Broadway Journal

POP STAR SIA ADAPTS INDIE FILM AMID NEA CRISIS (EXCLUSIVE)

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Sia, the Australian pop star whose songs are featured in the jukebox musicals Moulin Rouge! and Hell’s Kitchen, is developing a theater score of her own.

The singer-songwriter behind “Chandelier” is writing music and lyrics for an off-Broadway adaptation of the 2017 independent movie Saturday Church. Damon Cardasis, who wrote and directed the critically acclaimed story about a gay teenager’s difficult coming of age, is collaborating on the musical’s book with the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames (Fat Ham).Continue Reading

‘HELL’S KITCHEN’ AIMS TO DEFY BIG BUDGET SLUMP

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In a tough time for big Broadway productions, Hell’s Kitchen is burning up the box office.

Despite its surprise loss to The Outsiders for the Best Musical Tony Award, Alicia Keys’ semi-autobiographical show has consistently posted the biggest weekly ticket sales among new musicals from the past season. Just over two months after opening, it’s paid back 10 percent of its $22 million capitalization to investors.Continue Reading

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

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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

WILL ANGELS IN AMERICA MAKE ‘BACK TO THE FUTURE’ A BLAST ON BROADWAY? (EXCLUSIVE)

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More than three decades after the chandelier first plunged at Phantom of the Opera and a helicopter flew out of Miss Saigon, a souped-up DeLorean will star in a planned Broadway transfer of the Olivier Award-winning musical Back to the Future.

Producer Colin Ingram is in talks to bring a big-budget adaptation of the 1985 Michael J. Fox blockbuster to a Shubert house next summer, people familiar with the London hit said. Last week, Ingram filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $23.5 million for the Broadway production.  Co-producers of the show on the West End, which has been running for nine months and recently extended to February 2023, include the Frankel-Baruch-Viertel-Routh group, Hunter Arnold and Gavin Kalin — all familiar names around the Main Stem.Continue Reading

‘MOULIN ROUGE!’ & ‘STRANGE LOOP’ TEST TONY TRADITION OF GOOSING GROSSES

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Eight months after winning the Tony Award for best musical, Hamilton’s weekly grosses were up 45 percent. Dear Evan Hansen‘s were higher by a comparable margin after its win.

Grosses for Moulin Rouge! at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre were down 25 percent last week compared with early fall, when the adaptation of Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 movie reopened as Broadway’s newly minted best musical. At $1.2 million, its box office is off by nearly half since the end of 2019, when Moulin Rouge! was the top grossing new production of 2019-20, with an average ticket price second only to Hamilton.Continue Reading

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