Ben Brantley

‘MOULIN ROUGE!’ & ‘STRANGE LOOP’ TEST TONY TRADITION OF GOOSING GROSSES

June 11, 2022 by Philip Boroff

Eight months after winning the Tony Award for best musical, Hamilton’s weekly grosses were up 45 percent. Dear Evan Hansen‘s were higher by a comparable margin after its win.

Grosses for Moulin Rouge! at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre were down 25 percent last week compared with early fall, when the adaptation of Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 movie reopened as Broadway’s newly minted best musical. At $1.2 million, its box office is off by nearly half since the end of 2019, when Moulin Rouge! was the top grossing new production of 2019-20, with an average ticket price second only to Hamilton.Continue Reading

BRANTLEY DOUBLE PLAY HOBBLES COMPETITION FOR ‘OSLO’: BOX OFFICE

March 27, 2017 by Philip Boroff

Oslo arrives with a rare asset for a play this season: strong pre-Broadway reviews from a working New York Times critic.

Ben Brantley called J.T. Rogers’ drama about the 1993 accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization “crackling theater” when he reviewed it over the summer. Since transferring from Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi Newhouse to the Vivian Beaumont, it sold a healthy $297,000 in its first four previews, buoyed by LCT members with access to discounted tickets.

‘DOLLY’ SALES DELECTABLE IN BUSIEST WEEK OF 2017: BOX OFFICE

March 20, 2017 by Philip Boroff

‘Dolly’ production photo/Julieta Cervantes

One of the season’s most anticipated musical revivals, the Scott Rudin-produced Hello, Dolly!, got off to a fast start in Broadway’s top-selling and best-attended week of the year.

The show grossed $1.4 million in five previews, according to the Broadway League. Both its $750 top seat and $196 average ticket were second only to Hamilton: An American Musical, which has an $849 top ticket and $267 average last week. The numbers confirm that Dolly!, with Midler singing on Broadway for the first time since Bette! Divine Madness in 1979, is on track to be the top-grossing new production of the spring. The classic last appeared on Broadway two decades ago, with Carol Channing reprising a role she played repeatedly on Broadway and on tour.

NEW YORK TIMES DOWNGRADES ‘SIGNIFICANT OTHER’ TO CASUAL ACQUAINTANCE

March 3, 2017 by Philip Boroff

Lindsay Mendez & Gideon Glick. Photo: Joan Marcus

In an unusual reversal caused by the departure of its No. 2 theater critic, the New York Times relinquished its support of Significant Other once it arrived on Broadway.

What Charles Isherwood deemed “an entirely delightful new play” in his 2015 review off Broadway at the Roundabout, Ben Brantley found to be a “bubbly, teary comedy” that is reminiscent of Wendy Wasserstein but “talks too much and too explicitly” and might be more satisfying 20 minutes shorter. The review, which appears on page C3 in the paper rather than the section front, isn’t cited as a “critics’ pick.”

BEHIND THE TIMES: TOP PLAYWRIGHTS URGE PAPER TO REPLACE ISHERWOOD WITH WOMAN OF COLOR

February 28, 2017 by Philip Boroff

EXCLUSIVE: With a search underway to fill one of the highest-profile jobs in theater criticism, influential playwrights are pressing for diversity.

Winter Miller is photographed at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange in Brooklyn, New York on October 19, 2016. Photo by Angela Jimenez Photography — Winter Miller
Photo: Angela Jimenez

They’re among more than 800 in and outside of theater who signed a petition requesting the New York Times hire either a woman of color or a transgender person of color to replace Charles Isherwood, the second-string reviewer who was fired earlier this month. “For as long as I’ve been reading the Times, it’s been white men,” Winter Miller, the playwright who started the petition, said about its full-time theater reviewers. “Trump’s cabinet has more diversity.”

CRITIC ISHERWOOD EXITS TIMES; PAPER SEEKS REPLACEMENT

February 7, 2017 by Philip Boroff

UPDATED THROUGHOUT: The New York Times is seeking a full-time theater critic to replace Charles Isherwood.

Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy confirmed Isherwood’s departure as the No. 2 theater critic, but said the paper doesn’t discuss personnel matters. Isherwood joined the Times from Variety in 2004. He declined to comment.

The position has been one of the most influential in theater journalism. Its current minimum salary is $2,075 a week, said Grant Glickson, the president of the NewsGuild of New York and a staff assistant and head of the bargaining unit at the Times. That’s just above the Broadway performer minimum of $1,974, according to Actors’ Equity.

ECONOMICAL ‘IN TRANSIT’ SEEKS BOOST FROM CLINTON ENDORSEMENT

February 2, 2017 by Philip Boroff

In Transit, the low-grossing new musical that Bill and Hillary Clinton saw Wednesday night, is losing less money than you might think.

As Broadway’s first a cappella musical, it doesn’t employ musicians, besides 11 hardworking onstage actor-vocalists, including one who does percussion. (Steven “HeaveN” Cantor and Chesney Snow alternate in the role of “Boxman.”)

According to a budget filed over the summer with the office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, to pay expenses the production needs minimum weekly sales of $439,000. (The figure includes credit card commissions and other extras that count toward Broadway League official grosses.) Lead producer Janet Rosen said in an interview that because the show was budgeted conservatively, actual breakeven is below $400,000. Sales last week were $338,000.

CRITICS SHOW LIEV LITTLE LOVE & SPLIT ON ‘LIAISONS’

October 31, 2016 by Philip Boroff

screen-shot-2016-10-30-at-10-00-41-pm — Publicity photo/Joan Marcus

The Associated Press raved, the Hollywood Reporter was mixed and Ben Brantley at the Times panned while questioning whether Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses holds up in a new Broadway revival, particularly with a scene that blends rape and seduction.