Nonetheless, Good Night, and Good Luck’s record-breaking ticket sales last spring helped generate one of the biggest paydays from a limited-run play. The 64-year-old Hollywood star earned at least $9 million in his Broadway debut, according to production financial statements filed with the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James in November.

Despite rising costs and elusive profits, Broadway can still be lucrative, especially for a celebrated leading man multitasking on a smash hit. The actor did everything but run credit cards at the Winter Garden Theatre box office over its 13-week run. He portrayed Edward R. Murrow, the venerated CBS newscaster who took on the red-baiting demagogue Senator Joseph McCarthy; Clooney wrote the play with Grant Heslov; and he produced it with Heslov, Seaview Productions, John Johnson and Sue Wagner.

Clooney sat for more than a dozen interviews to promote the show, which was based on the film of the same name that he directed and co-wrote two decades earlier. In his media appearances, he defended the importance of independent reporting amid President Trump’s efforts to undermine it. “Journalism and telling truth to power has to be waged, like war is waged,” the actor said on CBS’ 60 Minutes. “It doesn’t just happen accidentally.”

The money followed a model from the movie business: a relatively modest salary coupled with a generous share of the upside. Clooney’s $125,000 weekly salary was 47 times the Broadway minimum pay negotiated by Actors’ Equity Association. But it was low for a star of his stature. Al Pacino earned the same salary leading a Glengarry Glen Ross revival 12 years earlier, which adjusted for inflation would be $178,000 today.

Clooney was entitled to 10 percent of Good Night, and Good Luck’s weekly grosses above $1.25 million. That star royalty wouldn’t add up to much on most plays. On this one, it added up quickly.

Good Night repeatedly broke records at the roughly 1,535-seat Winter Garden for the highest weekly box office sales for a play. That culminated in a $4.3 million gross in its final week on Broadway. The brief run totaled an astounding $48 million. (Royalties are paid on the basis of the still-astronomical net gross of $44 million, which excludes fees and expenses that the production doesn’t keep.)

Clooney earned $3.5 million in star royalties; $1.3 million in star net profit participation after the show recouped its $9.5 million capitalization; $3 million in author royalties that he shared with Heslov; $1.9 million in royalties he shared with the other lead producers; and about $5 million in adjusted net profits he shared with the other lead producers and to a lesser extent, co-producers.

Although Good Night tickets were priced as high as $825, Clooney and the other producers left money on the table to make the show more accessible. With help from TodayTix, they gave 2,000 tickets to public school students. They also subsidized a live telecast of the play on CNN at the end of its engagement.

As Clooney conquered Broadway, the play’s investors, director, theater owner and other producers also cleaned up. Here’s a summary of the biggest components:

Star — George Clooney

• Salary: $1,625,000

• Royalties: $3,500,000

• Profit participation: $1,250,000

• Subtotal (Clooney): $6,375,000

Author — Clooney & Grant Heslov

• Royalties: $3,000,000

Producers — Clooney, Heslov, Seaview, John Johnson & Sue Wagner

• Royalties: $1,870,000

• Profit participation: $477,000

• Adjusted Net Profits: $5,000,000*

• Subtotal (Producers): $7,347,000

Director — David Cromer

• Royalties: $1,690,000

• Fee: $100,000

• Subtotal (Director): $1,790,000

* An undisclosed portion of adjusted net profits was shared with co-producers as a reward for raising capital.

Source: Do Not Walk in Fear LLC financial results.

Without knowing how the producers and authors divided their royalties and profits, it’s difficult to tabulate Clooney’s precise haul. (My $9 million estimate is conservative.) Nor does this story account for what he paid his agent, Bryan Lourd, at Creative Artists Agency.

A Clooney spokesman didn’t return emails; John Johnson didn’t respond to a text.

Clooney has made a fortune in movies, television and tequila and it’s unlikely that money was a motivation for this passion project. The son of a journalist, he’s a high-profile activist on behalf of the First Amendment and humanitarian causes and he raises money for the Democratic Party.

Good Night was a big, expensive show that largely adhered to its budget. Its weekly operating expenses averaged about $1.1 million plus royalties. That was slightly higher than estimated in the pre-production investor documents, but a fraction of its $3.4 million average weekly gross. (The average gross is calculated from the net gross, for an apples-to-apples comparison.)

Director David Cromer’s $1.7 million in royalties was roughly three times that of John Benjamin Hickey — the director of the Plaza Suite revival — or Leopoldstadt director Patrick Marber, according to those recent shows’ results.

The production’s theater-related expenses totaled about $7.5 million. That includes $3 million in percentage rent, equivalent to the standard 7 percent of box office sales. The Shubert Organization owns the Winter Garden.

Investors in the show recouped their money and earned about a 55 percent return, according to the financial papers. That’s high for a limited-run play. In addition to the blockbuster sales, the producers and investors benefited from a $3 million tax credit from New York state.

The Broadway League has indicated (belatedly) that it will seek to close a loophole in the tax credit program, which, once plugged, would require successful shows to repay some of the aid to the state. American theater has no shortage of existential crises, but every so often it has a bona fide money machine — one that hardly needs government support.

The Heart is scheduled to open Off-Broadway at the nonprofit company’s Laura Pels Theatre at the end of October, according to a person familiar with the production. If the tryout on West 46th Street is well-received, the next stop is Broadway, where it would be among the first Broadway musicals dominated by electronic dance music (EDM).

The Roundabout’s incoming artistic director, Christopher Ashley, has been developing the show with the high-profile producers Sue Frost and Randy Adams (Come From Away).

The Heart aims to expand musical theater’s palette. “What you hear in your earbuds every day when you’re walking down the street is this heavily produced music,” co-composer Anne Eisendrath said in a video created for the La Jolla Playhouse, where the show had its premiere in August. “And it becomes the soundtrack to your life. And I was like, ‘we need to make a musical that sounds like that.’”

Adapted from Maylis de Kerangal’s novel Réparer les Vivants, the show dramatizes a race to transplant a dying surfer’s heart into a living woman. Eisendrath collaborated on the percussive score with her husband, Ian Eisendrath, who’s the executive music producer of the blockbuster Netflix movie KPop Demon Hunters. Kait Kerrigan (The Great Gatsby) wrote the book and additional lyrics.

Critic Pam Kragen wrote in the San Diego Union-Tribune that it “unfolds like a singing docudrama…At times tender and tear-inducing and at others cold and clinical, The Heart is a story about life, death, sacrifice, generosity and, ultimately, hope.”

Ashley, La Jolla’s outgoing artistic director who takes over the Roundabout this summer, will direct the show in New York, as he did at La Jolla. Programming The Heart at the Roundabout is reminiscent of Lear deBessonet beginning her tenure atop Lincoln Center Theater with Ragtime, which she first staged at New York City Center in 2024.

Best known for revivals, Roundabout hasn’t presented many new musicals since it was founded in 1965. If all goes well, The Heart will be its first new musical in memory to transfer to Broadway. The Roundabout has produced new plays that transferred, including Liberation, The Humans and Significant Other. And it’s produced new plays directly on Broadway, including Sanaz Toossi’s timely Pulitzer Prize-winning English, about Iranian adults preparing for an English language exam, which ended its run a year ago.

A Roundabout spokeswoman declined immediate comment on Wednesday. Frost didn’t respond to emails.

Frost, Adams and Stephen Reynolds are raising $14 million to $16 million for The Heart, according to a December filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A promotional deck for prospective investors said the capitalization “includes Broadway and all developmental steps.” Frost and Adams were credited as producers of the La Jolla engagement, and are likely enhancing — or underwriting — the Roundabout run.

Frost — the chair elect of the Broadway League trade association — and Adams have an enviable track record. Of the three new Broadway musicals they have lead produced since 2009, two were hits: Come from Away — about the residents of Gander, Newfoundland, who welcomed stranded passengers following 9/11 — and Memphis, about a white D.J. who championed Black R&B in the 1950s. Ashley directed both shows, winning a Tony Award for Come From Away in 2017. Memphis won the Tony for best musical in 2010.

Were The Heart to move to Broadway, the production estimates it would require a published box office gross of $760,000 a week to break even, which is on the low end for a musical today. Like Come From Away, it’s an ensemble piece with actors playing multiple roles.

Ashley has said he will collaborate with Scott Ellis, the interim artistic director, on the 2026-27 season. The Roundabout’s longtime leader, Todd Haimes, who died in 2023 at the age of 66, left the company in a relatively strong position.

As of August 2025, it had net assets of $141 million. It controls three Broadway houses: Studio 54, the Stephen Sondheim Theatre and what’s now called the Todd Haimes — formerly the American Airlines, and before that, the Selwyn Theatre. The rare artistic director with an MBA, Haimes opportunistically signed long-term leases and acquired venues to grow the institution and to provide financial stability.

The Roundabout, like other landlords, has capitalized on the generally strong demand for theaters. In 2024-25, its rental income totaled $24 million, far eclipsing its ticket and subscription sales and accounting for nearly a third of its contributions, investment income and earned revenue.

JOEY PARNES UPDATE: In January, I reported that the producer and his production company were defendants in three lawsuits seeking a combined $730,000 in fees that allegedly went unpaid during his bruising 2022-23. That season, he was a lead producer of two short-lived Broadway flops: Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ and KPOP.

Since then, one suit has been dropped and settlement discussions are underway in another.

In the largest dispute, Parnes allegedly fell $458,000 short of the enhancement he agreed to provide Hartford Stage Co. for its June 2022 tryout of the musical Kiss My Aztec!, according to a complaint by the theater company. A week after my story ran, Hartford Stage dismissed the suit without prejudice — meaning that it is free to refile the complaint down the road.

