The Eighties in America - Salem Press (2009)

Entertainment: Major Broadway Plays and Awards

This list contains all Broadway plays that ran for at least one full month between January 1, 1980, and Decem-
ber 31, 1989, and which had total runs of at least two hundred performances. It also includes plays with
shorter runs that received major awards. An asterisk (*) next to a title or personage indicates that a full essay
exists on the topic withinThe Eighties in America.

Plays Opening in 1979
Evita(opened September 25, 1979) 1,567 perfor-
mances
1980 Tony Awards: Best Musical, Robert Stigwood
(producer); Best Book of a Musical, Tim Rice;
Best Original Score, Andrew Lloyd Webber and
Tim Rice; Best Actress in a Musical, Patti LuPone;
Best Featured Actor in a Musical, Mandy Patin-
kin; Best Direction of a Musical, Harold Prince
1980 New York Drama Critics Circle Award: Best
Musical, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice

Sugar Babies(opened October 8, 1979) 1,208 perfor-
mances

Romantic Comedy(opened November 8, 1979) 396
performances

Strider(opened November 14, 1979) 214 perfor-
mances

Bent(opened December 2, 1979) 241 performances

Oklahoma!(opened December 13, 1979) 293 perfor-
mances (revival)

Plays Opening in 1980
Betrayal(opened January 5, 1980) 170 performances
1980 New York Drama Critics Circle Award: Best
Foreign Play, Harold Pinter (playwright)

West Side Stor y(opened February 14, 1980) 333 per-
formances (revival)

Talley’s Folly(opened February 20, 1980) 286 perfor-
mances
1980 Pulitzer Prize: Lanford Wilson (playwright)
1980 New York Drama Critics Circle Award: Best
Play, Lanford Wilson

Children of a Lesser God(opened March 30, 1980) 887
performances
1980 Tony Awards: Best Play, Emanuel Azenberg,

The Shubert Organization, Dasha Epstein, and

Ron Dante (producers); Best Actor in a Play,

John Rubinstein; Best Actress in a Play, Phyllis

Frelich

I Ought to Be in Pictures(opened April 3, 1980) 324

performances

1980 Tony Awards: Best Featured Actress in a Play,

Dinah Manoff

Morning’s at Seven(opened April 10, 1980) 564 per-

formances (revival)

1980 Tony Awards: Best Featured Actor in a Play,

David Rounds; Best Direction of a Play, Vivian

Matalon; Best Reproduction of a Play or Musical,

Elizabeth I. McCann, Nelle Nugent, and Ray

Larson (producers)

Barnum(opened April 30, 1980) 854 performances

1980 Tony Awards: Best Actor in a Musical, Jim

Dale

A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine(opened

May 1, 1980) 588 performances

1980 Tony Awards: Best Featured Actress in a Mu-

sical, Priscilla Lopez; Best Choreography, Tommy

Tune and Thommie Walsh

Home(opened May 7, 1980) 278 performances

42nd Street(opened August 25, 1980) 3,486 perfor-

mances

1981 Tony Awards: Best Musical, David Merrick

(producer); Best Choreography, Gower Cham-

pion

Fifth of July(opened November 5, 1980) 511 perfor-

mances

1981 Tony Awards: Best Featured Actress in a Play,

Swoosie Kurtz

Lunch Hour(opened November 12, 1980) 262 per-

formances