On Aug. 4, at its Wednesday matinee and after 2,213 performances, the musical Beauty and the Beast will take its place at the 17th longest-running show in Broadway history, surpassing Oklahoma!. Beast, Disney's first foray into Broadway stage shows, opened on April 18, 1994. Andrea McArdle and Steve Blanchard are its current stars. The musical will uproot itself on Sept. 5, leaving the Palace for the nearby Lunt-Fontanne.
Amazingly, four of the longest-running shows ahead of Beast are still running: Les Miz, The Phantom on the Opera, Cats, and Miss Saigon.
