Broadway theaters earned nearly $25 million for the week ending Dec. 26, with grosses up $1.1 million over the previous week, according to the Broadway League. But with a whopping 10 shows set to close this Sunday (including the just-announced early shutdown of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown), Santa wasn’t exactly fair in doling out holiday bonuses.
In fact, the biggest presents were bestowed on long-standing hits like Wicked (up $521,000 for the week), The Merchant of Venice (up $454,000), The Phantom of the Opera (up $267,000) and The Lion King (up $252,000). Even the much-buzzed-about musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark raked in $944,000 and played to 100 percent capacity — despite delivering only four performances due to a widely reported on-stage mishap that sent a cast member to the hospital and scuttled several shows for safety checks.
Some soon-to-shutter shows, like the deliberately short-lived holiday hit Elf (up $107,000, to a theater-record $1.6 million), saw a box office boost. West Side Story and Fela! also saw upticks from the previous week; the latter even played to 93.6 percent capacity. But even some surviving shows appear to be struggling: If Lombardi (playing to 59 percent capacity), Million Dollar Quartet (52 percent capacity), and La Cage aux Folles (51 percent) can’t consistently fill houses during tourist-heavy Christmas week, one wonders how they’ll fare during the traditionally slower post-holiday winter months. To borrow a phrase from Jerry Herman’s Mame, they need a little (more) Christmas right this very minute.
I really wanted to see Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, but since it’s closing in 3 days, I won’t get to
SUPPORT NYC THEATER
why
I’d love to, I just can’t afford it…
Support regional theaters. Forget about NYC.
I agree that we should all try to support NYC theatre. However, due to the outrageous ticket prices, theatre owners can’t expect average families to regularly attend the theatre. Just as with sporting events, attending the theatre is something one can only do once or twice a year at most….
go to playbill.com and broadwaybox.com for discounts. Not to mention the TKTS booth and its parent organization, Theater Development Fund. There’s no reason to pay more than 1/2 price for a ticket ever. Some tickets can be found for as low as $22. You just have to do some research.
I doubt I’ve paid full price for tickets more than 10% of the time… student rush, tkts, website discounts…
A lot of us are no longer students, don’t get the tickets we want at TKTS, and website discounts lower them down about $30 from $150 is not enough.
Too bad Next to Normal is closing. It automatically became my favorite Broadway experience ever the first time I saw it. Outstanding and extremely moving. Go see it if you can!! (it’s also on tour)
It’s very expensive to go. I got tix for a show in the discount booth and it still was 230 dollars for three people! I love NY theater, but come on…
As others have mentioned, it’s way too expensive. But on top of that, the seating is so tight with no leg room. And the last couple of times I went, other people in the audience were almost as noisy as a Times Square midnight showing of a Saw movie. It’s really a shame that people seem to think that buying a ticket gives them the right to disturb other people’s enjoyment.
Every time I visit New York I make it a point to see a play on Broadway.
Toronto has a very healthy theatre environment, and most “Broadway” shows make it here (or, as in the case of a few…preview here prior to going to Broadway) and we have the same issues…ticket prices are too high, seats are uncomfortable, etc, etc.
I consider it money well spent to experince live theatre two or three times a year than to rent/buy or go see a movie.
I think that there is nothing like seeing shows on Broadway but some people simply cannot afford to go to NYC and pay upwards of $100 per ticket. I think that every show should be recorded onto DVD and sold in stores so that way people who can’t afford to travel (or the people in Middle America who have never even heard of half these shows) can go down to Best Buy or wherever and pay $30-40 for a DVD and see these performances. Believe me, I would’ve loved to have seen “Wicked” with Kristin Chenowith and Idina Menzel but I never will because I couldn’t afford to go to NYC at the time. If it was on DVD, I could watch it anytime instead of having to listen to the CD again and just imagine the show. I think DVD sales of Broadway shows would really help some struggling shows (especially “Spiderman” – which I really wanna see but don’t wanna spend that much money on).
I actually discussed this very issue with a NYC theatre actor, and he said that the theatres are scared that people won’t come see the show if it exists on dvd. My argument would be with you on this – Cats, Rent, Stomp, and more got recorded at the end of the run, and made a buttload of money for the producers. How much more would they make if they sold them at the store AND at the souvenir stand at the theatre? I’ve seen many shows I would have bought immediately on Dvd if it had been available! Wake up producers! Major revenue stream here! And shows don’t have to disappear forever when they close! Oh, and they record every show for a private library that theatre directors can access for revival productions, so they already have it recorded too.