The run closed September 20, 1987
- Opened
- April 25, 1985
- Closed
- September 20, 1987
- Performances
- 1,005
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- Eugene O'Neill Theatre
Of the 465 productions we hold that opened in the 1980s and record a performance count, this is the 13th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Other stagings of Big River 1 more that season
| 2003 | Revival Revival | 67 perf. |
Who was in it51 named
Evalyn Baron
Reathel Bean
Michael Brian
Ralph Byers
Carol Dennis
Aramis Estevez
John Goodman
Peggy Harmon
Andi Henig
Elmore James
Franz Jones
John Short
Jennifer Leigh Warren
Clint Allen
Claire Bathe
Patrick Breen
Adam Bryant
John P Connolly
Karla Devito
Jon Ehrlich
Brian Lane Green
Gary Holcombe
Ken Jenkins
Russ Jolly
Gordon G Jones
Russell Leib
Karen Looze
Michael Mandell
Stephen Mellor
Graham Pollock
Larry Raiken
Larry Riley
James W Tate
Trey Wilson
17 of these 51 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 34 are set from the identifier in the cast list, which is a slug of the name — so hyphens and full stops are lost and a few come out wrong. We hold nothing else about them. Nobody here is matched to a character: the cast list records who was in the company and not what they played.
Characters12 roles recorded
Daniel Jenkins Huckleberry Finn
Ron Richardson Jim
René Auberjonois The Duke
Bob Gunton The King
John Short Tom Sawyer
Patti Cohenour Mary Jane Wilkes
Gordon Connell Mark Twain
Susan Browning Widow Douglas
Evalyn Baron Miss Watson
T.J. Meyers Pap Finn
Carol Dennis Alice
Jennifer Leigh Warren Alice's Daughter
Only 512 of 13,459 productions carry role names, and these came out of a wiki table — the names arrived with the table's own cell markup on them and have been stripped back. They are not linked to person records because the identifiers in that table do not resolve to ours.
Creative team
- Director
- Des McAnuff
- Choreographer
- Janet Watson
- Producer
- Rocco Landesman, Heidi Landesman, Rick Steiner, M. Anthony Fisher, Dodger Productions
- Orchestrations
- Steven Margoshes
A producer is one string on this record, however many people or companies it names. Directors and choreographers are held both as text and as identifiers; where an identifier exists the name links to a page.
Tony Awards 1 from 1 nomination
| Best Musical | Won |
Recordings 1 held for the work
None of these is attributed to this staging. They are filed against Big River, and nothing in the record says which production any of them documents. Closing that join is the point of this catalogue and it is not closed yet.
Around this production
25 April: Big River, a show based on Twain’s Huckleberry Finn with a score by Roger Miller, opens at the O’Neill Theater for a run of 1,005 performances. Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical Volume 22 William A Everett Paul R, p. 30
- Broadway Musicals Show by Show is a combination history, guide, fact book, and photograph album of the most memorable productions presented both on and off Broadway from The Black Crook in 1866 to Big River in 1985. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 7
- In 1985, a musical called Big River based on Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn opened and won the following Tony Awards: Best Musical, Best Book (William Hauptman), Best Score (Roger Miller), Best Direction (Des McAnuff), Best Featured Actor (Ron Richardson), Best Scenic Design (Heidi Landesman), and Best… At This Theatre 100 Years of Broadway Shows Stories and Botto Louis Viagas Rober, p. 229
- For every year of its long run, Big River hosted a jumping-frog contest outside its theater under the auspices of publicist Adrian Bryan-Brown. Broadway Its History People and Places An Encyclopedia Bloom Ken 1949 2nd Ed New, p. 535
- When he died at the age of 79, he was working on a musical version of Huckleberry Finn, even though the musical Big River had opened and won the Tony Award. Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 309
- other musical roles include The Duke in Big River (1985) Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical Volume 22 William A Everett Paul R, p. 59
Passages naming this production, found by keyword across 178 books. Where it turns up in the literature, not curated notes about it.
What this page does not know
- No photograph of this staging. 48 of 13,459 productions hold one.
- Which of the 1 recordings of Big River document this run, if any.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.