65 Revivals

Hamlet

William Shakespeare's Hamlet has been revived more than any other show on Broadway: 65 times! Its most recent revival was in 2009, and starred Jude Law; its first revival was in 1864, and starred Edwin Booth.

49, 47, and 35 Revivals

The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet

Places 2, 3, and 4 on the list are also occupied by Shakespeare's plays: The Merchant of Venice (49 revivals), Macbeth (47 revivals), and Romeo and Juliet (35 revivals).

32 Revivals

The Mikado

The most revived musical entertainment on Broadway is technically Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. This count doesn't include new interpretations of the work, such as The Hot Mikado. It does, however, include productions of The Mikado that played in repertory on Broadway, and thus only presented a few performances. 25 of its 32 revivals were in the first half of the 20th century.

30, 28, 25, 24, 22, 20, and 19 Revivals

Twelfth Night, H.M.S. Pinafore, Cox and Box, The Pirates of Penzance, The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, King Richard III, Othello, Iolanthe, Julius Caesar, and King Lear

Spots 6 through 16 on the "Most Revived Broadway Shows" list are also all occupied by works written by either Shakespeare or Gilbert and Sullivan.

Twelfth Night (30 revivals), H.M.S. Pinafore (28 revivals), Cox and Box (25 revivals), The Pirates of Penzance (25 revivals), The Taming of the Shrew (24 revivals), As You Like It (22 revivals), King Richard III (20 revivals), Othello (20 revivals), Iolanthe (19 revivals), Julius Caesar (19 revivals), and King Lear (19 revivals) all rank high.

18 Revivals

Hedda Gabler and Trial by Jury

A new writer enters the list! Hedda Gabler, by Henrik Ibsen, is the most revived Broadway show not written by Shakespeare or Gilbert and Sullivan. It is tied with Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial By Jury at 18 revivals. The play premiered on Broadway in 1898, starring Elizabeth Robins in the title role. (Robins was also the original Hedda Gabler in the UK, and in 1907, wrote Votes for Women, a Broadway play fighting for women's suffrage.)

15 Revivals

The Bohemian Girl, Camille, and The Cherry Orchard

The Bohemian Girl is a popular Irish opera, largely revived in the 19th century. Camille is a popular French play, which was adapted into La traviata. The Cherry Orchard is a popular Russian play, the last by Anton Chekhov. As plays like this began entering the cultural lexicon, the great American melting pot became part of the development of Broadway.

14 Revivals

Cyrano de Bergerac and Much Ado About Nothing

Edmond Rostand's dramatization of the life of Cyrano de Bergerac has been revived on Broadway 14 times, most recently in 2012 starring Douglas Hodge and in 2007 starring Kevin Kline. Along with Much Ado About Nothing, the two shows occupy spots 22 and 23 on the "Most Revived Broadway Shows" list.

13 Revivals

Candida and The School for Scandal

The most revived play of George Bernard Shaw's is Candida, which may surprise those who consider Saint Joan, Pygmalion, and other work to be better known Shaw. Candida was revived on Broadway in every decade of the 20th century except the 1960s.

12 Revivals

A Doll's House, The Gondoliers, and Patience

Ibsen's A Doll's House and two of the less-revived Gilbert and Sullivan properties, The Gondoliers and Patience, win the titles of 26th, 27th, and 28th most revived shows on Broadway.

10 Revivals

A Midsummer Night's Dream

While Shakespeare wins the top title on this list with Hamlet's 65 revivals, some of his plays have been revived on Broadway more rarely. A Midsummer Night's Dream, a favorite in schools, has chalked up 10 revivals, but plays like Trolius and Cresida, Cymbeline, and King John didn't even make this list, with fewer than 5 revivals each. Of course, productions in the 1600s and 1700s were not documented as well as those in later centuries, so numbers may not be entirely accurate.

9 Revivals

An Enemy of the People, L'Aiglon, The Old Homestead, The Rivals, The Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya, and The Yeomen of the Guard

An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen, The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and The Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov are still regularly revived.

8 Revivals

The Importance of Being Earnest, Louis XI, Saint Joan, She Stoops to Conquer, and A Streetcar Named Desire

Other than Louis XI, which was revived often in the first 20 years of the 20th century, these 8-times-revived plays are still well known today.

7 Revivals

Beau Brummell, Blossom Time, Carmen, Electra, The Glass Menagerie, La Traviata, Oedipus Rex, Porgy and Bess, Robin Hood, and The Seagull

Broadway's most revived musical entertainments not written by Gilbert and Sullivan are Blossom Time, an operetta with book and lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly and music by Franz Schubert, Heinrich Berte, and Sigmund Romberg, last revived in 1943, Carmen, an opera with libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy and music by Georges Bizet, which has been adapted into several other works, and Porgy and Bess, with libretto by DuBose Heyward, music by George Gershwin, and lyrics by Heyward and Ira Gershwin, most recently revived in 2012 in an adaptation by Suzán-Lori Parks and Diedre Murray.

6 Revivals

Arms and the Man, The Beggar's Opera, The Chocolate Soldier, David Garrick, Divorçons, The Father, Faust, Ixion, King Henry IV, Part I, King Richard II, La Tosca, Love for Love, The Merry Widow, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Ruddigore, Show Boat, and The Threepenny Opera

The "six revivals" spot is filled with shows one might guess for this list (the groundbreaking Show Boat) and more forgotten works (the French play Divorçons).

5 Revivals

Antony and Cleopatra, The Bells, Caesar and Cleopatra, Carousel, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Charley's Aunt, The Crucible, Death of a Salesman, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Fiddler on the Roof, The Front Page, Guys and Dolls, If I Were King, Juno and the Paycock, Kathleen ni Houlihan, King Henry V, The Lady from the Sea, London Assurance, Long Day's Journey into Night, Oklahoma!, A Parisian Romance, Peter Pan, Pygmalion, Rigoletto, West Side Story, and You Can't Take it With You

The "five revivals" spot includes several shows revived in the last decade like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Crucible, Death of a Salesman, Fiddler on the Roof, The Front Page, Long Day's Journey into Night, Oklahoma!, West Side Story, and You Can't Take It With You.

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