Broadway Journal

BOONDOGGLE OR SOUND POLICY? CLARIFYING THE BROADWAY TAX CREDIT

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EXCLUSIVE: Good Night, and Good Luck has repeatedly set weekly records as the highest-grossing play in Broadway history. Nonetheless, the George Clooney blockbuster projected it will qualify for a $2.5 million subsidy from New York State, according to a production operating agreement distributed to investors.

Glengarry Glen Ross, the hit revival starring Kieran Culkin, expects $1.9 million from the state. Othello, which charges as much as $921 to see Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, projected $2 million in state aid.Continue Reading

INSIDE BROADWAY’S ROCKY REBOUND

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Broadway’s blockbuster numbers indicate that the box office has recovered from the pandemic. But as production costs continue to soar, the investment climate for everything besides star-driven plays remains grim.

Ahead of the Tony Awards nominations announcement tomorrow morning, I studied the 2024-25 season, which wraps in four weeks. It’s on track to achieve record revenue, barring a hurricane or Covid outbreak that sidelines George Clooney, Denzel Washington, Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin.Continue Reading

SIGNATURE AUDITOR RAISES ‘SUBSTANTIAL DOUBT’ ABOUT NONPROFIT’S SURVIVAL

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EXCLUSIVE: Signature Theatre Co. — which raised the bar off-Broadway by devoting entire seasons to the work of major dramatists while offering $25 tickets across the board — is struggling to stay afloat.

Lutz and Carr, the company’s auditor, said it has “substantial doubt about the organization’s ability to continue as a going concern.” The accountant’s alarm accompanies financial statements completed in August 2024 that were posted on the New York Attorney General’s charities registry during Christmas week.Continue Reading

‘SOUND & FURY’: INSIDE THE ‘SLEEP NO MORE’ LITIGATION

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As Sleep No More  prepares to close after a historic 12-year run, the producers of the immersive show are in an epic battle against their landlord.

Producers Arthur Karpati and Jonathan Hochwald owed $4.5 million in rent as of July 1, 2024, having guaranteed the payments on their West 27th Street lease, according to their landlord, Harlan Berger, in a sworn statement filed in New York Supreme Court. The debt has increased by about $500,000 a month, per court records.Continue Reading

‘OPERATION MINCEMEAT’ TARGETS GOLDEN THEATRE

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EXCLUSIVE: Producers of Operation Mincemeat  are raising at least $11.5 million to transfer the critically acclaimed, Olivier Award-winning musical to Broadway, according to financial documents. People familiar with the show said the plan is to open at the Golden Theatre early next year as part of the current, 2024/25, season.

The Golden is home to Stereophonic — the Tony Award-winning play about a fractious rock band making an album–  which recently “extended by popular demand for a final time” to Jan. 12, 2025.Continue Reading

JUJAMCYN PROFIT REVEALED IN RARE DISCLOSURE

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Broadway investors stand to lose about $200 million on the 2023-24 season’s flops. For Jujamcyn Theaters, the Broadway landlord, it was a different story.

Jujamcyn earned a profit of $34 million on revenue of $116 million in the year ending March 30, 2024. The disclosure, in a filing in the U.K. by Jujamcyn’s new parent, ATG Entertainment, is the first time in memory that a major commercial Broadway theater owner shared its financials.Continue Reading

OSKAR EUSTIS’ LONG GOODBYE

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EXCLUSIVE: Before the Public Theater fired a fifth of its staff, the downtown institution faced a financial crisis.

When it disclosed layoffs last July, the renowned nonprofit company said that it hoped to avoid a budget deficit in the year ending in August 2023. Instead, expenses exceeded revenue by $8 million that season, according to its most recent audited financial statement, which was obtained by Broadway Journal. That was the 70-year-old organization’s biggest budget deficit in at least a decade.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

‘OUTSIDERS’ WIN TONY RUMBLE; ‘SUFFS’ SCORES TOO

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The Outsiders  may have had the inside track at the Tony Awards after all.

In awarding Best Musical to the $22 million adaptation of the S.E. Hinton novel and Francis Ford Coppola movie about an ill-fated gang of teenagers in 1967 Tulsa, Oklahoma, voters rewarded Danya Taymor’s meticulously staged production over the propulsive glitz of Alicia Keys’ Hell’s Kitchen, the presumptive favorite in the category going into the evening.Continue Reading

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