In another case, Parnes acknowledged in court papers that Joey Parnes Productions owed $50,000 in pay and pension contributions to the orchestrator and associate orchestrator of Dancin’. Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians sued to recover the money.

On Jan. 27, a lawyer for Joey Parnes Productions requested that a federal judge extend filing deadlines because “additional time is needed for the parties to discuss settlement.” This week, Parnes Productions was granted a second extension: “The parties have been discussing settlement, and additional time will allow the parties to continue to try to resolve the issues presented amicably without the need for further Court intervention,” Parnes’ lawyer, Michelle (Min Kyung) Cho of Moses & Singer LLP, wrote in a filing.

Note: This story was updated to clarify that the Roundabout doesn’t own all its venues. It occupies the Todd Haimes, Stephen Sondheim and the Steinberg Center — which includes the Laura Pels — under long-term leases. It owns Studio 54.

For three years, the Titanic-slash-Celine Dion parody was a downtown destination for theatergoers — first at the Asylum NYC comedy club in Chelsea and then at the Daryl Roth Theatre near Union Square. After a slow start, the show earned enough in its first year and a half Off-Broadway to return about 60 percent of its roughly $1 million capitalization to investors, according to records filed with New York state. It was on track to become the hit the media had anointed it.

The momentum came to a halt in 2024. That year, expenses increased while grosses stagnated. The show was in the red in 51 out of 52 weeks, posting a net loss of $2.3 million, according to financial papers filed with the office of New York State Attorney General Letitia James. Instead of sailing into profitability, it ran aground, closing at the Daryl Roth in June 2025.

“The economics of Broadway and touring are fundamentally different from Off-Broadway, and we are very optimistic about Titanique’s prospects in both arenas,” Eva Price, the show’s lead producer, wrote in an email to Broadway Journal. “Our experience has shown that when Titanique is re-mounted in a larger theater and produced on a grander scale— it succeeds.”

Titanique’s losses raise questions about the vaunted comeback of commercial theater Off-Broadway, given the show’s leading role in the narrative. The results also speak to the challenges at Broadway’s St. James Theatre, where the campy jukebox musical is scheduled to begin previews on March 26. Even when excluding balcony tickets, which aren’t for sale for Titanique, the St. James has more than four times the seating capacity of the Daryl Roth.

Price called the Broadway production “a widely beloved show being mounted with creative ambition and economic discipline — at less than half the capitalization of most new Broadway musicals today.” Its capitalization is indeed modest for Broadway — a maximum of $9.5 million, vs. $25 million for The Lost Boys, another new musical, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Yet Titanique’s running costs are closer to the daunting industry standard. It needs to gross about $900,000 a week to cover its operating expenses, according to a production estimate distributed to investors and obtained by Broadway Journal. Based on grosses reported by the Broadway League — which include fees not retained by the production — the show must sell about $993,000 of tickets each week to break even.

Price declined to discuss financial details, including why she didn’t close the show Off-Broadway earlier. At year-end 2024, the production owed $2.1 million to Price as well as $600,000 in unpaid royalties, according to one of the filings with the state. (The Attorney General’s office hasn’t released 2025 financials.) Price noted in her email to Broadway Journal that the Off-Broadway engagement “navigated economic uncertainties throughout each playing year,” including the unionization of its production workers.

It’s unclear how much the union organizing aggravated the losses. Although Titanique’s six production workers voted in February 2024 to be represented by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the contract IATSE signed with the production didn’t go into effect until Oct. 21, 2024. Most of the year’s losses predated the agreement.

Nederlander Organization CEO James L. Nederlander, a co-producer of Titanique downtown, didn’t return a call for comment.

Price said that by transferring the show to Broadway, “we can offer more accessible pricing across a broader range of seats, expanding audience reach while driving higher grosses and stronger overall financial viability.” The West End production, Price said, “which recently celebrated its one-year anniversary and continues to sell strongly, is a powerful example of that trajectory” — the show succeeding in a larger theater.

The Criterion Theatre, where Titanique’s playing in London, has roughly 590 seats, vs. 1,345 for sale at the St. James. Price declined to disclose the Broadway advance sale, which, like other new musicals opening this spring, appears to be modest, given the number of seats available.

Blumenthal Arts, which manages five venues in Charlotte, North Carolina, co-produced Titanique at the Daryl Roth and is investing in the Broadway production. “People are hungry for things that are just plain fun, especially fun with your friends,” Blumenthal Arts CEO Tom Gabbard told Broadway Journal. “I’m bullish about this show reconceived in a larger setting. I would love to see it play in Charlotte.”

Co-author Marla Mindelle originated the role of “Celine Dion,” who winds up on the Titanic even though she was born 56 years after the ship sank. When Mindelle and co-author Constantine Rousouli exited the cast on June 4, 2023, a month after she won a Lucille Lortel Award for outstanding lead performer, grosses tumbled 30 percent.

Mindelle and Rousouli are reprising their roles at the St. James. They’re joined by Deborah Cox, a Canadian singer-songwriter; Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory), in his first Broadway musical; and Frankie Grande. The rest of the cast was announced on Friday: Melissa Barrera (In the Heights), John Riddle (Frozen) and Layton Williams, who won the aforementioned Olivier playing a seaman and the iceberg.

Tony Award nominations are due three weeks after Titanique opens. With just six new musicals announced for 2025-26 — and one of them, The Queen of Versailles, already shuttered — the odds of getting theatergoers’ attention and winning Best Musical are more favorable than in years past. Were it to win that accolade, Titanique has a good chance of becoming the “Splash Hit Musical” it’s referred to in the production’s pitch deck for investors.

To privately comment about this story or anything else, feel free to email Philip Boroff at pboroff@bwayjournal.com.

Empire State Development, which supports economic growth in the state, currently isn’t accepting applications for the New York City Musical and Theatrical Production Tax Credit. Applicants had to have their first paid performance by Dec. 1, 2025. The proposed state budget announced today “increases the aggregate amount available under the program by $150 million for productions with initial performances on or after December 1, 2025,” according to a state briefing book posted online.

The briefing book doesn’t offer other details about the subsidy, which has been worth a maximum $3 million per Broadway show and $350,000 off-Broadway. News broke last summer that the program’s funds had been depleted, although it was later extended by a few months. Producers have said the credit is essential for fundraising for shows, and usually reference the subsidy in documents they circulate to prospective investors.

If the state legislature approves the extension, it could aid shows such as All Out: Comedy About Ambition, which began performances Dec. 12; Every Brilliant Thing, starring Daniel Radcliffe, which is scheduled to begin previews on Feb. 21; and Giant, starring John Lithgow, which is scheduled to begin previews on March 11.

With the Broadway season about two-thirds complete, grosses are up 8 percent over 2024-25. But investor profits are elusive for all but long-running blockbusters. Last week, the Alicia Keys musical Hell’s Kitchen posted its closing notice. Over more than 700 performances, it’s returned only about 60 percent of its investors’ money.

Jason Laks, president of the Broadway League — which represents theater owners, producers and general managers — said in a statement: “The 100,000 New Yorkers whose jobs are supported by Broadway are grateful to Governor Hochul for investing in the theater industry’s success. Broadway is vital to New York City’s ability to attract tourism, support small businesses and generate new jobs. As we continue to grapple with ever higher costs, the State’s program remains essential to bringing many productions to the stage.”

In the largest case, Parnes fell $458,000 short of the subsidy — or enhancement — he agreed to provide Hartford Stage Co. for its June 2022 tryout of the musical Kiss My Aztec!, according to a complaint the nonprofit theater company filed in federal court last month. The producer hasn’t filed a response.

Separately, Parnes acknowledged in a settlement agreement that Joey Parnes Productions owes $50,000 in pay and pension contributions to the orchestrator and associate orchestrator of the 2023 Broadway revival of Bob Fosse’s Dancin’. On Dec. 18, 2025, Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians sued Joey Parnes Productions to recover the money.

Broadway Journal previously reported that Parnes signed a stipulation conceding that six Dancin' designers had been underpaid. U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer ordered Parnes, Joey Parnes Productions and another entity he controls to pay the designers’ union $223,000, which includes pension and healthcare contributions and interest and attorneys’ fees. Plaintiffs in the other cases are also seeking interest and attorneys’ fees.

The producer didn’t respond to emails seeking comment. The litigation marks a reversal of fortune for Parnes, whose more than 60 Broadway credits include lead producing Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, the Christopher Durang comedy that won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play; and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, which was voted Best Musical the following season. (Like Kiss My Aztec!, Gentleman’s Guide had a developmental run at Hartford Stage.)

A high-profile figure on the business side of Broadway, the impresario has described himself as a “mud producer,” his self-deprecating term for getting into the weeds on shows. “There are hands-on producers who like to get into the mud of it all and then there are producers who raise money and make big decisions and delegate to others,” Parnes told Jamie Dumont and Robert Russo on the Broadway Podcast Network in 2023. “For me, producing is working with all the people that you see on the title page of a program and all the people that you see in the credit section of the program and enabling everybody to do their best work.”

In 2019, Parnes lost a lucrative gig as Scott Rudin’s general manager and executive producer after six years in the role. Two years later, he sued former associates Sue Wagner and John Johnson, accusing them of conspiring to destroy his relationship with Rudin and usurp it for themselves. Johnson — who began as an intern in Parnes’ office — and Wagner countersued, and the case was later discontinued.

Parnes bet big on the 2022-23 season, as Broadway was still recovering from the pandemic. His ambitious slate faltered. He was a lead producer of KPOP (which shuttered after 17 regular performances), Dancin’ (65 performances) and a co-producer of Almost Famous, the musical adaptation of Cameron Crowe’s roman à clef, which closed after 77 performances.

