Five Current Broadway Musicals Reach 40 Straight Weeks on Billboard Chart | Playbill

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News Five Current Broadway Musicals Reach 40 Straight Weeks on Billboard Chart For the full 40 weeks since the chart's inception, the cast recordings of Wicked, Mamma Mia!, Monty Python's Spamalot, Hairspray and Avenue Q have remained on Billboard's Top Cast Album Chart.

Decca Broadway's Wicked and Mamma Mia! maintain their lock on the top three slots (with Rhino's Jersey Boys at No. 2) for the 12th consecutive week. Mainstays Spamalot, Hairspray and Avenue Q placed No. 6-8.

Walt Disney Records' recording of the Phil Collins musical Tarzan and Angel's The Color Purple cast album round out the top five.

The first 10 spots on the 15-slot table carried over from the previous week's chart. The Masterworks Broadway/Legacy's release of the original 1975 cast of A Chorus Line also charts alongside last season's hits The Drowsy Chaperone (Ghostlight Records) and The Wedding Singer (Masterworks Broadway). (The current Broadway revival's new cast recording of A Chorus Line will be released Oct. 10.)

The release of Stephen Schwartz's Wicked has topped the chart for 35 of the 40 weeks the chart has been published. The recording has dominated the spot, only being toppled before by the Columbia Records two-disc "Harry" release (comprised of the recording of Broadway's The Pajama Game revival and selections of Connick, Jr.'s 2001 show Thou Shalt Not) and The Color Purple for one week each. Rhino's release of Jersey Boys, following its big Tony win, took hold of the top slot for four weeks.

* A new addition to Billboard's listings, the Top Cast Albums chart debuted in Billboard on Jan. 12, 2006. Stephen Schwartz' Wicked — which opened on Broadway in October 2003 (album released Dec. 16, 2003) — appeared at the top of the first chart. The chart measures sales of albums from stage musicals. Broadway recordings mostly fill the 15-slot table, but cast albums from other locales are also eligible. The addition of the chart to Billboard's 112 charts generates exposure for the genre which does not often chart on the Billboard 200.

Billboard can be found on the web at www.billboard.com. Full charts are available by subscription at www.billboard.biz.

 
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