Image Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

The brotherhood of man — not to mention a squealing sisterhood of teenage girls — turned out in force for Darren Criss on Broadway. In his third and final week starring in the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, the Glee star again proved himself a remarkable box office draw. Aside from Daniel Radcliffe’s final week in the show, an anomalous nine-show week that grossed $1.9 million, the revival had the three most lucrative weeks of its 11-month run with Criss in the leading role. For the last three weeks, How to Succeed took in more than $1.3 million per week — just over $4 million total — a figure that was consistently at or near the production’s potential gross. And there was only a modest dip of nearly $12,000 in Criss’ final week, which suggests that the small-screen Warbler may be able to sustain a longer Broadway run should producers want him to return during his summer hiatus from Glee — assuming Ryan Murphy & Co. will let him skip the expected Glee summer concert tour. (Nick Jonas, who begins performances tomorrow as corporate-ladder climber J. Pierrepont Finch, is contracted through July 1.)

As expected, overall Broadway box office was down for the week — and is likely to dip further as shows like Chinglish, Relatively Speaking, and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever play their final performances this Sunday. One promising newcomer is Porgy and Bess — excuse me, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess — which is showing early signs of being a hit. In its first full week since its Jan. 12 opening, the Audra McDonald-led revival played to 87 percent capacity and grossed a strong $878,000, about three-quarters of its potential gross in the Richard Rodgers Theatre.

Turns out Darren Criss may be a bigger Broadway draw than Daniel Radcliffe. In its first week with the 24-year-old Glee star, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying raked in nearly $1.4 million at the box office. That’s a dip from Radcliffe’s final week in the hit musical revival (when the show grossed $1.9 million in an unusual nine-performance week), but it outpaces any previous eight-show week when the Harry Potter star appeared. All week, Criss managed to filled 99.8 percent of the seats at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre and kept NYC police busy controlling crowds outside the stage door. (The producers must be wishing he could stay in the show beyond his Jan. 22 cutoff.) Overall, How to Succeed was the fifth biggest draw on Broadway for the week ending Jan. 8, behind such usual suspects as The Lion King ($1.87 million), Wicked ($1.85 million), Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark ($1.72 million), and The Book of Mormon ($1.43 million).

Meanwhile, several of this season’s newer shows continue to struggle. The lost-in-translation comedy Chinglish filled just 34 percent of its seats and grossed a measly $197,148. The Alicia Keys-backed dramedy Stick Fly, which mysteriously announced today it will sell tickets through April “by popular demand,” grossed $252,000 — less than 32 percent of its potential earnings. Lysistrata Jones and Relatively Speaking, which last week announced plans to close, also saw expected post-holiday drops in box office.

Stage: Get the latest news, photos, and more

Read more:
On the Scene: Does Darren Criss succeed in Broadway’s ‘How to Succeed’? Yes and no
Darren Criss on his ‘How to Succeed’ debut and his connection to Daniel Radcliffe
Darren Criss to replace Daniel Radcliffe in ‘How To Succeed’
‘Glee’ promo: A question is popped and (shirtless) Chord Overstreet faces NeNe Leakes — VIDEO

Image Credit: Theo Wargo/Wire Image

Baby, it was cold outside last night on the long, long line (1.5 New York blocks) to see Darren Criss in Broadway’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. But below-freezing temperatures (or the Hirschfeld Theatre’s assigned seating) don’t mean a thing to Darren Criss fans. Neither do heights, apparently — ask the girls from Toronto and Long Island who scaled trees and columns to glimpse the singer outside the stage door after the performance. Nor are fans deterred by long trips from as far away as North Carolina, California, and New Zealand. “My daughter is a huge, huge, huge Glee fan,” said Canadian Kelly Bender, mother of one of the tree climbers, “so absolutely we came to see him.”

Gleeks are a dedicated pack — and as far as Broadway audiences go, a fun one. Last night (Criss’ third Broadway performance in his three-week run) was certainly a love-in. Whoops and screams greeted the singer the minute he rose from the stage floor as J. Pierrepont Finch, the show’s window washer-turned–ad man, and they basically didn’t stop until the curtain dropped nearly three hours later. The laughs were loud, the claps were plentiful, and the excitement when Glee costar Jane Lynch surfaced in the audience during intermission was intense. Lynch’s exit out a side door just after the final curtain nearly caused a stampede when an entire mob changed directions to follow her. Police barricades were required at the stage door to keep signature-hunters from spilling out onto the road; half the waiting fans were ushered across the street. I almost wrestled a guy who snatched my Playbill, but he was big — Beiste-size big. READ FULL STORY »