Broadway Journal

Jeremy Gerard, a prolific and widely read arts reporter and critic, was laid off by Deadline.com two years and two months after the news outlet hired him to oversee its expansion of New York media and theater coverage .

Gerard, who was executive editor and chief theater columnist, said in an email that he was told that Deadline.com, otherwise known as Deadline Hollywood, is focusing resources on film and television coverage. Mike Fleming Jr., co-editor in chief, didn’t return an email.  Gerard said: “I have loved working at Deadline and will miss my great colleagues there.”

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 Hamilton won the Tony Award for best musical and dominated the evening as Scott Rudin joined Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeffrey Seller in the winner’s circle.

It was indeed a coronation for Miranda’s hip-hop-infused musical, which won for his score and book (and inspired an acceptance sonnet and rap), as well as for orchestrations, choreography, costume and lighting design, direction, featured actress and actor and lead actor Leslie Odom Jr. The bounty should help sell many $849 tickets that producers introduced last week. So should the telecast’s four Hamilton numbers, including a parody of the musical’s title song that introduced host James Corden. Corden,  a CBS late night host and Tony winner himself, opened the show by expressing solidarity with the victims of the Orlando mass shooting.  “Hate will never win,” he said. “Together, we have to make sure of that.”

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Ladies and gentlemen, start your bots. Hamilton tickets go on sale to the general public at 11:10 PM, according to Ticketmaster, presumably minutes after it wins the Tony Award for best new musical.

There’s no evidence that producers over-reached last week with the record $849 tickets they introduced, at least with the best seats, notwithstanding the public relations fallout and implications for theater and elitism. In a “presale” to American Express cardholders, theatergoers and brokers have snapped up many of the $849 tickets near the stage in the center orchestra of the Richard Rodgers. There’s wider availability for $849 seats by the sides and towards the rear. The block is from Jan. 31 to May 21, 2017. (Producer Jeffrey Seller said he’s also increasing the number of $10 seats available via daily lotteries.)

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As Hamilton prepares for a long run and potentially earning hundreds of millions of dollars in profits, joining the ranks of The Book of Mormon and Wicked, Broadway appears to be richer than ever. But John Breglio, a producer and former top-flight entertainment lawyer present at the creation of many landmark shows, said the risk-reward for investors hasn’t changed much in his four and a half decades in the business.

The author of I Wanna Be a Producer  (Applause), he notes that the vast majority of shows still fail. “Unless you have a musical that is consistently doing over a million dollars [a week in sales], you don’t really have a hit,” he said over Chicken Paillard at Remi restaurant in midtown Manhattan. Blockbuster musicals offer better reward than in years past, thanks in part to “premium tickets” like the $849 seats Hamilton just introduced, but given escalating budgets,  the risk for investors has also increased. And he points out that highly anticipated offerings are accessible only to angels with connections. “You have to know people,” he said.

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On a bet that Hamilton will remain red hot after composer Lin-Manuel Miranda leaves the cast and a second company opens in Chicago, Broadway producers raised the top ticket price by $300 to a record $849.

The tickets are offered to American Express cardholders for performances at the Richard Rodgers Theatre from Jan. 31 to May 21, 2017. The production’s charging $849 for as far back as the 17th row of the orchestra.  For now, that’s below market. Even after July 9, when Miranda leaves the title role, tickets are offered for resale for more than $4,000 via Ticketmaster. Hamilton begins performances in Chicago on Sept. 27 at the PrivateBank Theatre.

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Broadway’s poised to report its third consecutive season of record sales — by a nose.

With the official 2015-16 season ending on Sunday, grosses are up 0.6 percent from a year earlier to $1.34 billion. Attendance is 1.6 percent higher to 13.02 million, also on track for a record. While Hamilton has generated daily headlines since previews began in July 2015, its sales this season were eclipsed by stalwarts The Lion King and Wicked. That should change as producer Jeffrey Seller and colleagues continue raising ticket prices amid feverish demand.

The average Broadway ticket is on track to decline for the first time in decades. So far this season it’s down by almost a dollar, to $103.24. But given those ever-rising Hamilton prices — not to mention the astronomical numbers in the secondary market, which don’t show up in Broadway League stats — it’s early to cite a trend.

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