Hamilton (musical) in the context of "Walt Disney Pictures"

Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals.

Although music has been a part of dramatic presentations since ancient times, modern Western musical theatre emerged during the 19th century, with many structural elements established by the light opera works of Jacques Offenbach in France, Gilbert and Sullivan in Britain and the works of Harrigan and Hart in America. These were followed by Edwardian musical comedies, which emerged in Britain, and the musical theatre works of American creators like George M. Cohan at the turn of the 20th century. The Princess Theatre musicals (1915–1918) were artistic steps forward beyond the revues and other frothy entertainments of the early 20th century and led to such groundbreaking works as Show Boat (1927), Of Thee I Sing (1931) and Oklahoma! (1943). Some of the best-known musicals through the decades that followed includeMy Fair Lady (1956), The Fantasticks (1960), Hair (1967), A Chorus Line (1975), Les Misérables (1985), The Phantom of the Opera (1986), Rent (1996), Wicked (2003) and Hamilton (2015).

A sung-through or through-sung work is a narrative work such as a stage musical, musical film or opera in which the entire libretto is set to music, with little or no spoken dialogue or monologues used to tell the story. The story is told through a combination of aria, arioso and recitative. Early versions of this include the Italian genre of opera buffa, a light-hearted form of opera that gained prominence in the 1750s. Since Jesus Christ Superstar, sung-through musicals have been increasingly popular, with one commentator writing, "Hamilton demonstrates ... that a sung-through musical can be as vigorous in its storytelling as any more traditional book musical."

This is a list of Broadway shows with 1,000 or more performances, sorted by number of performances. Twelve shows currently running on Broadway have at least 1,000 performances: the 1996 revival of Chicago, The Lion King, Wicked, The Book of Mormon, Aladdin, Hamilton, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Hadestown, Moulin Rouge!, Six, MJ the Musical, and & Juliet.