The good Broadway Crunch of Spring 2024, when 18 new productions opened between mid-March and late April – 19 for those who rely the business switch of Applicable – appears to be exhibiting early indicators of the inevitable shake-out, with one present (Lempicka) closing quickly and some others already enjoying to homes with attendance at 80% of capability or much less.
For the week ending Could 5 – the primary full week after the April 30 Tony nominations announcement – whereas total field workplace was down about 7% for all reveals and attendance off about 6% from the earlier week, a great variety of the newcomers had been filling greater than 90% of their seats. Some far more.
Promoting out had been An Enemy of the Folks, which grossed $1,048,286; Cabaret on the Package Kat Membership, grossing $1,920,289 and never far off from the August Wilson Theatre’s home report set by the current Humorous Woman ($2,137,057); and Hell’s Kitchen, $1,270,519.
A really slight tier beneath had been the newcomers who crammed between 91% and 98% of seats: Illinoise, with three closely comped performances, at $684,393 (91% capability); Uncle Vanya, $998,040 (92%); The Wiz, $1,458,478 (95%); Mom Play, $551,925 (95%); Mary Jane, $467,047 (97%); Stereophonic, $591,519 (98%); and The Outsiders, $894,176 (98%).
A 3rd batch fell between 80% and 88% of capability: Applicable grossed $659,263 (at 88% of capability); The Nice Gatsby, $1,049,784 (84%); The Pocket book, $673,430 (83%); Water For Elephants, $1,010,054 (83%); Lempicka, $275,049 (84%); Suffs, $630,781 (81%).
And within the fourth tier, all beneath 80%, had been: The Who’s Tommy, $910,354 (78%); The Coronary heart of Rock and Roll, with some press nights slicing into field workplace, grossed $287,056 (71%); and Patriots, $416,373 (67%).
Whereas Tony nominations can solely rely for a lot, it must be famous that the majority, however not all, of the reveals within the third and fourth batches didn’t obtain Greatest Musical or Greatest Play Tony nominations, together with The Nice Gatsby, The Pocket book, Lempicka, The Coronary heart of Rock and Roll and Patriots. Lempicka and The Coronary heart of Rock and Roll (the Huey Lewis jukebox musical) had common ticket costs of $39.33 and $47.49, disastrous for business musicals.
Additionally to notice: Whereas Applicable fell into the third batch, the much-nominated and audience-popular play has been operating on Broadway since December, and solely makes the spring listing due to a business switch in March. And whereas The Who’s Tommy scored a Greatest Musical Revival nomination, that nod was its just one, a shock given its robust opinions.
In its last week of performances, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Road grossed $1,762,444, an enormous bump of $242,705 over the earlier week. The musical revival, which most just lately starred Aaron Tveit, Sutton Foster and Joe Locke, who had taken over for originals Josh Groban, Annaleigh Ashford and Gaten Matarazzo, crammed the entire seats on the Lunt-Fontanne in its last week.
In whole, the 35 Broadway productions final week grossed $34,757,296, a drop of seven% from the earlier week (however nonetheless 15% over final season right now). Whole attendance was 289,947, a drop of 6% from the earlier week (and up 12% from final season).
Season up to now, Broadway has grossed $1,467,169,372, with whole attendance at 11,708,225.
All figures courtesy of The Broadway League. For full field workplace listings, go to the League’s web site.
