List of the shortest-running Broadway shows explained

This is a list of Broadway shows with 20 or fewer regular performances. The list only includes shows that had open-ended runs or limited runs that ended earlier than planned. The shows must have officially opened on Broadway, and thus productions that closed during previews are not included.

List

Unless otherwise noted, the run count listed is for the original Broadway production of the show. M denotes a musical, P denotes a straight play, R denotes revue, D denotes a predominantly dance musical, and S denotes a special case.

	Title	Type	Opening date	Closing date			Comment
1.	A Broadway Musical	M			1	14
1.	A Teaspoon Every Four Hours	P			1	97	Opening night was originally scheduled for April 3, 1969, and was delayed multiple times.
1.	Billy	M			1	21
1.	Blood Red Roses	M			1	20
1.	Break a Leg	R			1	12
1.	Brightower	P			1	7
1.	Broadway Follies	R			1	14
1.	Cleavage	M			1	6
1.	The Cuban Thing	P			1	12
1.	Dance a Little Closer	M			1	25
1.	Eyes	P			1
1.	Fame	P			1	8
1.	Father's Day	P			1	16	Second of Oliver Hailey's three Broadway plays, all of which closed on opening night. Nominated for two Tonys, including Jo Mielziner for Best Scenic Design and Marian Seldes for Best Actress. Seldes also won a Drama Desk award for Outstanding Performance.
1.	First One Asleep, Whistle	P			1	13	First of three Broadway plays written by Oliver Hailey, all of which closed on opening night.
1.	Frank Merriwell	M			1	7
1.	Frankenstein	P			1	29
1.	Gandhi	P			1
1.	Gantry	M			1	31
1.	The Garden of Sweets	P			1	1
1.	Glory Days	M			1	17
1.	The Goodbye People (1979 revival)	P			1	16	The original production ran for 7 performances
1.	Gorey Stories: An Entertainment with Music	P			1	16
1.	Happiness Is Just a Little Thing Called a Rolls Royce	P			1	3
1.	Have I Got A Girl For You!	P			1
1.	Heathen!	M			1	6
1.	Here's Where I Belong	M			1	20
1.	Home Sweet Homer	M			1	11
1.	I Won't Dance	P			1	7	Third and final Broadway play by written by Oliver Hailey, all of which closed on opening night
1.	Johnny No-Trump	P			1	5
1.	Julia, Jake and Uncle Joe	P			1
1.	Kelly	M			1	7
1.	La Strada	M			1	12
1.	Let Me Hear You Smile	P			1	8
1.	Little Johnny Jones (1982 revival)	M			1	29	The original production ran for 52 performances
1.	Masquerade	P			1
1.	Me and Thee	P			1	7
1.	A Meeting by the River	P			1	10
1.	The Moony Shapiro Songbook	M			1	15
1.	Moose Murders	P			1	13
1.	The Mother Lover	P			1	13
1.	The Natural Look	P			1	18
1.	Ned and Jack	P			1	10		^[1]
1.	No Hard Feelings	P			1	21
1.	Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All	P			1	19
1.	Once There Was a Russian	P			1	1
1.	Onward Victoria	M			1	23	Closing notice already in place on the night the play opened.
1.	A Place for Polly	P			1	9
1.	Play Me a Country Song	M			1	14
1.	Rainbow Jones	M			1	3
1.	Ring Around the Bathtub	P			1	3
1.	The Ritz (1983 revival)	P			1	14	The original production ran for 398 performances
1.	Stages	P			1	13
1.	Step on a Crack	P			1	1
1.	Take Me Along (1985 revival)	M			1	7	The original production ran for 448 performances
1.	Total Abandon	P			1	7
1.	The Utter Glory of Morrissey Hall	M			1	7
1.	The Watering Place	P			1	6
1.	Wild and Wonderful	M			1	9
59.	The Cool World	P			2
59.	Gabrielle	P			2
59.	Medea and Jason	P			2	10	The show opened on a matinée performance and closed after the evening performance that same day.
59.	Signature	P			2
59.	Springtime Folly	P			2
59.		P			2	13	The show opened on a matinée performance and closed after the evening performance that same day.
65.	Cafe Crown	M			3	30
65.	Into the Whirlwind	P			3		The production played in repertory with The Three Sisters at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Both were performed in Russian.
65.	Nathan Weinstein, Mystic, Connecticut	P			3	4
65.	Portofino	M			3
65.	Requiem for a Heavyweight	P			3	8	John Lithgow was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor In a Play for his performance.
65.	Soon	M			3	21
65.	Ti-coq	P			3
65.	The Yearling	M			3	11
65.	Your Loving Son	P			3
72.	A Race of Hairy Men!	P			4	12
72.	All You Need Is One Good Break	P			4
72.	The Barrier	M			4
72.	Bosoms and Neglect	P			4	7
72.	Bring Back Birdie	M			4	31
72.	But, Seriously...	P			4	13
72.	Children From Their Games	P			4	2
72.	Conscience	P			4
72.	Einstein and the Polar Bear	P			4	20
72.	Good as Gold	P			4
72.	Horses in Midstream	P			4
72.	The Fig Leaves Are Falling	M			4	17	Dorothy Loudon was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in the show.	^[2]
72.	In the Counting House	P			4	2
72.	The Innkeepers	P			4
72.	Late Nite Comic	M			4	15
72.	Minor Miracle	P			4	11
72.	Murder at the Howard Johnson's	P			4	10
72.	Rags	M			4	18	Nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical
72.	The Roast	P			4	9
72.	Song of the Grasshopper	P			4	4
72.	Xmas in Las Vegas	P			4	9
93.	Agatha Sue, I Love You	P			5	2
93.	A Doll's Life	M			5	18
93.	Angel	M			5	6	Frances Sternhagen was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical
93.	Be Your Age	P			5
