Broadway Journal

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

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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

‘INDECENT’ & ‘SWEAT’ SURGE ON CLOSING NOTICES

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Adina Verson and Katrina Lenk in Indecent/Carol Rosegg

There’s nothing like a closing notice to get playgoers’ attention. Sustaining that isn’t easy.

Indecent grosses soared 60 percent to $606,000 last week, according to data from the Broadway League. It was by far the best week for Paula Vogel’s historical drama — about the controversial 1923 Broadway production of God of Vengeance — since it began previews in April.

Indecent had announced a Sunday, June 25, closing, but late on Thursday, June 22, lead producer Daryl Roth said she was inspired by the sales surge to rescind her decision and run it until August 6.  Restarting a box office, with no advance sales, is challenging. A quick check of Telecharge suggests wide availability for this week.Continue Reading

PLAY GROSSES GO WRONG: SALES TUMBLE FOR SECOND SEASON

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The cast of The Play That Goes Wrong at a New Dramatists fundraiser. Photo: Anita & Steve Shevett

Broadway producers and investors made the brave decision to present several new plays without stars this past season.

Audiences haven’t followed. Grosses for straight plays (non-musicals) tumbled 15 percent in the 12 months ending on Sunday, after plunging 27 percent the previous season, according to statistics out today from the Broadway League. At $154 million, it was the lowest-grossing season for plays in at least six years.

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‘REBECCA’ TESTIMONY ENDS ON DISCLOSURE OF WEAK SALES

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Producer Ben Sprecher/Steven Hirsch

EXCLUSIVE: On Sept. 27, 2012, four days before Rebecca the Musical was to begin rehearsals, it sold 27 tickets.

The day’s “wrap,” or sales, was $2,952.50, according to an internal production document introduced this week in the Rebecca civil trial.

Its advance sale was $1.035 million, the document said. “That would be a weak advance,” testified Aaron Lustbader, a partner at Foresight Theatrical, the general manager of such shows as Phantom of the Opera. Lustbader wasn’t involved in Rebecca, which was postponed for the third and final time a day before rehearsals were to start. Big musicals typically wrap $50,000 each day before previews, he testified yesterday.

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BAREILLES, MIDLER, RUFFALO SELL OUT; STAR-LESS PLAYS FLAT

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Sara Bareilles/photo: Jeremy Daniel

Easter week was flush for Broadway’s flashiest star vehicles and dismal for serious new plays, Pulitzer Prize notwithstanding.

Two Scott Rudin productions in previews tell the story: Hello, Dolly! with Bette Midler passed $2 million for the first time, its average ticket rose $8 to $201, according to sales figures released by the Broadway League. Meanwhile Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House Part 2 was little changed at $91,000, with an average ticket of $24.

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

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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.

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

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‘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.

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IT’S A HIT! (MAYBE) ‘SUNDAY IN THE PARK’ BUILDS AT BOX OFFICE

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Screen Shot 2017-03-06 at 7.29.40 PM
Photo: Matthew Murphy

Sunday in the Park with George, which began a more experimental phase for Stephen Sondheim when the musical debuted off-Broadway in 1983, is doing big business in its latest go-round.

Sales for the revival, with movie star Jake Gyllenhaal as pointillist painter Georges Seurat (and his fictional great-grandson in Act Two), jumped 18 percent to $1.1 million last week. The average ticket, at $140, was topped only by Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen.Continue Reading

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