23.5%

That was the average capacity total for Passing Strange's first week of previews (Feb 18-24).

Mind you, that was basically the first 8 performances, in a show with no stars, and no advance word north of 14th Street. (Aside from tons of coverage in the Times.)

While 3 empty seats out of every 4 never looks good, keep in mind that 1/4th of the Belasco Theatre is still 250 people a night. But that about maxes out the downtown crowd willing to fork over Broadway prices.

Let's hope ticket sales have gone up since the "money" reviews. At least to 50%!

(Meanwhile, in the very same week, fellow hipster musical In The Heights did a whopping 80% in an even bigger house! This one's got legs...)

UPDATE: Indeed, as Steve points out in Comments, the new grosses out today from last week do reflect an increase for Passing Strange--31.1%! True, the impact of the review could be a few days, and that figure doesn't reflect future sales. Stay tuned...