93.	Carrie	M			5	16
93.	Charlotte	P			5	20
93.	Devour the Snow	P			5	8
93.	Diamond Orchid	P			5	1
93.	Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?	M			5	15
93.	The Exercise	P			5	10
93.	The Gingham Dog	P			5	19
93.	Happy Town	M			5
93.	Legend	P			5	18
93.	The Life of Reilly	P			5
93.	Look, We've Come Through	P			5
93.	More to Love	P			5	16
93.	Park	M			5	5
93.	Peg: A Musical Autobiography	M			5	13
93.	Play Memory	P			5	7
93.	Prymate	P			5	22
93.	Raggedy Ann	align='center'	M			5	15
93.	The Red Shoes	M			5	51
93.	Ring Two	P			5
93.	See the Jaguar	P			5
93.	Seven Brides for Seven Brothers	M			5	15
93.	Star-Spangled Family	P			5
93.	The Story of My Life	M			5	19
93.	The Sudden and Accidental Re-Education of Horse Johnson	P			5	3
93.	The Three Sisters	P			5		The production played in repertory with Into the Whirlwind at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Both were performed in Russian.
93.	Woman Bites Dog	P			5
93.	Zelda	P			5	10
124.	Carnival in Flanders	M			6		Leading lady Dolores Gray won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, thus holding the record for Tony-winning performance with the briefest run.
124.	Horowitz and Mrs. Washington	P			6	10
124.	Into the Light	M			6	13
124.	The Performers	P			6	24
124.	Siege	P			6
129.	Buttrio Square	M			7
129.	The Genius and the Goddess	P			7
129.	The Goodbye People	P			7	16	A 1979 revival closed on opening night
129.	High	P			7	29
129.	I'll Take The High Road	P			7
129.	La Grosse Valise	M			7	12
129.	The Night Circus	P			7
129.	Patate	P			7
129.	Rockabye Hamlet	M			7	21		^[3]
129.	Slapstick Tragedy	P			7	16	Zoe Caldwell won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in the show.
129.	Via Galactica	M			7	15
129.	We Interrupt This Program...	P			7	21
129.	The Wrong Way Light Bulb	P			7	17
142.	American Buffalo	P			8	20
142.	Arturo Ui	P			8	5
142.	Dr. Cook's Garden	P			8	6		^[4]
142.	Drat! The Cat		M			8	11
142.	It's So Nice to Be Civilized	M			8	23
142.	Kiss Me, Kate (1952 revival)	M			8		The original production ran for 1,077 performances.
142.	The Leaf People	P			8	42
142.	Love is a Time of Day	P			8	16
142.	Voices	P			8	8
142.	Who's Who in Hell	P			8	8
142.	Women of Twilight	P			8
153.	Ambassador	M			9	12
153.	Anyone Can Whistle	M			9	12
153.	The Blonde in the Thunderbird	S			9	10	The limited run was originally scheduled to end on September 3, 2005.^[5]
153.	Brighton Beach Memoirs (2009 revival)	P			9	25	The original production ran for 1,299 performances
153.	Elling	P			9	22
153.	The Lieutenant	M			9	7	Nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical
153.	Nick & Nora	M			9	71
153.	The Paisley Convertible	P			9	18
153.	Rock 'N Roll! The First 5,000 Years	R			9	25
153.	Safe Sex	P			9	21
153.	The Three Musketeers (1984 revival)	M			9	15	The original production ran for 318 performances
153.	We Have Always Lived in the Castle	M			9	2
165.	Cloud 7	M			11
165.	The Story of Mary Surratt	P			11
167.	A Joyful Noise	M			12	4
167.	The American Clock	P			12	11
167.	Dreyfus in Rehearsal	P			12	3
167.	Fearless Frank	M			12	13
167.	P.S. I Love You	P			12	3
167.	The Lady from Dubuque	P			12	8
167.	Lolita	P			12	31
167.	Saturday Sunday Monday	P			12	4
167.	Seagulls Over Sorrento	P			12
167.	The Secret Rapture	P			12	19
167.	The Threepenny Opera	M			12
167.	Wally's Cafe	P			12	31
167.	What's Wrong With This Picture?	P			12	27
180.	Great Day in the Morning	P			13	1
180.	Macbeth (2000 revival)	P			13	8	The limited run ended 5 weeks earlier than originally planned.^[6]
180.	Metro	M			13	24
180.	Moby Dick	P			13
180.	The Wiz (1984 Revival)	M			13	7	The original production ran for 1,672 performances.
180.	A Woman of Independent Means	P			13	12
185.	Flare Path	P			14
185.	High Fidelity	M			14	18
185.	Jackie Mason's Laughing Room Only	R			14	31
185.	Purlie (1972 Revival)	M			14	2	The original production ran for 688 performances.
189.	Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1951 Revival)	P			15
189.	Last Licks	P			15	10
189.	The Passion of Josef D.	P			15	1
192.	The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public	M			16	28
192.	Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1972 revival)	P			16		The original production ran for 14 performances in 1907; a 1951 revival ran for 15 performances.
192.	Dude	M			16	16
192.	Enron	P			16	22
192.	The Man Who Had Three Arms	P			16	8
192.	Merrily We Roll Along	M			16	44
192.	Nellie Bly	M			16
192.	Oh, Kay! (1928 revival)	M			16		The original production ran for 256 performances
192.	Passione	P			16	11
201.	Amour	M			17	31	Nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical
201.	The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2006 revival)	P			17	27
201.	Charlie and Algernon	M			17	12	Nominated for the Tony Award for Best Original Score
201.	KPOP	M			17	44		^[7]
205.	Leap of Faith	M			19	25	Nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical
205.	Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen	M			19	3
207.	All About Me	M			20	27
207.	The Climate of Eden	P			20

