Broadway Journal

‘SING STREET’ LIKELY TO OPEN AT THE LYCEUM IN APRIL (EXCLUSIVE)

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The producers of Sing Street  are in talks to transfer their musical to the Shubert Organization’s Lyceum Theatre this spring, in time to qualify for Tony Award nominations.

The adaptation of the highly-regarded 2016 movie, about Dublin schoolboys who form a band influenced by Duran Duran and other English pop groups of the era, would begin previews in late March ahead of an April 19 opening, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. A developmental production at New York Theatre Workshop opened on Dec. 16 and is scheduled to close on Jan. 26. Continue Reading

UNIRONIC ‘JAGGED LITTLE PILL’ AIMS TO SAVE THE PLANET: REVIEW

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The world is in crisis. Jagged Little Pill  is on it.

Gun violence? “Fear has no place in our schools,” an onstage placard reads. Climate change? Name-checked in another sign. Rape? The musical dramatizes an attack via metaphorical modern dance. Opioid addiction? The show’s matriarch buys and pops down black market Oxycodone, a scene played out forward and in reverse.Continue Reading

‘HARRY POTTER’ & THE CURSED BOX OFFICE YARDSTICK

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The last week of July 2019 was business as usual for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child  on Broadway. Sales rose less than 2 percent to $1.4 million, according to data from the Broadway League, the trade association of producers and theater owners.

But there was a huge increase in a closely watched measure in those seven days. Harry Potter ‘s sales jumped from 84 percent of its “gross potential” to 101 percent, according to the same posting. What changed was the basis for comparison.  After four months of claiming a weekly gross potential of $1.7 million, the production slashed the figure to $1.4 million.

Like average ticket prices, sales relative to gross potential is an important signifier of a show’s box office strength. But gross potential, which the League posts weekly with other box office figures, loses value as a benchmark of success when it fluctuates along with ticket prices.Continue Reading

CRITIC JOHN SIMON DIES AT 94; ‘I DID NOT COMPROMISE’

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John Simon on Theater Talk

John Simon, the theater, movie and music critic who died last night at 94, took erudition to another level.

Never mind that English was his fifth language — after German, Hungarian, French and Serbo-Croatian, the language of his native Yugoslavia — every review sent you to the dictionary. He could be cruel, famously so when reviewing actresses’ looks, but also loyal. Betty Buckley wrote on Facebook this morning about her “abiding gratitude for his support of my work through all of these years and his friendship.”

When Bloomberg News hired Simon as its theater critic, in 2005, after 36 years at New York magazine,  arts editor Manuela Hoelterhoff assigned me the fun task of interviewing him in the book-lined Upper West Side apartment he shared with his wife, Patricia Hoag Simon. I found him to be  soft-spoken, thoughtful and unapologetic, except regarding his early assessments of Stephen Sondheim and Adam Guettel.  Excerpts follow.Continue Reading

‘HAMILTON’ PITCHES GROUP SALES AS BOX OFFICE SOFTENS

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EXCLUSIVE: For the first time in more than three years, Broadway’s biggest blockbuster is opening its doors to bus tours, schools from out of town and other groups.

Beginning on Monday, Hamilton  offers group sales for performances from Jan. 7 to June 4, 2020, according to a memo the production sent to group sales agents that was obtained by Broadway Journal.

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NONPROFIT PAY HITS $1M AS TURNOVER LOOMS: INDUSTRY SURVEY (EXCLUSIVE)

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André Bishop, head of Lincoln Center Theater, earned pay and benefits valued at $1 million in 2017. It’s likely the biggest one-year compensation for a New York nonprofit theater leader. Todd Haimes, artistic director and chief executive of the Roundabout Theatre Company, was close behind, with $922,000.

“More people who run theaters are realizing it’s very hard work and want to be paid for it,” said James Abruzzo, a recruiter and compensation consultant who’s hired by arts executives to negotiate their contracts with nonprofit boards. Those at the top who have management and artistic ability are scarce, he said. “Keeping leaders happy and keeping them close are the most important tasks of the board.”

In the previous decade, Bishop’s comp package doubled while Haimes’ rose 74 percent — increases at least four times the rate of inflation.Continue Reading

RIDING HIGH WITH ‘HAMILTON’ PROFITS, THEATER PLANS ‘PUBLIC STUDIOS’

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EXCLUSIVE: The Public Theater has earned tens of millions of dollars for its role developing Hamilton — and is spending as little of it as possible on two ambitious projects.

The venerable nonprofit is fundraising for a new rehearsal and audition space — dubbed Public Studios — that’s scheduled to open early next year across the street from its Astor Place headquarters. It’s also renovating the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, to be completed around 2022.Continue Reading

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