Book of Mormon Surpasses Beauty and the Beast on Broadway

The Book of Mormon at Prince of Wales Theatre, London (2015).
Photo by Vysotsky, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported via Wikimedia
Commons

The Book of Mormon surpassed the original Broadway run of Beauty and the
Beast with its 5,462nd performance in December 2025, entering
Broadway's all-time top ten longest-running shows list for the first
time, according to BroadwayWorld. The milestone placed the musical —
which opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on March 24, 2011 — in the
company of productions that have defined what sustained Broadway success
looks like across multiple decades.

The top ten list of longest-running Broadway shows is dominated by
productions that opened in the late 20th century. Chicago's 1996
revival leads all currently running shows with over 11,500 performances.
The Lion King follows, having opened in 1997 and accumulated over 11,000
performances. Wicked, which transferred its original production to a
film in 2024 while the stage production continued, remains among the top
currently running shows, per Playbill.

What the Ranking Reflects

Reaching Broadway's all-time top ten requires sustained commercial
performance across at minimum a decade of weekly runs. A show achieving
that standard must maintain consistent ticket sales, cast stability, and
audience renewal — drawing not only repeat theatergoers but new
audiences across the full length of its run.

The Book of Mormon has accomplished this through a combination of
ongoing critical standing and a word-of-mouth profile that has sustained
interest among audiences who did not see it in its early years. The
show's Tony Award for Best Musical in 2011 gave it an institutional
credibility that has remained a touchstone for new audiences discovering
it, according to Broadway News.

The Broader Long-Run Picture

Broadway News reported in December 2025 that & Juliet had emerged as
one of Broadway's newest long-running productions, celebrating its
third year since its November 2022 opening. The show represents a
younger generation of long-run contenders — productions that opened in
the post-pandemic era and are building the performance counts that will
define where they eventually land on the all-time list.

The Book of Mormon's entry into the top ten provides a benchmark for
what sustained success requires: consistent performance across more than
14 years, a box-office record broken more than 50 times at its home
theater, and an audience relationship durable enough to outlast multiple
generations of Broadway seasons.

References: The Book Of Mormon Becomes Tenth Longest Running Broadway Show 20251215 | Long Runs On Broadway Com 109864 | The Book Of Mormon To Celebrate 15 Years Of Ringing Doorbells On Broadway