What are the Top 5 Longest Running Shows in the West End?
13 August 2021 - Omega
Let’s face it, there are West End shows. And then there are London’s West End shows that you could watch again and again! We’re talking about the classics; plays that stand the test of time and musicals that you are ready to experience all over again literally the second after the curtain comes down.
If you’ve seen a particular production multiple times then we know you’ve experienced that ‘shhh, the house lights are dimming, the overture is starting and I’ve got goosebumps because I know the next few hours are going to be absolutely magical’ feeling of anticipation. That feeling is the reason why some (very special) shows run for decades at a time! Read on to discover the top five longest running shows in the West End.
The Mousetrap
Let’s kick things off with The Mousetrap; the ultimate detective story. Written by the famous (and the world’s best-selling novelist) Agatha Christie, this classic Whodunit tells the thrilling tale of a group of strangers who get snowed in at an isolated, old country manor only to discover that there is a murderer in their ranks! Can they find out who the perpetrator is before they strike again?!
With plot twists that have kept audiences second-guessing and tensely sitting on the edge of their seats for almost 70 years, the show has enjoyed Ruby and Diamond Jubilees, and put on over 28,000 performances! It makes you wonder what that equates to in terms of tubs of ice-cream sold in the interval! Forget the West End, this murder mystery is THE WORLD’S longest running play! Case closed.
Les Misérables
Next up is the Cameron Mackintosh favourite, Les Misérables. Who would have thought that a production that’s essentially about a man stealing a loaf of bread would prove to be so popular?! We jest of course, this show is the first thing that springs to mind when we think ‘classic West End musical’, with its iconic score written by the enormously talented Claude-Michel Schönberg.
Even if you’re not a massive theatre fan, you’re sure to know the tunes to I Dreamed A Dream and On My Own enough to warble along! Since opening in London in 1985, it’s hopped around many venues including the Barbican, the Palace Theatre and now the Sondheim Theatre (formerly the Queen’s Theatre). That’s 36 years and counting!
The Phantom of the Opera
Sailing into third place on the longest running shows in the West End list is our all-time fave ‘creepy character to hang out in the depths of the theatre after-hours’. Would the Angel of Music please step this way! Andrew Lloyd Webber’s spectacle of a musical opened at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London during the autumn of 1986 and has dazzled us ever since!
Following the haunting tale of a disfigured musical genius who becomes obsessed with a young Soprano, the show is crammed full of some of the most captivating songs in British Theatre history; think The Music Of The Night, Masquerade and The Point of No Return. Experience the wonder that is The Phantom of the Opera for yourself during our two-day break.
The Woman in Black
A lonely house that is regularly cut off by the tide of the ‘nine lives causeway’, debilitating sea frets and mists that come out of nowhere, and a curse thrown in for good measure - it can only be The Woman in Black! With a novel by Susan Hill, this acclaimed ghost story has been scaring the living daylights out of us at The Fortune Theatre in London since 1989!
As spine-tingling horrors goes, this show has got the lot - an extremely creative set design, atmospheric scenes, the standard trope of that ‘creepy Victorian child’s music box melody’ and - maybe most powerful of all - the audiences’ vivid imagination. Expect sensational acting and many jump-out-of-your-seat moments!
Blood Brothers
‘Did y'hear the story of the Johnstone twins? As like each other as two new pins.’ With some of the catchiest songs in musical theatre - here’s looking at you Marylin Monroe, Kids’ Game and Bright New Day, is it any wonder that Blood Brothers ran at London’s Phoenix Theatre for 24 years? Exceptional music and lyrics aside, the heart-wrenching plot mesmerised audiences as a mother gives away one of her twin boys, only to spend the rest of her life wracked with guilt before the brothers’ fate ultimately brings them together once again.
Although Tell Me It’s Not True pretty much summed up our reaction when the show closed in 2012, luckily the touring production has given us our fix of Eddie, Mickey, Mrs Johnstone and gang in the years since.
Predicting the Next Longest Running West End Shows
If we had to predict the next shows that will follow in the footsteps of those above, we would say: Mamma Mia!, which originally opened in 1999, The Lion King; also opened in 1999 and Wicked, which opened in 2006.
Have your favourites made the list? Tell us in the comments below.