Broadway’s Longest-Running Shows That Lost the Tony for Best Musical

Credits: Book, Music & Lyrics by David Hein and Irene Sankoff

Number of performances: 1,669

Lost Best Musical to: Dear Evan Hansen

Notes: Come From Away is based on the events in the Newfoundland town of Gander during the week following the September 11 attacks, when 38 planes, carrying approximately 7,000 passengers, were ordered to land at Gander International Airport. The characters in the musical are based on actual Gander residents and the stranded travelers they housed and fed.

Credits: Book by James Rado and Gerome Ragni, Music by Galt MacDermot, Lyrics by Rado

Number of performances: 1,750

Lost Best Musical to: 1776

Notes: Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical virtually defined the genre of the rock musical. The work reflects the creators’ observations of the hippie counterculture and sexual revolution of the late 1960s. The Broadway cast album to Hair topped the Billboard 200 for 13 nonconsecutive weeks in 1969. Four of its songs became top five hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In,” as recorded by the 5th Dimension, which won record of the year at the Grammy Awards in 1970. The cast album also won a Grammy for best score from an original cast show album. A film adaptation was released in 1979. A Broadway revival opened in 2009, winning the Tony Award for best revival of a musical.

Credits: Directed & Choreographed by Bob Fosse, Music & Lyrics by Various Artists

Number of performances: 1,774

Lost Best Musical to: Ain’t Misbehavin’

Notes: Dancin’ is Broadway’s longest-running dance musical. The plotless, dance-driven revue incorporates a wide variety of music styles, including classical, jazz and American pop songs. The original production received seven Tony nominations, with Fosse winning for best choreography.

Credits: Book by Lynn Nottage, Music & Lyrics by Michael Jackson and Various Artists

Number of performances: 1,805

Lost Best Musical to: A Strange Loop

Notes: MJ the Musical is a jukebox musical based on the life of Michael Jackson, focusing on his creative process prior to the Dangerous World Tour of 1992-93. It was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and won four, including best actor in a musical for Myles Frost. The show is still running as the 2026 film biopic Michael is setting box office records.

Credits: Book by Linda Woolverton, Robert Falls, David Henry Hwang; Music by Elton John; Lyrics by Tim Rice

Number of performances: 1,852

Not nominated for best musical (which went to Contact)

Notes: Aida (also known as Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida) is based on the opera of the same name written by Antonio Ghislanzoni with music by Giuseppe Verdi. Aida was nominated for five Tony Awards and won four, including best original score. The original Broadway cast recording won a Grammy for best musical show album. A song from the show, “Written in the Stars,” recorded by Elton John and LeAnn Rimes, reached No. 29 on the Hot 100.

Credits: Book by Bob Randall; Music and Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

Number of performances: 1,920

Not nominated for best musical (which went to The Wiz)

Notes: Schwartz composed the score for this one-act musical which starred magician Doug Henning. Henning, who performed illusions and magic tricks in the piece, was nominated for a Tony for best featured actor in a musical. The Magic Show was a rare Broadway musical with a star who could neither sing nor dance. The charismatic Henning was a frequent talk show guest in the 1970s. He died at age 52 in February 2000, five months after being diagnosed with liver cancer.

Credits: Book, Music, & Lyrics by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss

Number of performances: 1,929

Lost Best Musical to: A Strange Loop

Notes: SIX is a modern retelling of the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII, presented in the form of a singing competition pop concert. In the show, the wives take turns telling their stories to determine who suffered the most from their shared husband. They ultimately seek to reclaim their individual identities and rewrite their stories. A filmed stage production titled SIX The Musical Live!, featuring the original West End cast, was released in UK & Ireland cinemas in April 2025. It is set for release in theaters in the U.S. in August.