Shows that closed during previews

The following shows started previews but did not officially open on Broadway:^[8]

• Infidel Caesar (1962 play) — closed after 1 preview performance
• Venus Is (1966 play) — closed after 7 preview performances
• The Office (1966 play) — closed after 10 preview performances
• Breakfast at Tiffany's (1966 musical) — closed after 4 preview performances
• The Freaking Out of Stephanie Blake (1967 play) — closed after 3 preview performances
• Leda Had a Little Swan (1968 play) — closed after 14 preview performances
• A Way of Life (1969 play) — closed after 9 preview performances
• Rachael Lily Rosenbloom (And Don't You Ever Forget It) (1973 musical) — closed after 7 preview performances
• Truckload (1975 musical) — closed after 6 preview performances
• Me Jack, You Jill (1976 play) — closed after 16 preview performances
• Let My People Come (1976 revue) — closed after 128 preview performances
• One Night Stand (1980 musical) — closed after 8 preview performances
• A Reel American Hero (1981 musical) - closed after 5 preview performances
• The Little Prince and the Aviator (1981 musical) — closed after 16 preview performances
• Senator Joe (1989 musical) — closed after 3 preview performances
• Face Value (1993 play) — closed after 8 preview performances
• Bobbi Boland (2003 play) — closed after 7 preview performances
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2020 revival) — closed after 9 preview performances due to the COVID-19 Broadway shutdown.^[9]

See also

• List of the longest-running Broadway shows

References

Notes

Further reading

• Book: Mandelbaum, Ken. Ken Mandelbaum

. Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. 1992. Ken Mandelbaum. St. Martin's Press. 978-0312082734.

• Suskin, Steven (2006). Second Act Trouble: Behind the Scenes at Broadway's Big Musical Bombs. Hal Leonard. ISBN 9781557836311.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Ned and Jack . January 8, 2023 . The Internet Broadway Database (IBDB).
2. Web site: The Fig Leaves Are Falling Broadway @ Broadhurst Theatre – Tickets and Discounts . 2020-12-16 . Playbill . en.
3. Web site: Peikert . Mark . February 17, 2020 . Looking Back at Rockabye Hamlet on Broadway . 2020-10-17 . Playbill . en.
4. Web site: Dr. Cook's Garden . IBDB . March 5, 2023.
5. Web site: Suzanne Somers' The Blonde in the Thunderbird to Close on Saturday . . July 20, 2005 . July 26, 2019.
6. Web site: 'Macbeth' Will Close After Just 10 Days on Broadway . . June 20, 2000 . Jesse . McKinley . July 26, 2019.
7. Web site: Putnam . Leah . Broadway's KPOP Sets Abrupt Closing Date . Playbill . 7 December 2022.
8. Web site: 16 Broadway Shows That Closed Before Opening. Playbill. July 3, 2019. Logan. Culwell-Block. July 25, 2019.
9. Web site: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Revival Closes Due to Coronavirus Shutdown . Lang . Brent . March 21, 2020 . Variety . November 19, 2024.