Philip Boroff

‘HAMILTON’ PAYS MIRANDA & SELLER TENS OF MILLIONS A YEAR

April 26, 2018 by Philip Boroff

SECOND IN A SERIES: Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop juggernaut is the first single-author show to win a Tony Award for best new musical since Jonathan Larson’s Rent, in 1996. With no writing partner to share the mammoth royalties and profits, the 38-year-old composer-lyricist-librettist and actor stands to earn hundreds of millions of dollars should Hamilton have a long life.

Miranda amassed $12.7 million in author royalties and profit participation from the Broadway production in the 12 months ending in July 2017, according to a production financial statement filed with the office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. That’s more than the $11.6 million median annual compensation for a large-company chief executive, based on a recent Wall Street Journal analysis.

‘HAMILTON’ PROFITS SHOT PAST $160 MILLION LAST YEAR

April 25, 2018 by Philip Boroff

PART ONE OF A SERIES: Nearly three years after storming Broadway, Hamilton remains unrivaled in its moneymaking.

The original production, which began previews at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in July 2015, distributed more than $102 million of profit through November 2017, according to documents filed with New York State. A Chicago engagement and tour that started in San Francisco paid out another $62 million through July 2017.

“Even after adjusting for inflation, it’s hard to imagine a show churning out profits the way this one is,” said Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, a producer and theater professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

We estimate that profits to-date for the Hamilton empire, which now has outposts in London and a second tour in Salt Lake City, exceed $250 million. Lead producer Jeffrey Seller declined to comment for this series through a spokesman, Sam Rudy.Continue Reading

BROADWAY HAS RECORD SALES FOR 8-PERFORMANCE WEEK

April 9, 2018 by Philip Boroff

There’s New Year’s week, when the city is packed with tourists and many shows have nine performances, and then there’s every other week. Last week was a record for the latter.

Bruce Springsteen, Denzel Washington, Harry Potter, Frozen and spring break for public schools lifted Broadway to its highest-grossing week that didn’t coincide with the New Year’s holiday. It was the fifth-highest-grossing week in history.

KID-FRIENDLY SHOWS REACH A THIRD OF BROADWAY SALES

March 19, 2018 by Philip Boroff

Jamie Parker as Harry Potter/ Photo by Manuel Harlan

EXCLUSIVE: This season, every night is kids’ night on Broadway.

While theatergoers still pay up for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s historical hip-hop, Broadway’s fastest-growing onstage demographic are princesses, princes, witches and wizards. With the Harry Potter plays and Mean Girls early in previews and Frozen opening on Thursday, family-friendly sales are likely to stay elevated.

Broadway Journal hasn’t crunched the numbers for every season, so we can’t say that family show sales are at record levels — but industry veterans we spoke to said it seems that way.

CRITIC PROOF? DISNEY RAISES ‘FROZEN’ PRICES FOR 2019

March 14, 2018 by Philip Boroff

EXCLUSIVE: The Frozen fractals appear to be falling into place for Disney.

Reviews aren’t out until the March 22 opening of Disney Theatrical Productions’ adaptation of the 2013 blockbuster animated film, but it has already raised prices for performances next year.

NOR’EASTER PUTS DAMPER ON BROADWAY GROSSES; ‘CAROUSEL,’ ‘FROZEN’ SHINE

March 5, 2018 by Philip Boroff

Disney’s Frozen and Scott Rudin’s revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel performed promisingly in an otherwise wet and dismal week.

Frozen was a near sellout, grossing $984,000 in five previews. Its composers, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, picked up their second Academy Award last night, for best original song with Remember Me, from the Disney film Coco, which shouldn’t hurt Frozen‘s prospects when it opens at the St. James on March 22.

JEREMY GERARD EXITS DEADLINE; CRITIC AT WORK ON LANGELLA BIOGRAPHY

February 13, 2018 by Philip Boroff

Jeremy Gerard has left Deadline.com, the theater critic and reporter said in an email.

Gerard said his contract was not renewed and he was told that Deadline, officially called Deadline Hollywood, no longer plans to cover Broadway. Mike Fleming, the co-editor-in-chief, didn’t return an email. Gerard also covered newspaper and book publishing, with forays in television and film, especially around awards season, as well as public radio, urban planning, pop, jazz, classical music and opera. “I have had a great run at Deadline,” said Gerard, who joined the online show biz news outlet in 2014.

RUDIN, TENNESSEE WILLIAMS ESTATE TENTATIVELY SETTLE ‘GLASS MENAGERIE’ LAWSUIT

February 8, 2018 by Philip Boroff

Joe Mantello and Sally Field/Julieta Cervantes

EXCLUSIVE: A promising Broadway courtroom drama appears to be closing out of town.

Scott Rudin and the University of the South have agreed in principle to settle the University’s lawsuit alleging that Rudin’s production company failed to pay royalties on his Glass Menagerie revival starring Joe Mantello and Sally Field. Lawyers for both sides filed papers in Federal Court in Tennessee disclosing the tentative deal yesterday, exactly a year after the play began previews at the Belasco Theatre.

PRIME ‘MORMON’ SEATS SELL FOR $150 AMID WINTER LULL

February 5, 2018 by Philip Boroff

U.S. stocks aren’t the only market under pressure.

Yesterday’s Super Bowl and the mid-Winter funk contributed to Broadway lowest grosses in four months. Sales last week dipped 10 percent to $24.9 million, according to the Broadway League.

The upside to lower grosses: more affordable theater.

The average ticket to the Tony Award-winning musical comedy The Book of Mormon was $133, the lowest in almost seven years. (Prices may have been skewed because there were seven performances, instead of the customary eight.) Seventh-row center are available for tomorrow for $149.50. (Tickets still go for as much as $477.50 on weekends.)Continue Reading

DEFENDING AGAINST BROADWAY LEAGUE LAWSUIT COULD COST CASTING DIRECTORS MILLIONS

February 1, 2018 by Philip Boroff

Casting directors could finance their own big-budget play or musical for what they may spend defending themselves against the Broadway League’s antitrust lawsuit.

Merely complying with the League’s request for evidence, a process known as discovery, could collectively cost casting directors as much as $4.7 million, a litigation support specialist said in a signed declaration filed in Federal Court. Earlier today, U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods denied the casting directors’ motion to halt or “stay” discovery, which may require their lawyers to review as many as 3 million documents.

In its December suit, the League, which represents producers and theater owners, accused casting director companies of illegally fixing prices. The companies responded that in seeking contributions from producers for healthcare and pension benefits, they’re attempting “to secure the basic workplace fairness enjoyed by nearly every other worker on Broadway.” The League’s lawsuit, the casting directors say, is an attempt to “exact crippling commercial leverage” in negotiations.

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