Credits: Book by Roger Hirson, Music & Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

Number of performances: 1,944

Lost Best Musical to: A Little Night Music

Notes: The show was partially financed by Motown Records. The investment paid off almost immediately: The Jackson 5 had a top 20 hit on the Hot 100 with a song from the show, “Corner of the Sky.” Bob Fosse, who directed the original Broadway production, also contributed to the libretto. The musical uses the premise of a mysterious performance troupe, led by the Leading Player, to tell the story of Pippin, a young prince on his search for meaning. Ben Vereen and Patina Miller won Tony Awards for their portrayals of the Leading Player in the original Broadway production and the 2013 revival, respectively, making them the first actors to win Tonys for best leading actor and best leading actress in a musical for playing the same role.

Credits: Music & Lyrics by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller

Number of performances: 2,036

Lost Best Musical to: Sunset Boulevard

Notes: Smokey Joe’s Cafe is a musical revue showcasing 39 pop standards, most written by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The cast recording, Smokey Joe’s Cafe: The Songs of Leiber and Stoller, won a Grammy in 1997 for best musical show album. The show is the longest-running musical revue in Broadway history. Leiber and Stoller are songwriting royalty. They were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and received a Trustees Award from the Recording Academy in 1999.

Credits: Book by Chris D’Arienzo, Music & Lyrics by Various Artists

Number of performances: 2,328

Lost Best Musical to: Billy Elliot the Musical

Notes: Rock of Ages is a jukebox musical built around classic rock songs from the 1980s, especially from that decade’s glam metal bands. The musical features songs from Styx, Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Steve Perry, Poison and Europe, among others. Despite the musical’s title, the 1983 Def Leppard hit of the same name was not included in the musical during its original Broadway incarnation, though it now often appears in revivals, tours and regional productions.

Credits: Book by Douglas McGrath, Music & Lyrics by Carole King and Various Artists

Number of performances: 2,416

Lost Best Musical to: A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder

Notes: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is a jukebox musical depicting King’s songwriting career from her hiring at Aldon Music in 1958 to her debut solo performance at Carnegie Hall in 1971, including her marriage to Gerry Goffin and their friendships with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. In 1972, King became the first woman to win the Grammy for song of the year (for “You’ve Got a Friend”). That same year, she became the first woman to win album, record and song of the year in one night. In 2013, she became the first woman to receive the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

Credits: Book by Julian Fellowes, Music by Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman, and George Stiles, Lyrics by Anthony Drewe and The Sherman Brothers

Number of performances: 2,619

Lost Best Musical to: Spring Awakening

Notes: The musical is based on the Mary Poppins children’s books by P. L. Travers and the 1964 Disney film starring Julie Andrews. The film received 13 Oscar nominations and won five awards, including best actress for Andrews and best original song and best original score for The Sherman Brothers.

Credits: Book, Music & Lyrics by Warren Casey and Jim Jacobs

Number of performances: 3,388

Lost Best Musical to: Two Gentlemen of Verona

Notes: This musical was playing on Broadway when the 1978 film adaptation starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John became a box office smash. The film soundtrack topped the Billboard 200 for 12 nonconsecutive weeks and received a Grammy nod for album of year. The musical is set at the fictional Rydell High School, its name a nod to teen idol Bobby Rydell, who had six top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 from 1959-64. A 1982 film sequel, Grease 2, bombed, though it marked the debut of future Oscar nominee Michelle Pfeiffer. A 2016 live TV musical, starring Aaron Tveit and Julianne Hough, used elements from both the original stage version and the film.

Credits: Book by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, Music by Schönberg, Lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr.

Number of performances: 4,092

Lost Best Musical to: The Will Rogers Follies

Notes: Miss Saigon is a sung-through stage musical based on Giacomo Puccini’s 1904 opera Madama Butterfly. Like that opera, it tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover. The setting of the plot is relocated to 1970s Saigon during the Vietnam War. The musical was Schönberg and Boublil’s second major success, following Les Misérables in 1985.