Kiss My Aztec! has a book by John Leguizamo (Latin History for Morons) and Tony Taccone, with music by Benjamin Velez (Real Women Have Curves) and lyrics by Velez, Leguizamo and David Kamp. Per the enhancement agreement, Hartford Stage and Parnes were to “mutually agree on creative decisions” as well as on hiring the creative team and cast. Hartford Stage was entitled to financial participation in future productions, via royalties and/or net profits, as were La Jolla Playhouse and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, which presented earlier tryouts. Parnes had the right to use the Hartford physical production in a future commercial production, at no additional charge.

The musical in Connecticut was originally budgeted for $2 million, with Parnes’ contribution set at $1.58 million. Citing “ongoing circumstances with COVID that are hampering [Parnes’] ability to raise investment funds as planned,” an amendment to the enhancement deal required Hartford Stage to increase its own contribution and extended the producer’s payment deadline.

In exchange, Parnes personally guaranteed his debt and granted Hartford Stage a lien on his property as collateral. To date, no commercial production of the musical has materialized, despite encouraging reviews from the developmental runs.

Parnes has paid Hartford Stage $900,000. In its Dec. 1, 2025, complaint, the theater company said he still owes $458,000. Taccone — who directed all three tryouts of Kiss My Aztec! and is the former artistic director of Berkeley Rep — said it’s the creative team’s understanding that Parnes’ rights to the show have lapsed.

“Joey’s a good guy,” Taccone told Broadway Journal. “He championed the play from Berkeley Rep to La Jolla to Hartford. Obviously, he’s fallen on hard times, but we have to move forward.”

Taccone said he believes fundraising for new musicals has become more difficult as the failure rate increased and investors have become more risk averse. “A bunch of people have come up short raising money,” he said. “I suspect that the old wells that they used to go to have run dry.”

Litigation aside, Parnes is proceeding with new projects. Auditions are scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 7, at Pearl Studios in New York for About Time, a revue of songs by David Shire and Richard Maltby Jr. (Big) that the nonprofit Goodspeed Musicals presented over the summer. Previews are set to begin Feb. 19 at the 145-seat Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater on the Upper West Side.

The production department appears to have taken the biggest hit, with smaller cuts in producing, general management, development, audience services (ticketing) and Joe's Pub. Top administrators and managers are among the casualties.

At least 15 employees were removed from the Public’s online staff list in recent weeks and their positions haven’t been filled. (I compared the current list with a copy saved from November.) Three additional staffers either told colleagues that they were fired or disclosed on LinkedIn that they’re job-hunting. That’s close to 10% of the organization’s headcount, and the total is likely higher. Artistic Director Oskar Eustis — currently on sabbatical in Australia — Executive Director Patrick Willingham and a Public spokeswoman didn’t return emails.

The Public is contracting as it produces fewer shows at its Astor Place headquarters and hosts more work by outside organizations. Two productions this season come from the Ma-Yi Theater Co., a “resident” company that’s a prominent incubator of Asian-American plays.

A third, Seagull: True story, is produced by the MART Foundation, an American nonprofit that supports contemporary performing arts internationally.

The timing of the layoffs may seem odd. The Public is only four months into its fiscal year. Last month, Hamilton posted ticket sales of $4.9 million in Leslie Odom Jr.’s final week reprising his role as Aaron Burr, making it the highest-grossing Broadway show ever over an eight-performance week.

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But Hamilton royalties and profit share are off their highs. There’s just one North American touring company, down from four before the pandemic. The Public’s royalty and subsidiary rights income — dominated by Hamilton — plunged from $24 million in 2018-19 to $7 million in 2023-24, according to the company’s audited financial statements.

Initially, the Public — which years earlier produced A Chorus Line and Hair — used Hamilton income to rebuild its financial reserves. Since the pandemic, in a harsher environment for nonprofit theater, Hamilton proceeds have subsidized operating budgets, a practice that management appears eager to curb.

Eustis has said that he wants to make the company more sustainable before stepping down in July 2028, when his 10-year contract expires. “I really hope I can get the Public back on a really stable economic and cultural footing before I leave so I’m handing over a really solid enterprise to my successors.” he told podcaster Guy Raz in 2024

Recurring job cuts haven’t promoted stability internally. The company reduced staff in late 2021 upon reopening after the Covid-19 shutdown, and again in the summer of 2023, when it laid off roughly 50 people — 19 percent of its full-time workforce — citing declining revenue and rising costs. It also jettisoned the Under the Radar Festival, although it continues to be involved. Next month, it will host three of the festival’s 32 shows.

Executive compensation has long been a sensitive issue at the Public, especially when it’s firing people. Eustis earned $1.1 million in pay and benefits in 2023; Willingham’s total comp was $694,000, according to the Public’s latest tax filing.

The company’s production workers recently ratified a union contract with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). The agreement, which took effect September 1, delivered “meaningful wage increases and comprehensive benefits,” the Public and IATSE said in a joint release at the time.

It remains unclear whether the IATSE contract contributed to the latest layoffs, or how its provisions apply when the Public presents work by outside companies. One senior IATSE official told Broadway Journal that nonunion companies must negotiate temporary agreements to work at the Public. “We cover all work there, as far as I know,” he said.

Laid-off Public staffers receive a couple of weeks of pay and a little over a month of healthcare. For additional severance, they’re required to sign a separation agreement that includes a non-disparagement clause. “I will not do or say anything (whether written or oral) that is intended, or might reasonably be expected, to harm or disparage the Public,” reads the confidential agreement, which was obtained by Broadway Journal. Payment is contingent on “continued compliance” with the terms.

One former employee noted a disconnect between the corporate-style HR policy and the Public promoting civic engagement — via Shakespeare in Central Park; the Mobile Unit, which presents free theater in other parks and correctional facilities and community centers; and Public Works, in which community members take classes and participate in performances.

Ideally, Eustis and Willingham would explain why the storied institution that presents summer theater that’s “free for all” conditions severance on silence — and why a company founded on radical free expression demands its laid-off workers give theirs up.

HOLIDAY BOOK RECOMMENDATION: Out of My Head, a delightful memoir and how-to book by playwright Billy Aronson published earlier this year, is peppered with wise lessons: Though there’s a place for tradition in the arts, in the end your work will be noticed not for the rules you follow but for the rules you break. And: When talking money with your collaborator, get it in writing. Aronson is credited with the original concept and additional lyrics for Rent, and a highlight is his depiction of the late composer-lyricist Jonathan Larson and their collaboration:

He was tall, his hair stuck out from the top of his head, his ears stuck out and his feelings stuck out. Even when Jonathan was quiet I could sense his restlessness to make things happen. It didn’t matter how poor this guy was, how many years he’d been waiting tables, or the fact that he’d never had a show produced, he believed he was going all the way and never stopped swinging for the fences. With complete confidence Jonathan told me that our “Boheme” would be our generation’s “Hair” and bring the MTV generation back to the theater. I thought he was nuts, but in a good way.

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For investors, however, the Broadway production has been less magical. To-date, they’ve earned a total return — after recouping their initial stakes — of just 6%, rising to 11% when including the benefit of a state tax credit to encourage theater production. Money market funds have been more lucrative over the same period.

The Broadway production posted a $3.5 million operating loss in the year ending in February 2025, with additional losses in subsequent months. The lead producers warned investors not to expect another profit distribution anytime soon. Those same producers have earned millions of dollars in royalties and other revenue tied to the New York run, in addition to their share of the modest profits.

Broadway Journal obtained results for Train Times Broadway L.P., the entity that produces the acclaimed spectacle, via freedom of information requests from New York Attorney General Letitia James. In addition, the AG’s office provided records for Train Times SF L.P. -- which mounted a run in San Francisco that proved to be short-lived. I also reviewed financial statements filed by Cursed Child companies in a U.K. government registry, along with internal production communications.

Despite grossing $456 million in New York, Cursed Child is a textbook case of a show that takes years to earn back its investment — if it’s fortunate — and then struggles to sustain momentum. The Broadway transfer of the West End hit was budgeted like a musical and an expensive one at that, with a large cast (currently 38), spectacular effects and a venue lavishly renovated by the production and its landlord, the multinational theater company ATG Entertainment.

Capitalized at $35.5 million, with weekly operating expenses exceeding $1 million, Cursed Child is produced by Sonia Friedman Productions — which is owned by ATG — Colin Callender and Harry Potter Theatrical Productions, which represents the interests of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.

“Our producers are proud of how we’ve been able to pivot and respond to the ever-increasing costs of producing theatre on Broadway, while still allowing new generations to attend,” production spokesman Adrian Bryan-Brown said in an emailed statement to Broadway Journal. Bryan-Brown added that “during a particularly challenging time for live theater everywhere, especially Broadway, we have delivered returns in three major markets” -- London, New York and Melbourne.

Cursed Child has delivered its best investment returns in London, though rising running costs have ushered in recent operating losses. Producers privately cited higher salaries for cast and backstage staff, the cost of maintaining an aging production, and a nearly 20% drop in summer sales for long-running shows.

Cursed Child in Melbourne ran five years but generated an investor profit of just 0.5%. A San Francisco production, which had a pandemic-interrupted run ending in September 2022, lost 76 percent of its $33 million capitalization as of year-end 2023. A Toronto production ran just over a year at a loss.

In Washington, D.C., President Trump’s August deployment of the National Guard hurt Cursed Child’s engagement at the National Theatre this summer. The producers told investors that audiences stayed home and tourism collapsed, leading to losses that will delay recoupment.

