- Performances: 1,291
- Genre / Theater: Comedy, Gaiety Theatre
- Open / Close: August 26, 1918 – August 27, 1921
- Fun (?) Fact: Frank Bacon, star and co-playwright, took ill during the show’s national tour, causing it to be suspended. His last show was on November 11, 1922, he suffered a heart attack a week later and died on November 19th.
Podcast
This episode is the first to kick off season 2! It features a true Broadway history whiz: author, dramaturg & professor Jordan Schildcrout has studied long-running plays in more depth than perhaps anyone else on the planet. In his book, “In the Long Run: A Cultural History of Broadway’s Hit Plays,” Dr. Schildcrout looks at the Broadway landscape over more than 100 years, going deep on the longest running plays in each decade. It’s a fascinating and super fun read filled with unexpected facts and interesting context. You can find out more about it at broadwayinthelongrun.com.
I asked Jordan to come on the podcast to talk about a show that has completely fallen off the radar of theater fans but that still stands as a breakthrough in history. “Lightnin'” was the first production to ever run more than 1,000 consecutive performances on Broadway after it opened back in 1918.
Though you may not know the play, you’ll still want to listen in on our conversation exploring what the play’s success said about the changes in professional theater at the time and what has happened to the long-running play since.
One hundred years ago today, on March 17th, 1920, a self-described “live wire American comedy” called “Lightnin’” became the longest running Broadway show of all time, it’s 658th performance overtaking the musical “A Trip to Chinatown.” The production would go on to be the first Broadway production ever to log over 1,000 performances, closing on August 27, 1921 with a total of 1,291.
According to the Wikipedia entry on the show, President Warren Harding honored the show’s closing with disconcertingly jingoistic praise, extolling the virtues of “an American play of the very highest type, by an American author, presented by American actors.” The show focuses on a seedy Nevada hotel that Californians escape to for quickie divorces so the presidential endorsement seems ironically appropo.
The show ran at the Gaiety Theatre, owned by Broadway royalty George M. Cohan who was known as “the man that owned Broadway.” In the 1930s, the actual Gypsy Rose Lee would often perform there. While the musical “Gypsy” is an often-revived favorite, it never had a production with more than 702 performances on Broadway, so you won’t see it on this list.
If you want to enjoy “Lightin'” today, you can either read the book adaptation (yes, they did those back in the day) or check out the silent movie version. (There was a 1930 movie that starred Will Rodgers but I haven’t been able to find a version online that didn’t make me scared of viruses…).
This post originally appeared as a “Teaser Post” before the Chasing Phantom website was officially launched.