Broadway Journal

‘CABARET,’ AT $24 MILLION, IS BROADWAY’S COSTLIEST REVIVAL (EXCLUSIVE)

September 20, 2023 by Philip Boroff

Investing in Cabaret  at the August Wilson Theatre this spring might seem like a safe bet, after the success of the Kander & Ebb classic in London and earlier productions in New York.

That’s until you see the price tag: $24.25 million, a record for a Broadway revival.Continue Reading

SOLO SHOWS DELIVER AS ASPIRING BLOCKBUSTERS STRUGGLE

August 25, 2023 by Philip Boroff

Capitalized for $22 million, the David Byrne-Fatboy Slim musical Here Lies Love dramatizes the rise and fall of the Marcos regime, in a Broadway theater repurposed as a discotheque.

Last week, it was outgrossed by $35,000 by a little-known comic on an open stage with three stools. Just for Us, Alex Edelman’s monologue about antisemitism and identity that ended its run on Saturday, was capitalized for $2.25 million.

In an era of mammoth Broadway budgets and huge losses, one-person shows have been a relative safe haven for investors. Prima Facie, James Bierman’s $4 million production of Suzie Miller’s one-woman play starring Jodie Comer, is the only show from 2022-23 to announce that it recouped.Continue Reading

‘KINKY’ SUITS: HOW THE PRODUCER OF A HIT MUSICAL LANDED IN A BANKRUPTCY COURT BATTLE (EXCLUSIVE)

July 20, 2023 by Philip Boroff

Successful producers rarely publicly discuss filing for bankruptcy. Hal Luftig — whose Kinky Boots  had a lucrative six-year Broadway run — said last week that personal bankruptcy may be in the cards if a judge doesn’t approve his plan to reorganize one of his companies.

Hal Luftig Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December, after an arbitrator ruled that Luftig and his company breached an agreement with a longtime investor, Reno, Nevada-based Warren Trepp.Continue Reading

EDDIE REDMAYNE-LED ‘CABARET’ WILL TRANSFER TO BROADWAY IN 2024 (EXCLUSIVE)

June 14, 2023 by Philip Boroff

Ambassador Theatre Group and Underbelly Productions plan to transfer their hit West End revival of Cabaret  to Broadway, two people familiar with the production said.

Eddie Redmayne has committed to reprise his performance as the louche Weimar-era nightclub emcee — a role made famous by Joel Grey in the 1966 Hal Prince-directed musical and in the 1972 Bob Fosse-helmed movie, and more recently by Alan Cumming in two Roundabout Theatre Co. revivals. Rebecca Frecknall is slated to direct the production, which is to begin previews in March 2024 ahead of an April opening.Continue Reading

‘KIMBERLY AKIMBO,’ ‘LEOPOLDSTADT’ & DAVID STONE WIN BIG AT TONYS

June 12, 2023 by Philip Boroff

It doesn’t suck to be David Stone today.

Nineteen years after the satiric Avenue Q (“It Sucks to Be Me”) upset the Stone-produced blockbuster Wicked at the Tony Awards, the 56-year-old won his first Best Musical Tony, for Kimberly Akimbo, and his second for best play revival, Suzan Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog.Continue Reading

NEW YORK EXTENDS $3 MILLION BROADWAY TAX CREDIT; DISNEY’S ‘ALADDIN’ APPROVED

May 8, 2023 by Philip Boroff

New York State extended the New York City Musical and Theatrical Production Tax Credit, a subsidy of up to $3 million per Broadway show, as the industry struggles with rising costs and subpar sales.

On May 3, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the two-year extension through 2025 and said commercial Off-Broadway shows will also be eligible, albeit for a smaller credit. The Broadway League trade association lobbied for preserving the program. It was designed to jumpstart the industry, which contributes billions to the economy, and encourage productions “to begin performances sooner and come back stronger” as the city recovered from Covid-19.Continue Reading

TONY NOMINATORS LIKE IT ‘HOT’ AS VOTERS’ TREND FAVORS QUIRKY ‘KIMBERLY’

May 2, 2023 by Philip Boroff

The $19.5 million crowd-pleaser Some Like it Hot was nominated for 13 Tony Awards today, the most of any Broadway show this season. In six of the past 10 Tony races, the musical that got the most nominations won the high-profile best musical award.

But a less encouraging trend could derail the Shubert Organization-produced show — which was also nominated for lead actors Christian Borle and J. Harrison Ghee, and for Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman’s toe-tapping score. Eight of the past 10 best musical winners were smallish and experimental — a la A Strange Loop (2022), Hadestown (2019), and, potentially, Kimberly Akimbo.Continue Reading

BEN PLATT TO LEAD $6.5 MILLION ‘PARADE’ (EXCLUSIVE)

December 23, 2022 by Philip Boroff

Parade, the 1998 Broadway musical featuring a Tony Award-winning score by the-then 28-year-old Jason Robert Brown, will be revived this spring by Greg Nobile’s Seaview Productions and Ambassador Theatre Group, according to a pitch deck distributed to investors.

Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen) will star in the dark historical drama, following an acclaimed weeklong tryout at New York City Center in November. Platt will reprise the role of Leo Frank, a Jewish Brooklynite transplanted to Marietta, Georgia, where he was falsely accused of murder and lynched by a mob in 1915. Micaela Diamond (The Cher Show), who earned stellar reviews playing Leo’s loyal wife, Lucille Frank, also returns to the cast. Platt, who like Diamond is Jewish, has spoken eloquently about the story’s timeliness amid rising antisemitism. Continue Reading

SEC PROBES BIG BROADWAY FUND’S ‘OUTSIZED’ RETURNS (EXCLUSIVE)

November 4, 2022 by Philip Boroff

By their own account, the founders of the Broadway Strategic Return Fund turned an overlooked investment niche into a bonanza.

Hunter Arnold, John Joseph and Curt Cronin established their hedge fund in January 2016 to invest in U.S. and U.K. live theater productions, plus tours, cast recordings and other ancillary businesses. With “few professional investors participating through a highly organized and disciplined investment process,” the fund’s Sept. 30, 2021 Due Diligence Questionnaire said, the founders believe “there is an untapped opportunity for outsized profits.”

The year-old marketing document declared, “$100,000 invested at [the] fund opening is currently valued at $416,280.” That’s double the rate of return of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index over the same period — a remarkable result for an industry in which roughly 80 percent of commercial theater productions fail to fully repay their investors, let alone turn a profit.Continue Reading

WILL A NEW ‘SWEENEY TODD’ MAKE ITS INVESTORS A KILLING? (EXCLUSIVE)

August 23, 2022 by Philip Boroff

Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller is raising as much as $14.5 million to revive Sweeney Todd on Broadway this spring, a test of whether a big-budget Stephen Sondheim revival can succeed in the post-Sondheim era.

Josh Groban (The Great Comet) will play the vengeful barber and Annaleigh Ashford (Sunday in the Park with George) will play the creative pie maker Mrs. Lovett, according to an operating agreement distributed to investors and reviewed by Broadway Journal. The musical, with a book by Hugh Wheeler, will be staged by Hamilton director Thomas Kail with a full orchestra playing the score, a person familiar with the revival said. (Two prior Broadway revivals, while critically acclaimed, were comparatively small-scale productions.)Continue Reading

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