In 2013, Rowling needed coaxing to extend the Potter brand, which comprises about 600 million copies of books sold, plus movies, television, video games and theme park attractions. “For years I’d turned down proposals to adapt the books for the stage, but this was something different, something new,” Rowling wrote in a Cursed Child coffee table tome. She co-wrote a new story focusing on Harry’s middle son, which became the basis of the play by Jack Thorne. The London production played to full capacity in its early years and won a record nine Olivier Awards.

As is typical of an offering licensed from a U.K. juggernaut, Broadway investors accepted tough terms. For example, the underlying rights owner (Rowling) and the West End company (owned by Rowling and others) and affiliates command 31 percent of net profits. The Book of Mormon, which arrived on Broadway without a prior run and wasn’t based on a book or movie, allocates just 4 percent of net profits to insiders, which is known as net profit participation.

When Cursed Child opened in New York in April 2018, Ben Brantley in the New York Times called it “enthralling,” and Sara Holdren in New York magazine deemed it “extravagantly entertaining.” A rare, two-part Broadway play requiring two tickets, Cursed Child was a must-see in its first year. It earned $22 million in operating profit on $95 million of box office income. By July 2019, it had returned 60 percent of investors’ capital.

But in the year ending February 2020, grosses for the Broadway run plunged by more than a third. Producers played down the slump, telling the New York Times’ Michael Paulson that “we have now settled into a viable business-as-usual weekly sales pattern, if ‘business as usual’ is ever something that’s possible to say in the theater.”

Behind the scenes, the producers took steps to hasten recoupment. They waived their fees and office charges when weekly grosses fell below a certain threshold. Royalty participants, including producers, deferred some income until the show recouped and earned a small profit. The producers and an undisclosed investor -- possibly ATG -- delayed repayment of $9.9 million owed to them until the production built up reserves.

The show resumed performances at the end of 2021 following the Covid-19 shutdown, debuting a condensed, one-part version at effectively half the price. It retained what the Times’ Alexis Soloski called its “diamond-sharp” staging and “dazzling” visuals. Grosses rebounded in the year ending February 2023; and it repaid the $9.9 million loan to insiders and recouped its capitalization.

Business slumped again in 2023-24 and 24-25. Some Potter watchers speculate that Rowling alienated audiences with her comments about transgender issues. The show lost money even after producers shaved the running time for a second time, in November 2024, to reduce costs. The producers privately blamed a drop in tourism from Canada for part of the decline. They recently told investors that operating income from Felton’s engagement — Nov. 11 to May 10, 2026 — will be used to offset losses and rebuild financial reserves, not to make profit distributions.

ATG Entertainment, which has a long-term lease on the Lyric, has collected more than $34 million in rent on Broadway from Cursed Child. In the year ending in February 2025, rent consumed nearly 11% of box office sales. To be sure, ATG has its own real estate expenses. In 2013, it paid $64 million for the lease to the Lyric, and later spent millions more on Cursed Child renovations.

The three Broadway producers have collectively earned more than $10 million from the show’s royalties, office charges, executive producer fees and their share of profits and the state tax credit. They also received some of the $4 million that the Broadway company paid to the West End “mother company” in royalties and net profit participation.

HPTP Holdings Ltd., which represents Rowling’s interests in the show across the U.S, U.K, Canada, Australia and other territories, had net assets of $17 million as of March 2024 (disclosed in pounds that I converted into dollars). A year earlier, it paid Rowling a $10 million dividend, following a $16 million dividend from another Rowling entity in 2018.

Investors in the Broadway show have shared just $2.3 million.

Inequitable rewards have been a persistent sore point for people who raise money and invest in shows. David Carpenter, who presented the scrappy and successful unauthorized Potter parody Puffs, said that the roles of producers and investors aren’t comparable.

“Being an investor isn’t a job on a show,” Carpenter said in a text. “The lead producers have to make 100 decisions a day that starts with them taking the risk and the idea to get the show produced. It’s years of work with no pay. When the show is running, the lead should get paid, as any CEO should for running a medium-sized company. The investors have lost sight of that.”

Carpenter added that the disconnect in earnings is the least of Broadway’s problems. “The industry is broken, dysfunctional and corrupt.”

Rising production costs, which have long bedeviled Broadway, accelerated during the pandemic. “People are asking what can be done,” said John Breglio, a producer and retired theatrical lawyer, in an interview. “Nobody has come up with a silver bullet.”

To catch Felton on Broadway reprising his role as Draco Malfoy, fans are paying up to $678 a ticket and waiting for hours outside the stage door for a chance to meet him. “It’s amazing to see someone we grew up with taking that role,” said Stella Racine, a 36-year-old waitress and bartender who flew in from Seattle.

The Broadway production has privately forecast sales of about $70 million for Felton’s six-month run. If it can sustain anything close to today’s frenzied business through 2026 and make substantial distributions to investors, the turnaround might merit a case study at Hogwarts Business School.

To reach Philip Boroff, feel free to email pboroff@bwayjournal.com.

Thank you for your inquiry about the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child productions playing around the world. As you are probably aware, we don’t discuss the financials of the productions.

We are extremely proud that during a particularly challenging time for live theatre everywhere, especially on Broadway, we have delivered returns in three major markets:

The London production has recouped and continues as a two-play production.

The Broadway production recouped, even after moving to the one-part version during the pandemic.

The Melbourne production recouped despite the impact of the pandemic on all theatre.

As a long-running play, we are constantly finding new, inventive ways to promote ourselves — without the advantages musicals have of performing songs on television, radio, at events, or through music-led social campaigns. We’ve also reduced our running time on Broadway to under three hours to ensure the experience remains accessible and appealing to new audiences.

Our producers are proud of how we’ve been able to pivot and respond to the ever-increasing costs of producing theatre on Broadway, while still allowing new generations to attend. Over half our audience are brand new theatregoers — a meaningful contribution to the wider ecosystem across our entire industry. And over the years, the production has provided employment to thousands of artists, technicians, and craftspeople across multiple territories.

Out of 1,456 votes cast, 71% voted yes and 29% voted no, according to a person familiar with the vote. Just under 3,300 Equity members who've worked on Broadway or in a "sit-down production" outside New York since September 2019 were eligible to vote.

The new contract includes 3% annual raises, with the Broadway minimum salary immediately increasing to $2,717 from $2,638. The new stage manager minimum for a musical is $4,464 and $3,837 for a play. Equity told its members it bested the League's opening proposal of a raise of just over 1% a year, but the agreed-upon 3% falls short of the 4.3% average annual increase in the previous contract.

Equity achieved its top priority of fortifying the health plan it co-manages with the League.  After years of productions contributing $150 a week per person toward the plan, the League agreed to annual increases of $25, which amounts to a 50% jump by 2027.

Additionally, when actors and stage managers work 13 or more consecutive performances without a day off, they're eligible for a paid day off -- the first personal day in the history of the production contract.

Producers gained more control over the process of determining the number of principal and chorus roles per musical. Equity said in an internal memo that the change "is really just a formalized acknowledgement of how things currently work in practice: producers issue contracts to members with job category designations before Equity is ever able to evaluate the productions or issue its determinations."

Separately, principals may be assigned to perform chorus functions in four numbers; previously, principals could be required to perform chorus functions in up to two numbers.

With most shows, producers can now use a QR code to announce an understudy in a performance instead of stuffing an insert in a Playbill. Some Equity members speculated that this could be an interim step toward ending the practice of ushers handing out free physical Playbills. Equity told its members that the League had sought permission to allow a fully digital Playbill.

That isn't an aspiration of Playbill Inc., which printed the first Playbill in 1884. Playbill Chief Operating Officer Alex Birsh wrote in an email to Broadway Journal: "Regarding this being a 'first step,' we believe printed Playbills will continue to be distributed at theaters for another 141 years."

Yesterday, Actors' Equity Association gave its members details about its tentative production contract agreement reached Saturday morning with the League.

The minimum salary for performers on Broadway would rise 3% annually for three years. Should the union ratify the terms, the minimum will immediately increase to about $2717 a week from the current $2638, per my calculations. Broadway Journal reviewed a summary of the changes that Equity shared with its roughly 51,000 members, who include stage managers as well as actors and dancers.

Under the Equity three-year contract that expired Sept. 28, the Broadway minimum rose 5% the first year and 4% each of the next two years. The new, smaller raise is coupled with increased employer contributions to the health fund that the League manages with Equity. The employer contribution rate -- currently $150 per week per employee -- will rise $25 a year for three years. The union had raised concern about the fund's financial health.

Three Equity members who lead the production contract committee wrote to the membership: "Though this salary increase taken on its own is 'smaller' than what was achieved in the last cycle, in combination with the rest of our package -- including the significant health fund contribution increases -- this is an enormous overall financial package for Equity workers."

It's unclear how much the Equity agreement would further increase ballooning Broadway budgets. Other provisions, according to Equity:

*More protection for Equity members in scheduling: Producers will be limited to schedule 12 shows in a row without a day off, except four times a year, when the previous limit of 16 shows without a day off applies. When there are 10 or more consecutive shows without a day off, rehearsals will be permitted only for emergencies or a special TV appearance, such as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. When an actor or stage manager works 13 or more performances with no day off, there's to be a paid performance off or a paid personal day to be used anytime. This is the first time Equity has secured paid personal days in a Broadway production contract.

*Greater flexibility in returning to work from medical leaves, and new physical therapy protocols, to facilitate getting PT on shows that don't already offer it.

*Equity said it successfully pushed back on granting producers more power to penalize members for missing shows, but the union agreed to expand an existing rule that currently applies only to rehearsals and involves escalating consequences for repeated absences without cause. Equity emphasized that it can still defend members, "because absences for things like sickness or injury, personal or family emergencies, or other reasonable situations are all considered 'good and sufficient' causes that should not subject workers to discipline under this new rule."

