Theatre Register
The Magic Show

The Magic Show

Shows · The Magic Show

The Magic Show is a one-act musical with a score by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Bob Randall, starring magician Doug Henning. Produced by Edgar Lansbury, Joseph Beruh, and Ivan Reitman, it opened on Broadway on May 28, 1974 at the Cort Theatre, where it ran for 1,920 performances, closing on December 31, 1978.

Opened
1974
Performances
1,920
Type
Musical
Era
Revolution
Music: Stephen SchwartzLyrics: Stephen SchwartzBook: Bob Randall

Productions1 on Broadway

1974 Cort Theatre Original. May 28, 1974 · Grover Dale 1,920 performances

Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. West End runs are not yet held.

Recordings 1 album held

Licensing not confirmed

Rights We have not been able to confirm the publisher.

Read from the licensor's own pages and catalogues. Rights move, and an empty row means we have not confirmed a publisher, not that the show cannot be licensed.

In the literature27 passages

The fifth longest running Broadway musical of the 1970s, The Magic Show was Stephen Schwartz’s third in a row — the others were Godspell and Pippin — to play over 1,900 performances. book:broadway-musicals-show-by-show-green-stanley-green-kay-5th-ed-rev-and-updated-by#p264

Stephen Schwartz made a welcome return to the theatre with Wicked, his first hit Broadway show since 1974s The Magic Show, and Charles Strouse hasn’t had a hit since Annie in 1977. book:broadway-musicals-the-101-greatest-shows-of-all-time-bloom-ken-1949-vlastnik-fra#p178

Schwartz’s score for The Magic Show (1974) was overshadowed by Doug Henning’s magic, but, like Pippin, the show ran for more than four years. book:historical-dictionary-of-the-broadway-musical-volume-22-william-a-everett-paul-r#p346

Schwartz went on, if that is how it must be described, to do the songs for Pippin [1972] and The Magic Show [1974], both of which are still running. book:more-opening-nights-on-broadway-a-critical-quotebook-of-compiled-by-steven-suski#p357

Stephen Schwartz followed Godspell with the hits Pippin and The Magic Show; book:more-opening-nights-on-broadway-a-critical-quotebook-of-compiled-by-steven-suski#p359

The great magic feat here was pulling a long-run hit out of a very empty hat. The diminuitive, scraggly mustachioed, bell-bottomed Doug Henning was so likable and so unpretentious that he managed to pull it off. book:more-opening-nights-on-broadway-a-critical-quotebook-of-compiled-by-steven-suski#p596

Passages naming this show, found by keyword across 178 books. Where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.

Something wrong here? Correct a field or report the problem. Every change is recorded in public under the contributor licence.