Credits: Book by Chad Beguelin, Music by Alan Menken, Lyrics by Howard Ashman, Tim Rice, and Beguelin

Number of performances: 4,429

Lost Best Musical to: A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

Notes: Aladdin is a stage musical based on the Walt Disney Animation Studios 1992 film of the same name. It resurrects three songs written by Menken and Ashman for the film but not used, and adds four songs written by Menken and Beguelin. Set in the fictional Arabian city of Agrabah, the story follows the familiar tale of a poor young man who is granted three wishes by a genie in a lamp. The film’s standout song, “A Whole New World,” won both the Oscar for best original song and the Grammy for song of the year.

Credits: Book by Linda Woolverton, Music by Alan Menken, Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice

Number of performances: 5,462

Lost Best Musical to: Passion

Notes: Beauty and the Beast was adapted from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 1991 film — which in turn was based on the fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast” by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. Beauty and the Beast was the first animated film to win a Golden Globe Award for best motion picture — musical or comedy and the first to receive an Oscar nomination for best picture. All eight songs written for the film were reused in the musical, including a resurrected musical number which had been cut from the film. Menken composed six new songs for the production alongside lyricist Rice, replacing Ashman, who died during the production of the film. Beauty and the Beast was the first Disney film to be adapted into a Broadway musical.

Credits: Book by Catherine Johnson, Music & Lyrics by Benny Anderson and Björn Ulvaeus

Number of performances: 5,758

Lost Best Musical to: Thoroughly Modern Millie

Notes: This is the longest-running “jukebox musical” in Broadway history. Its success has boosted ABBA’s standing. In 2010, the group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In 2023-24, ABBA finally received its first Grammy nominations as a group, including nods for album of the year and record of the year. The musical’s title is taken from the group’s 1976 hit “Mamma Mia,” which reached No. 32 on the Hot 100. A film adaptation starring Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski, Stellan Skarsgård and Julie Walters was released in 2008. A sequel to that film, with Cher joining the cast, was released in 2018.

Credits: Book by Various Artists; music and lyrics by Peter Schickele, Robert Dennis, Stanley Walden

Number of performances: 5,959

Original production not nominated for best musical (which went to Applause)

Notes: Oh! Calcutta! is an avant-garde, risqué theatrical revue created by British drama critic Kenneth Tynan. The show, consisting of sketches on sex-related topics, debuted Off-Broadway in 1969 and then in the West End in 1970. It was highly controversial at the time due to its extended scenes of full-frontal nudity. Tony voters were cool to the attention-getting smash. The original production wasn’t nominated for best musical in 1970. The 1976 revival wasn’t nominated for best revival of a musical. The 1976 revival is the longest-running revue in Broadway history and the second longest-running revival (after Chicago).

Credits: Book by Winnie Holzman, Music & Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

Number of performances: 8,803

Lost Best Musical to: Avenue Q

Notes: Wicked (known in full as Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz) is loosely based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire, which itself was based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and its 1939 film adaptation. The musical’s original stars included Idina Menzel as Elphaba and Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda. The production won three Tony Awards, while its original cast album received a Grammy Award for best musical show album. The 2024 film adaption, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, was nominated for 10 Oscars, including best picture. It’s the top-grossing film adaptation of a Broadway musical. A 2025 continuation, Wicked: For Good, was a commercial hit but didn’t receive any Oscar nods.

Credits: Book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, Music by John Kander, Lyrics by Ebb

Number of performances: 11,640

Original production lost Best Musical to: A Chorus Line

Notes: The revival won six Tonys in 1997, including best revival of a musical. It’s the longest-running show currently on Broadway; the longest-running revival in Broadway history; and the longest-running American show in Broadway history. The only show with a longer run is the British import The Phantom of the Opera, with 13,981 performances from 1988 to 2023. Set in Chicago in the Jazz Age, Chicago is based on the 1926 play of the same name by Maurine Dallas Watkins, then a journalist covering the city’s courthouse beat. Fosse directed and choreographed the original production. A 2002 film adaptation became the first musical to win the Oscar for best picture since Oliver!, released in 1968.