*Better protection and pay for swings, who are responsible for understudying multiple ensemble tracks.

*More work for principal performers in musicals. Equity agreed to expand what principals are allowed to do in "unidentified" ways, when they aren't playing their characters and instead appear anonymously in a number. Previously, principals have been allowed to perform this way in up to two numbers. Under the new terms, principals may be included as unidentified characters in up to four numbers, including singing offstage. "This is undoubtedly an expansion of the duties of our principals, but there are firm fences around this, and we know that many of our members who do principal work in musicals want to do this work, and many also are comfortable using their personal bargaining capital to put their own fences around when they are willing to do this work," according to the Equity summary.

*Equity said it defeated a proposal by the League -- which represents theater owners and producers -- to allow a fully digital Playbill at performances. The union did agree to give producers the ability to use a QR code in a Playbill to announce cast changes, and productions will no longer be required, under certain conditions, to stuff paper in Playbills about casting. "This change, while requested by producers, is supported by many in the Broadway community more broadly (such as the Broadway Green Alliance)," according to the union summary. "It will be a step towards reduced paper use and making our industry greener."

Jacqueline Jarrold, Anne McPherson and Kristen Beth Williams lead the Equity production contract committee and wrote the summary. In a press release on Saturday, Equity Executive Director Al Vincent Jr. said the agreement "saves the Equity-League Health Fund while also making strides in our other priorities including scheduling and physical therapy access. " Current Equity members who've worked on a Broadway show or a "sit-down" production outside New York since Sept. 30, 2019 are eligible to vote on the contract.

Empire State Development, which supports economic growth in the state, will now accept applications for the New York City Musical and Theatrical Production Tax Credit for shows having their first paid performance by Dec. 1, according to an email from the Broadway League to its members. This is the second recent extension: Oct. 20 and Sept. 15 were previous deadlines for the first public performance.

The subsidy is worth a maximum $3 million per Broadway show and $350,000 off-Broadway. But Jeff T. Daniel, the president of the Shubert Organization and the government aid guru of the League, noted in the email that "partial funding is a possibility based on fund availability and this is likely the final extension utilizing existing legislated funding."  

News broke over the summer that the program's fund had been depleted. The extension comes as the League negotiates new labor contracts with Actors' Equity Association, which represents actors and stage managers, and Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians. Members of both unions have voted to authorize a strike as talks continue. Introduced in 2021 to help Broadway recover from the pandemic, the credit has been an incentive to invest in an industry grappling with inflated costs and daunting losses.

Cabaret  closed on Sunday after grossing $90.3 million over 610 performances at the ATG-owned August Wilson Theatre. It hasn't returned any money to its Broadway backers for a total loss of its $24.25 million capitalization.

Cabaret's failure wasn't unusual; hit musicals have been few and far between since the pandemic as production expenses ballooned. But it's rare for a producer-investor dispute to play out in public. Cabaret  was unusually pricey. In addition to its upfront costs, in the first seven weeks after officially opening, expenses averaged a daunting $1.5 million a week, according to a financial statement filed with New York State Attorney General Letitia James.

In his complaint filed Aug. 29 in New York State Supreme Court, lawyer and investor James Lorenzo Walker Jr. alleged that the producers concealed revenue and diverted payments -- a "wholesale misappropriation of investor funds" that "represent clear violations of fiduciary duties, contractual obligations and New York law." Walker's complaint noted that ATG owns the theater and is Cabaret's lead producer, or general partner.

The producers, citing New York law that a fraud complaint must be detailed, denigrated the allegations as "bare-bones." Walker "fails to offer any factual basis for his claims of fraud and mismanagement," they wrote in court papers.

The producers highlighted a July 25 letter Walker sent demanding Cabaret box office statements, bank records and contracts. In the letter, which he filed in court, he also demanded the return of the $50,000 he invested in the show, plus interest, plus $40,000 in attorney's fees. Otherwise, according to his letter, he'd sue -- which he did.

Walker's letter was "an obvious attempt to shake down" the producers, they wrote in court papers.

"It's not extortion," Walker told Broadway Journal. "It's accountability." Walker insists that he would've dropped the demand for the money had the producers provided the financial info he requested.

In an earlier email to the producers, which Walker shared with Broadway Journal, he also demanded the return of his money, and that a few other investors be reimbursed. Otherwise, he threatened to conduct a "full total audit" of the show.

John Rogers, ATG's general counsel for North America, and Chris Morey, Cabaret's general manager, offered to walk through the show's financial statements with Walker, according to a July 30 letter that the producers filed in court. Walker declined the offer, Rogers noted in the letter.

Rogers wrote to Walker: "You said that the only thing that you were interested in knowing was how much the producers have made on the show -- inferring that you can force the producers to refund your investment by simply establishing that the producers have been compensated while the investors are not receiving a return of capital. You didn’t advance this as an actual legal argument -- you expressed unflinching confidence that a jury is going to agree that it’s unfair for producers to get any compensation for their immense efforts to mount a show until equity capital is returned. Of course, you declared that you would be influencing the outcome by inciting a barrage of press coverage."

In the interview, Walker denied threatening to "weaponize press coverage," as Rogers put it. "We said the total opposite," Walker told Broadway Journal. "'We do not want a messy media battle that could have any adverse effects on the show.' So they are mischaracterizing our conversations of five months and mischaracterizing their willingness to be transparent."

Walker said the standard financial statements that Rogers offered to explain were insufficient. "If you really lost money, why should you have trouble putting up proof of losses, with receipts?" Walker said in the interview. "Receipts don't lie."

According to the Cabaret operating agreement, the lead producers are required to keep "complete and accurate books and records" and make them available to investors, a standard clause. The agreement doesn't specify the form of those records. ATG's Rogers wrote to Walker in July that "the show has complied with its financial reporting obligations to you" and "we don't know how you would use any information volunteered by the show at this point."

Rogers noted that the producers started waiving their fees and royalties in October 2024 to reduce the show's operating expenses -- a standard measure on struggling shows. "You made an investment based on terms that were clearly stated in the investment documents that you signed," Rogers wrote to Walker before he sued. "Providing some level of compensation to principals while engaged in efforts intended to enrich passive investors is an accepted business practice that goes well beyond Broadway."

Since Walker filed his suit, he said he's heard from other backers who don't understand why the show hasn't repaid them anything. "There are dozens of investors who have the same questions I have."

Empire State Development will accept applications for the New York City Musical and Theatrical Production Tax Credit for shows having their first paid performance by Oct. 20, 2025, according to the state.  The previous deadline for the first performance was this Monday, Sept. 15.

The extension means that the upcoming Broadway plays Liberation  and Little Bear Ridge Road  and the musicals Chess  and The Queen of Versailles  will now be eligible for the credit, which subsidizes 25 percent of most production costs and is worth a maximum $3 million per Broadway show and $350,000 off-Broadway. The starry revivals of Art, which is in previews, and Waiting for Godot, which is scheduled to begin previews tomorrow, Sept. 13, were already eligible.

The credit “continues to be vital to the funding of Broadway productions,” League President Jason Laks said in a statement in July, when news broke that the program's funds had been depleted. Shubert Organization President Jeff Daniel, the government subsidy guru of the League -- the trade association of theater owners and producers -- wrote in an email to members today: "This new date takes into account current projections and ensures that all eligible applications can receive their expected credit. Additionally, ESD [Empire State Development] will continue to monitor the availability of funds and may extend the period further if funds allow."

Introduced in 2021 to help Broadway recover from the pandemic, the credit has been an incentive to invest in an industry grappling with inflated costs and, with notable exceptions, daunting losses. The credit can take months off a production’s path to recoupment, or offer some financial recovery on flops that otherwise would result in total loss of capital.

The program is technically to expire on Sept. 30, 2027. Laks has told members and reporters that the League will lobby the state to fund the program going forward as well as retroactively, so that all eligible shows this season could ultimately get the credit.

An ESD spokeswoman wasn't immediately available for comment. A League spokesman declined to comment.

Queen of Versailles  is Stephen Schwartz's first new Broadway musical since the composer-lyricist's 2003 blockbuster Wicked.  Samuel D. Hunter's Little Bear Ridge Road,  starring Laurie Metcalf, is Scott Rudin's first Broadway production since Rudin left the industry following extensive stories about his bullying of staff.  Chess  is Lea Michele's first Broadway show since she proved herself to be a major Broadway star in Funny Girl. Bess Wohl's Liberation  is an acclaimed drama about feminism and identity that's transferring from the nonprofit Roundabout Theatre Co., which presented it off-Broadway.

While grossing more than $88 million since it began previews in April 2024, the company presenting the revival of the dark musical by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Joe Masteroff hasn't returned any money to investors, resulting in a total loss to-date. Backers were "induced to invest cash into multi-layered structures designed to conceal revenues, divert payments, and facilitate self-dealing among insiders," Atlanta-based entertainment lawyer James Lorenzo Walker Jr. said in his Sept. 4 complaint in New York Supreme Court.

Walker invested $50,000 in Cabaret  days before it opened, he said in his suit.  The producers -- led by ATG Entertainment, which also owns the August Wilson -- had "a deliberate scheme intended to strip him and other investors of their investments in, and partnership profits from, the Broadway production," according to Walker. He sued "individually and on behalf of KKC Productions NY Limited Partnership" -- the company presenting the show.

On Sunday, the producers posted an early closing notice. ATG is majority-owned by the private equity giant Providence Equity Partners and minority-owned by Blackstone Inc.

