The Metropolitan Room to Attempt 60-Hour Variety Show for Guinness World Record, 1/01-4

For 60 continuous hours, from 7pm on Thursday January 1 to 7am on Sunday January 4, New York's Metropolitan Room is staging what it is billing as "The Longest Variety Show Ever." Featuring approximately 160 performers and 15 emcees, the entertainment will span music, burlesque, comedy, drag, theatre/opera, magic and puppetry. The vast majority of the entertainers have already played the Metropolitan Room since it opened in May 2006, but quite a few will be making their Metropolitan Room debuts as they help make history.

Check out photos from rehearsals for the event here!

The production, which is eligible to become a Guinness World Records record-holder for longest variety show, will also be webcast for a worldwide audience. For the first twenty hours, four performers per hour will be seen in ten-minute sets (a total of 80 performers over that stretch). After the 20-hour mark, an average of two performers will perform every hour (another 80 performers over a 40-hour stretch). In order to qualify for Guinness, the entertainment must be continuous; the show's emcees must introduce each new act in less then 5 minutes.

Leading the charge are the first 50 performers to be announced: Tony Danza, Marilyn Maye, Bill Boggs, Emily Bergl, Julie Budd, Joseph Sirola, Jeff Harnar, Shauna Hicks, KT Sullivan, Baby Jane Dexter, Judy Gold, Jeffrey Gurian, Luba Mason, Eddie Brill, Anna Bergman, Aaron Weinstein, Jim Brochu, Shana Farr, Richard Pryor Jr., Hedda Lettuce, Michelle DellaFave, Lina Koutrakos, Tracy Stark, Jamie deRoy, Iris Williams, Steve Ross, Maxine Linehan, Joanne Tatham, Harrison Greenbaum, Eric Yves Garcia, Dana Lorge, Laurie Krauz, Barry Levitt, Kat Gang, Marieann Meringolo, Karen Oberlin, Sean Harkness, Ricky Ritzel, Devin Bing, Jay Rogers, Marcus Simeone, Sue Matsuki, Warren Schein, Adam Shapiro, Janice Hall, Kathleen France, Chrysten Peddie, Jim David.

Broadcast legend Joe Franklin (Guinness Book of World Records Longest Continuous Talk Show Host) will serve as grand marshal for the show.

Audience members who attend the longest -- either for unbroken stretches of time or for combined attendance recorded over three days -- will win special prizes and be entered in the official record of the event. Sleeping will not be permitted in the showroom. Complimentary breakfast will be served on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings.

For more information, click here.

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