Broadway Journal

‘PLAZA SUITE’ ADVANCE SALE TOPS $10 MILLION; BOSTON CRITICS SIDELINED

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EXCLUSIVE: A month before previews start on Broadway, the limited run of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite  is approaching full occupancy.

The advance sale for the revival with husband-and-wife stars Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker has surpassed $10 million, according to a person familiar with the production. Its tryout at Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theatre ends on Saturday and previews begin on March 13 at the Hudson Theatre.

In response to the strong demand for tickets in Boston and New York, lead producer Ambassador Theatre Group, which operates the Colonial and the Hudson, has already raised prices on Broadway by as much as 150 percent.Continue Reading

CHEAP ‘SIX’ COULD MAKE INVESTORS WHOLE IN RECORD TIME

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EXCLUSIVE: Six, the sizzling pop musical in which British Royals meet #MeToo, may be able to repay investors within 11 weeks of its first preview. That’s according to a projection distributed to investors, and assuming the production can sustain the momentum it’s built up through four stops in the U.S. and Canada, more than a year on the West End and ongoing tours in the U.K., Australia and at sea via the Norwegian Cruise Line.

Capitalized on Broadway at $5 million to $6.5 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Six  could potentially make its backers whole faster than Hamilton. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s blockbuster took seven months after previews began on Broadway, in July 2015, to recoup its $12.5 million and make its first profit distribution. Should Six  become another New York money machine, credit a witty and contemporary score about the divorced, beheaded and otherwise beleaguered wives of King Henry VIII. And its relatively tiny budget.Continue Reading

IDINA MENZEL LOOKS LIKE A GO FOR ‘FUNNY GIRL’ (EXCLUSIVE)

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Idina Menzel is in talks to play Fanny Brice this fall in the first Broadway revival of Funny Girl, the hit 1964 Jule Styne-Bob Merrill-Isobel Lennart musical that starred Barbra Streisand.

The show would be directed by Michael Mayer and overseen by the U.K. producers Sonia Friedman and David Babani, according to two people familiar with the project. In 2015, Mayer staged a Funny Girl revival at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory (where Babani serves as artistic director) starring Sheridan Smith. The production had a revised book by Harvey Fierstein and transferred to the West End.Continue Reading

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

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

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

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

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

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

GROSS POTENTIAL IS KEY FOR INVESTORS: LETTER TO THE EDITOR

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To the Editor:

Re: ‘THE CURSED BOX OFFICE YARDSTICK‘

There are important reasons to have a specific gross potential when a show begins performances.

Investors are solicited based on a theoretical model created by the producers and general managers.  A key component of the offering (or operating agreement) is a budget and a recoupment schedule.  This schedule is the best guide for a potential investor as to the economic viability of the project, both in the pre-production phase and while the show is running.Continue Reading

‘HARRY POTTER’ & THE CURSED BOX OFFICE YARDSTICK

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

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

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

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