"While we are incredibly proud of the artistic success of Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club  on Broadway and deeply saddened by the fact it has had to close early, the production has not been in a position fiscally to make any distribution to investors," the producers said in a statement to Broadway Journal. "We’ve offered to engage in a constructive dialogue with Mr. Walker regarding his financial expectations and to give him access to our accounts, but unfortunately, he has instead decided to file a lawsuit that lacks any merit."

The complaint may resonate with co-producers and investors frustrated by Broadway's ballooning budgets, dwindling returns and lead producers who aren't always transparent, particularly when operating expenses diverge significantly from pre-production estimates. None of last season's 17 commercially-produced Broadway musicals has fully repaid investors, much less earned a profit. Cabaret recently has been losing money every week at the box office. Its published gross in the week ending Aug. 31 was $505,000.

With an initial capitalization of $24.25 million and weekly expenses that the production originally estimated at $1.1 million, Cabaret  faced long odds. Making matters worse, in the first seven weeks after the show opened, expenses averaged an astronomical $1.5 million a week, according to a Cabaret  financial statement filed with New York State Attorney General Letitia James, which Broadway Journal obtained via a freedom of information request. Even as the show's early published grosses peaked at $2 million a week thanks to the star power of the first Emcee, Eddie Redmayne, operating profits totaled just $704,000 in the first ten weeks of previews and performances.

It didn't help that New York critics responded more coolly than their counterparts in the West End, where the revival originated. And although the show allocated $75,000 a week to campaigning for Tony Awards, its nine nominations yielded just one Tony -- for Tom Scutt's scenic design. When Redmayne left the cast in September 2024, grosses tanked .

Walker said in his suit that the producers "breached the Partnership Agreement by failing to distribute Plaintiff’s share of profits despite the Partnership earning revenue in excess of weekly expenses" for about nine months during the run. The suit includes a BroadwayWorld graph of Cabaret  grosses.

The lead producers have waived their fees and royalties on Cabaret  for about a year, according to a production spokesman, which isn't unusual on a struggling show. It's unclear whether, and for how long, ATG waived rent.

Walker was a co-producer on last season's musical Dead Outlaw and an investor in the hit revival of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson and the long-running musical MJ, among other shows. He said in an interview that producers had stonewalled him when he requested detailed information about why Cabaret  hadn't made distributions, and he requested his money back. "They're not giving us transparent documents," he told Broadway Journal. "At a certain point, it's a hustle."

In late July, Walker threatened to sue the producers unless they return his $50,000 stake, plus interest, plus $40,000 in attorney's fees, along with a demand that they share bank, box office and other financial records, according to an email he filed in court. Investors are permitted to examine the show's records -- but only at the partnership's office on West 44th Street, per the Cabaret operating agreement. Walker told Broadway Journal he never received an invitation to view the records. He said if he had, he wouldn't have sued.

Walker said in his complaint that the revival's producers "inflated production costs, particularly for theater renovations, and directed payments to affiliates through non-arm's-length transactions, all without disclosure to or approval from Limited Partners."

The investor-funded KKC Productions NY LP spent $7.5 million transforming the August Wilson into the Kit Kat Club, a facsimile of a Weimar-era nightclub, and on dressing rooms, according to the filing with the state. Requiring investors to pay for the renovation was controversial within the industry, but producers had disclosed the expense, more or less. "The Limited Partners [investors] acknowledge that a portion of the construction costs necessary to modify the Broadway theater will be borne by the Partnership and such costs are included as part of the Production Expenses," according to the production operating agreement, which Walker filed in court.

In contrast, in 1987, producers Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber persuaded the Shubert Organization to pay for modifications of the Majestic Theater before agreeing to rent the house for Phantom of the Opera, which became the longest-running show in Broadway history.

The Cabaret  operating agreement notes that the lead producers, known as general partners, may face financial conflicts of interest with the partnership presenting the show, such as "continuing a run of the Play when the interest of the Partnership might suggest that it should be closed, etc." The agreement includes the standard caveat that investors "waive any and all rights and claims which they might otherwise have against the General Partners....as a result of such activities."

"Fraud supersedes all of that," Walker told Broadway Journal, when asked about the clause.

In his suit, Walker said the producers misrepresented the partnership's profits by concealing revenue from merchandise sales and other income. Yet in the filing with the state, KKC Productions NY LP reported early merchandise income, net of royalties, of $78,000.

Walker said that it would be inappropriate to comment on financial documents "prepared without a judge or our accountants and forensic specialists reviewing and analyzing for the entire run of the show," he said in an email to Broadway Journal. "We just know approximately $90 million has been grossed and investors have not been paid."

In the interview, Walker complained that weekly box office reports distributed to co-producers is insufficient. "We haven't gotten something every week that says where the money is going."

Richard Roth, a lawyer who's represented producers in Broadway disputes and isn't involved in this one, called the Cabaret  suit weak, given the lack of supporting evidence.  "I'm very skeptical of the complaint, and that this big-time producer would intentionally defraud this plaintiff."

Regardless of the outcome, the suit highlights the risk of funding shows with a multitude of co-producers and investors: that one or more may sue, yielding awkward headlines and potentially expose private industry practices to a public courtroom. ATG may be especially protective of its reputation, given the rumors of a possible multi-billion-dollar sale from one private equity giant to another.

Blackstone Inc., the private equity and real estate giant led by billionaire Stephen Schwarzman, is rumored to be exploring a takeover of the multinational producer and theater owner, after acquiring a minority stake last year. Buying all of ATG Entertainment from another private equity company, Providence Equity Partners, would be one of commercial theater's priciest transactions ever.

"For so many reasons, it makes all the sense in the world," said David Wasserman, an independent investment banker who isn't working with ATG or Blackstone.

Providence Equity Partners is a motivated seller. Amid a global dealmaking slump, its funds have owned the company formerly known as Ambassador Theatre Group for 12 years, double the median holding period for private equity. Based on my calculations from filings in the U.K., where ATG is incorporated, Providence's purchase of ATG has cost about $1.5 billion. That includes the price of additional venues and subsidiaries ATG acquired to make the company more attractive to other institutional investors.

Schwarzman recently said that Blackstone expects to invest $500 billion in Europe over the next decade. By virtue of the investment company's minority stake, ATG is a top holding of a 20-month-old Blackstone private equity fund for wealthy individuals, according to a fund filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Along with artificial intelligence and other investment sectors, "experiences" is one of Blackstone's "high-conviction themes."

Tech and travel executive Ted Stimpson hasn't made a public comment since he was abruptly named ATG chief executive in October 2023. An ATG spokesman declined to comment for this story. Emails to Blackstone's communications office weren’t returned. Broadway Journal hasn't been able to confirm the veracity of the Blackstone-ATG rumor, which has circulated widely in theater and finance circles.

Any deal would come at a challenging time for Broadway, which is grappling with runaway production budgets and a paucity of musicals recouping their costs. ATG and its producing partners raised a head-spinning $24.25 million for its own revival of Cabaret, which has been a resounding flop. Cabaret is scheduled to end its run at the August Wilson Theater Oct. 19 -- unless it closes earlier to stanch additional losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars a week.

ATG is a lead producer of the fall's starry revival of Waiting for Godot  with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, in ATG's Hudson Theatre; and Art  with James Corden, Neil Patrick Harris and Bobby Cannavale, in the Shubert Organization's Music Box Theater. ATG earlier produced revivals of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard in ATG's St. James Theater, and Neil Simon's Plaza Suite in the Hudson. ATG subsidiary Sonia Friedman Productions produced the special effects-heavy new plays Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in ATG's Lyric Theater, and Stranger Things in the Nederlander Organization's Marquis.

"Content production" helps keep ATG theaters busy, which drives profits. The five Broadway houses that ATG bought from Jujamcyn Theaters earned a profit of $34 million on revenue of $116 million in the year ending March 30, 2024, according to an ATG disclosure. ATG paid about $600 million for Jujamcyn in 2023. (ATG's parent, International Entertainment Holdings, reports results in British pounds, which I converted into dollars.)

ATG controls seven Broadway houses, 10 on the West End and dozens more in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Spain. In addition to renting its venues to producers, it sells food and beverages to theatergoers, charges for the convenience of skipping lines to enter its venues and accessing its VIP lounges, and earns fees from ticketing and handling advertising and marketing.

ATG is now Broadway's third-largest theater owner, competing with the Nederlander's nine venues and Shubert's 17. It's unlikely any new theaters will be added to the 41 Broadway-branded houses anytime soon, especially given the high cost of theater construction.

"It's hard to build new ones," Jeff Hooke, a private equity expert and senior finance lecturer at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, told Broadway Journal. "That's protection from competition."

Len Blavatnik is also part of the tiny pool of potential ATG suitors. Ukraine-born and British-American, he has 31 Broadway credits, mostly as a co-producer, and he bought the Theatre Royal Haymarket on the West End in 2018. Blavatnik made his initial fortune during Russia's privatization following the fall of the Soviet Union; Bloomberg LP estimates his net worth at $40 billion. Emails sent to his company, Access Industries, weren't returned.

Providence Equity Partners' billionaire founder Jonathan Nelson is familiar with Blavatnik. In 2011, Providence was among the investors that sold Warner Music Group to Blavatnik for about $3.3 billion. Blavatnik later took the company public.

Schwarzman need not look far to find a champion of live theater. Since 2018, his wife, Christine Schwarzman, a former intellectual property lawyer, has used what she calls her "considerable resources" to produce and co-produce 30 Broadway shows. (Co-producers raise money and/or invest themselves.) Current projects of her company, No Guarantees, include the musical comedy Schmigadoon!, which had a well-received tryout at the Kennedy Center and is eyeing Broadway this spring, following two seasons on Apple TV+.

