The Playgoer: Broadway Killing

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Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Broadway Killing

The latest Broadway grosses are truly staggering, even to me.

Out of the 26 shows currently running, 16 of them were filled to over 90% capacity last week. 7 of those were at 100%.

And we're talking well-worn titles like Phantom and Mamma Mia. And Beauty and the Beast--which outright sucks--closes out its 15-year reign of lameness packing in 1500 customers a night. Many no doubt seeing it for that last nth time before they'll just have to settle for the movie.

But new musicals, too. Spring Awakening has joined the 90% club--and even Curtains!

Out of the remaining 10 shows, another 6 were well above 75%.

The only show under 50% was...Deuce. Not much has been written, surprisingly about how what was once touted as the event of the season--Angela Lansbury's return to the stage--is now officially its one big dud. (The play must be that bad, eh.)

I have no idea what's going on, since apparently the week just before was a downer. One stat from that report, though, that I suspect hasn't changed:

Average paid admission was $79.83 for musicals, $57.77 for plays and $78.01 for all shows.
Huh. That's kind of an odd "average," ain't it? I guess that's what economists would call the Deuce Effect.

2 comments:

Tom said...

High tourist season, innit? Tourism is (was) the number 2 industry in NYC, theatre is the number 1 tourist industry in NYC. Perhaps this is the rising tide lifting all boats; folks who can't get in to see Wicked are giving Curtains a chance, etc., etc.

June said...

You wouldn't believe--I daresay you can't even imagine--how monumentally awful Deuce is. I wrote a better version of that play when I was 13 and obsessed with tennis. (And my version sucked, believe me.)