No Guarantees has a long-term lease on the downtown Astor Place Theater and sponsors jargony research about how to grow the theater audience. Its most recent study, Unveiling the Value of Broadway: How Pulling Back the Curtain on the Broadway Experience Triples Its Value Among Next-Gen Theater Goers, describes youngish adults who prioritize "Emotional Return on Investment, or ERoI, where the return on time and money spent is not about practicality but about striking a deep emotional chord."

Christine Schwarzman has a close working relationship with Sonia Friedman and hosted a party for Tony voters for the hit revival of Merrily We Roll Along at the Schwarzmans' Park Avenue triplex in 2024.

ATG's operating profit rose 18 percent to $180 million in the year ending March 2024. But credit analysts deem the company a mixed bag. While praising its "diverse venue network, including strategic Broadway and West End locations," S&P Global cautioned in a report that "ATG's dependence on discretionary spending preferences and overall limited size and scale in the fragmented live entertainment industry constrain long-term prospects for its earnings growth and resilience."

Moody's Ratings also found ATG constrained, by "elevated leverage" -- $1.5 billion of net debt as of March 2024 -- "and the acquisitive nature of the business," which may lead to ATG taking on more debt to finance new deals.

President Trump, whom Stephen Schwarzman endorsed last year, may help stoke interest in ATG. Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order encouraging overseers of 401(k) retirement funds to add "alternative assets" such as private equity. Barron's reported that "access to even a sliver of the $12 trillion in assets sitting in 401(k)s and similar retirement plans could drive industry growth for years."  That growth could increase investment demand for ATG and other large private companies.

Everyday investors may eventually be able to own part of Broadway and the West End in their 401(k)s. First, a handful of billionaires will likely play an outsized role in determining what happens to ATG.

The Broadway League held a video meeting with members on Tuesday afternoon to disclose the depletion of the four-year-old New York City Musical and Theatrical Production Tax Credit program. Shows that begin public performances by Sept. 15  may still receive the subsidy -- of up to $3 million for Broadway productions. Shows that start later won't be eligible.

"Broadway investing was already volatile," Joey Monda, a commercial producer who's president of the Off-Broadway League trade association, told Broadway Journal.  "This takes away what little ability we had to mitigate risk."

The credit subsidizes 25 percent of most production costs and is worth a maximum $3 million per Broadway show and $350,000 off-Broadway. It "continues to be vital to the funding of Broadway productions," League President Jason Laks said in a statement tonight. "The success of this past Broadway season is a direct result of the State sustaining the tax credit program to incentivize private investment in productions."

"The NYC Musical and Theatrical Production Tax Credit has played a key role in driving the city’s economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic," Empire State Development, which administers the program, said in a statement to Broadway Journal. "By supporting live performances across Broadway and Off-Broadway, the program has helped bring audiences back, boost tourism, and create good-paying jobs across the five boroughs.”

In May, the state allocated a fresh $100 million to the program. At the time, the League's government aid guru, Shubert Organization President Jeff T. Daniel, wrote to members that while the tax credit was extended for two years, "we have likely received one year of funding." In reality, the allocation added a few months to the program's life. To-date, $400 million has been allocated to the program.

Monda, who spoke to state officials, said the program will undergo an audit in the fall. "If there are any remaining funds left over, a new application would be initiated to distribute them." Any remaining funds will be distributed to projects in the order of their first public performance date, a state official said.

Introduced in 2021 to help Broadway recover from the pandemic-related shutdown, the credit has continued to induce investment in an industry grappling with inflated costs and poor investment returns. The credit can take months off a production's path to recoupment, or offer some recovery to investors on flops that otherwise would result in total loss of capital.

"Everybody is in full freakout mode," one industry professional said this week about the exhausted funds and lack of definitive information available.

Although Broadway reported record grosses in 2024-25, investors are suffering steep losses, especially in new musicals that cost $20 million or more and have weekly operating expenses in the neighborhood of $1 million. Musical revivals haven't fared much better.

Several plays featuring movie and television stars have been extremely profitable and were nonetheless eligible for the aid.

The Off-Broadway League will lobby to restore funding. And the Broadway League will attempt to wield its considerable influence. Jeff T. Daniel wrote in his email to members in May that advocacy is "as important as ever and the League’s Government Relations Committee is already at work to propose additional funding in the next budget cycle."

Laks said in his statement that Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state legislature "understand how important Broadway’s success and the work of our thousands of employees are to the economy of the city and the state. We will continue to work with them to sustain this vital program."

Note: This story was updated to include a statement from Broadway League President Jason Laks.

The charismatic 66-year-old leader followed through. In 2023, Eustis' total  compensation dropped 8 percent from the previous year, to a still-hefty $1.1 million, according to a Public Theater financial document posted on its website last week.

His base pay dipped to $881,000 from $964,000, according to the document, known as IRS Form 990. Benefits, including retirement contributions, were little changed at $241,000. A Public spokeswoman didn't respond to emailed questions for this story.

Running a major nonprofit theater company remained lucrative in 2023, despite uneven ticket sales and rising production costs. André Bishop, Lincoln Center Theater's producing artistic director, earned about the same as Eustis: $882,000 in salary, with total comp, including benefits, of $1.1 million. Bishop retired last month from the Upper West Side institution and was succeeded by Lear deBessonet as artistic director.

In the year ending August 2024, a smaller staff helped the Public achieve a $10 million increase in net assets, following an $8 million drop in 2022-23, according to its audited  financial statements. The 2023-24 season included the premiere of the hit Alicia Keys off-Broadway musical Hell's Kitchen, which later transferred to Broadway; and the Itamar Moses play The Ally, which was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

The Public -- one of the nation's highest-profile theater companies -- remains under pressure. Its off-Broadway box office income was about $8 million in 2023-24, down from $12.5 million five years earlier. Contributions and earned revenue were $59 million, off by $27 million, or a third, from 2018-19.

Hamilton isn't providing the subsidy it once did. In exchange for developing the musical off-Broadway, the Public's entitled to a royalty of 1.5 percent of box office and 5 percent of net profits of Broadway and touring productions, according to Hamilton financial papers filed with the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James.

On Broadway, Hamilton grosses are off their highs. And there's just one North American touring company, down from four pre-pandemic. The Public's overall royalty income -- dominated by Hamilton -- plunged from $24 million in 2018-19 to $7 million in 2023-24.

Like other nonprofit theater companies, the Public is co-producing with other institutions and renting out its venues. About half of the shows planned for next season at its Astor Place home involve collaborating -- and presumably sharing expenses -- with other companies.

Eustis' 2020 compensation got unwanted attention. It gained 10 percent that year, according to a Public Theater Form 990 filed with the New York Attorney General. The increase coincided with pandemic-related staff furloughs, the cancellation of Shakespeare in Central Park and Eustis' pledge to take a 40 percent pay cut.

Cara Joy David in BroadwayWorld cited a Public spokeswoman that due to unexpected government aid, Eustis' pay was cut by 25 percent instead of 40 percent. When an executive takes a reduction after a raise, an annual disclosure may not tell the whole story about compensation.

In an unusual twist, in December 2022, a few months after Broadway Journal reported about Eustis' 2020 comp increase, the Public filed an amended return with the IRS and posted it on the company's website. Eustis' 2020 salary was revised down to $789,000 -- below his original listed salary of $901,000 and his 2019 salary of $807,000. His overall comp was little changed by the revision and still shows an increase from 2019.

Nonprofit organizations are permitted to amend a return when the original contains an error. The Public hasn't commented about the revision.

Next month, the Public is scheduled to reopen the Delacorte Theater in Central Park after a major renovation. Twelfth Night starring Lupita Nyong’o is being staged by the company's associate artistic director and resident director, Saheem Ali. Should he want the job, Ali is a candidate to replace Eustis, who took over the Public in 2005 and has said that he plans to leave when his current contract expires on July 31, 2028. The board intends to hire a successor well before Eustis exits.

During previews last fall, the beguiling one-act musical about love and loss in the digital age failed to crack $300,000 a week at the box office. It likely lost money every week for its first 10 weeks at the Belasco Theatre, based on an early production document estimating that it needed published weekly box office grosses of about $820,000 to break even. Few shows recover from a deficit that daunting.

'Maybe Happy Ending' at the Tonys But tonight, the show years in the making and very much of the moment won the Tony Award for best musical. It recently posted its best-ever weekly gross of $1.1 million. "It was a remarkable turnaround," lead producer Jeffrey Richards told reporters after the ceremony at Radio City Music Hall. "Our word of mouth was so good, it began to create a 'want-to-see' factor for the show."

The night's other victors: Sunset Blvd, produced and directed by Jamie Lloyd, which won three Tonys, including for best revival of a musical and lead actress Nicole Scherzinger; the smash comedy Oh, Mary!, for lead actor Cole Escola (also its playwright) and director Sam Pinkleton; and four for Buena Vista Social Club, including featured actress Natalie Venetia Belcon.

Francis Jue won for best featured actor in a play, Yellow Face, presented by Roundabout Theatre Co.; and Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day, presented by Manhattan Theatre Club, was named top play revival.

Two veterans of commercial theater prevailed. Richards of Maybe Happy Ending has almost 150 Broadway credits as a producer and press agent. David Stone, whose blockbuster musical Wicked famously lost to upstart Avenue Q in 2004, won his fourth Tony since 2019, with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Purpose. It was Jacobs-Jenkins' (Appropriate) second consecutive Tony.

“It’s a validation,” Stone said in the Tony press room. While the Tonys are a marketing tool, he said, “it’s great to do work that is recognized."

Gypsy, starring Audra McDonald, came away empty-handed, as did Boop! The musical. Boop! needed a boost given its anemic grosses. A highlight of the evening was a medley performed by the original cast of Hamilton -- timely promotion ahead of Leslie Odom, Jr.'s return to the show in September.

Maybe Happy Ending received Tonys for lead actor Darren Criss as an obsolete robot on a road trip, Michael Arden’s direction, Will Aronson and Hue Park’s book and score and Dane Laffrey and George Reeve’s scenic design.

The musical premiered in Seoul in 2016. New York Times critic Jesse Green called it “Broadway-ready” after seeing a developmental production at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre in early 2020. The pandemic interrupted its momentum.

Richards told Broadway Journal that it was capitalized for $16 million on Broadway. “It was a challenging raise for myself and Hunter,” Richards wrote in an email over the weekend, referring to his Maybe Happy Ending producing partner Hunter Arnold . “We had no title recognition, it had been five years since the production had opened in Atlanta at the Alliance and so there was virtually no buzz, and this was not an easy show to describe.”

After opening, the production took out a loan of about $2 million — a gambit that in this case paid off. Producers flooded the internet with songs from the addictive score. And there was nary a television talk show on which Criss and co-star Helen J. Shen didn't perform.

Criss’ victory is potentially a mixed blessing. While the win could goose grosses for the rest of his run —  recently extended to Aug. 31 — it arguably undermines the idea that the show itself is the star, not Criss. Nikki M. James won for featured actress for 2011’s The Book of Mormon, but lead actors Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells didn’t, which probably helped sustain the box office when they exited in 2012.

With its sophisticated projections and moving windows onto the action, Maybe Happy Ending  is an expensive four-character musical. Recouping the roughly $18 million price tag could be slow-going. Nonetheless, after a perilous start, producers are hoping they have a foundation for a long run.

Groff, 40, who was Tony-nominated for playing King George III in Hamilton, will join other original company members to mark 10 lucrative years on Broadway; and lead Just in Time, in which Groff plays the 1950s and '60s singer-songwriter-actor Bobby Darin. Last week, the average ticket price at Circle in the Square --which Derek McLane refashioned as a faux nightclub -- was $213.52. That's the highest average ticket price of any musical now on Broadway.

If Just in Time  sustains its $1.2 million weekly gross, it could recoup its $9.4 million of production costs soon after Labor Day, based on a company recoupment chart obtained by Broadway Journal. Not bad for a show that wasn't nominated for best musical.  (To be sure, expenses tend to exceed projected expenses, especially during awards season.  And the recoupment chart includes a state tax credit of up to $3 million.)

Buena Vista Social Club, inspired by the 1997 album of Cuban music, is also earning operating profits, albeit less than Just in Time's. At this rate, it would take Buena Vista well over a year to recoup its $17 million capitalization.

Hamilton, The Book of Mormon and other all-original musicals have produced some of Broadway's biggest fortunes. This past season, none of the 10 musicals with original scores appear to be on track to repay their costs before the 2026 Tony Awards -- if ever. Maybe Happy Ending, which has piled up awards, could become a hit if it takes home the best musical Tony and its sales explode.

Just in Time  was conceived by Ted Chapin, who recruited Groff for the 92nd Street Y‘s “Lyrics and Lyricists” series in 2018. Groff is a charismatic homegrown star who first came to attention playing Melchior in the raucous 2006 rock musical Spring Awakening. In that show, he performed opposite Lea Michele, both of whom later found a mass audience on Glee on television.

Bobby Darin doesn't have the same name recognition among younger theatergoers. "I never thought that a musical about Bobby Darin would be so popular," said Steve, a 28-year-old substance abuse counselor and compulsive theatergoer, who lined up at 6:30 am Thursday morning outside Circle in the Square for $40 rush tickets. Steve, who declined to give his last name, said the success of the show, which is directed by Alex Timbers, has cemented Groff's status as a Broadway leading man and box office force.

Jack Viertel, a creative consultant on The Outsiders  and former senior vice president of Jujamcyn Theaters, now part of ATG Entertainment, said that whether a score is familiar or new isn't a bellwether of success. "It's about the excitement that a show creates in total," Viertel told Broadway Journal. With a hit, "usually it's a first-rate production that has appeal to a broad range of people."

Groff is aiming to be the first man to win back-to-back Tonys for lead actor in a musical, after triumphing in 2024 for Merrily We Roll Along. He's currently committed to Just in Time through Jan. 11, 2026.

It may have a life after he leaves. The show's lead producers, Tom Kirdahy and Robert Ahrens, opened a revival of Little Shop of Horrors off-Broadway with Groff in the lead role of Seymour in 2019, and successfully cycled through other stars. Six years later, the Groff-less Little Shop is still blooming at the Westside Theatre.

START YOUR STOPWATCHES: Tony organizers are apparently aiming for a fast-paced broadcast, which includes acceptances speeches.

"There is a strict 90-second time limit that begins immediately when the winner’s name is announced," Jason Laks of the Broadway League and Heather Hitchens of the American Theatre Wing, who oversee the awards, wrote this week to representatives of nominated shows.  "No one ever likes to be played off by the orchestra and the audiences at home and in the theater don’t enjoy those moments either so please be conscientious of that limited window.   We have instructed the producers to play people off as necessary as soon as that time limit is reached.   We obviously don’t want to be in that position, so we do ask for your cooperation."

Co-producers -- who invest in and raise money for shows and whose numbers have increased with the size of budgets -- will be permitted onstage. The sight of dozens of check writers and bundlers storming the stage has been a sore point among some Broadway traditionalists. Last year, when the ceremony was at a smaller venue, Lincoln Center's Koch Theater, they were relegated to upstairs risers. While they got some airtime on CBS, many felt miffed, given their key role financing Broadway shows.

Laks, who officially succeeded Charlotte St. Martin as League president in December, and Hitchens wrote that "we are not limiting the number of people that may or may not join the winning productions’ designated acceptors on stage this year.  Whether the cast or creative or co-producers join on stage is up to the discretion of the lead producer(s)."

Should Gypsy win for musical revival -- which was produced by Kirdahy, Mara Isaacs and 17 lines of co-producers listed on the Internet Broadway Database -- the Radio City stage could get busier than the Rockettes' Christmas show.

In August 2024, Parnes signed a stipulation that six Dancin' designers were shortchanged by a total of $202,683. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer confirmed an arbitrator's award that Parnes and two limited liability production companies he controls pay the shortfall to the designers' union, plus interest and attorney's fees.

Sound designer Peter Hylenski, Tony-nominated this season for Maybe Happy Ending and Just in Time, is the Dancin' designer owed the most: $51,000, which includes unpaid fees and pension and health contributions.

Beyond acknowledging that the Dancin' designers were underpaid, Parnes didn't file court documents in the case. It's unclear why the shortfall occurred. But the fact that the designers didn't receive all of their initial fees -- or in the case of Hylenski, any fees -- suggests that the producer didn't raise enough of a financial reserve for the show.

A December 2021 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said Dancin' was to be capitalized for up to $15 million. There isn't a subsequent filing online indicating how much was ultimately raised. Neither Parnes nor the designers' union -- United Scenic Artists, Local 829 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which filed the court case to confirm the arbitrator's award -- returned calls or emails to Broadway Journal.

The court decision is a reminder that theater artists can wait for years to be compensated, if they're paid at all. Dancin' began previews in March 2023, when Broadway audiences were still spooked  by the pandemic as Covid outbreaks led to cancelled performances. Following mixed-to-positive reviews ("often-thrilling, often-frustrating revival of the 1978 dancical," wrote Jesse Green in the New York Times), it closed after 65 regular performances.

Its average weekly box office gross was about $550,000, which isn't enough to sustain a big Broadway musical.

A year after opening, the production received $1.7 million from New York state via its tax credit program to encourage Broadway investment. One backer said he retrieved about 10 percent of his money, due to the tax credit.

Parnes, who grew up in the Bronx and is a Yale graduate, has more than 50 Broadway credits and did two stints as executive director of the Public Theater. He's best-known for an unlikely producing triumph: the 2013 Broadway operetta A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder,  which won the Tony for best musical and became a modest hit. Patrick Healy later reported in the Times on Parnes' two-year slog to raise its $7.5 million capitalization from 130 investors.

From 2013 to 2019, Parnes was a general manager and executive producer on Scott Rudin's Broadway productions, an association that ended badly. In a 2021 lawsuit, Parnes accused Sue Wagner and John Johnson -- his Gentleman's Guide producing partners and former associates in his office -- of conspiring to destroy his business relationship with Rudin and usurping it for themselves. Wagner and Johnson countersued and the case was discontinued the following year.

In the Dancin' season of 2022-23, Parnes was a lead producer of a second show, KPOP. A challenging, original musical about Korean pop stars, it ran just 17 regular performances and failed commercially. Parnes is currently developing a new revival of Ain't Misbehavin', the 1978 Fats Waller musical.

A word about the season that ended on Sunday: The Broadway League reported record grosses of $1.89 billion, thanks to an excellent season artistically and several star-driven plays that commanded extraordinary prices. But when omitting the 53rd week of 2024-25, which exists because of a quirk in the calendar, overall box office sales were up less than 1 percent from 2018-19, the last complete season before the pandemic. That's a negligible increase, especially after considering inflation.

Notwithstanding theatergoers' age-old and legitimate complaints that Broadway is too expensive, there hasn't been enough ticket price inflation for musicals struggling to cover their costs. The average paid admission for a musical was $126.29, the lowest since 2019-20. While the average musical ticket was up 3 percent from 2018-19, production budgets and operating expenses have increased dramatically in the past six years.