Broadway Rebounds After Previous Power-Zapped Week: Box Office Climbs 12% To $34M

Broadway was back to full power last week (New York City’s latest blackout bypassed the theater district), rebounding 12% to $34M from the previous week’s summer-without-a-Saturday box office bruising.

With nearly all 29 of the productions resuming their regular eight-performance schedules for Broadway’s Week 8 (ending July 21) , the expected boosts in box office receipts followed. (Moulin Rouge! The Musical remained on its seven-performance schedule during its preview period, selling out each show yet again and grossing a whopping $1.7M).

In all, box office for the 29 productions totaled $34,264,194, with attendance of 271,824 up a commensurate 12% from the previous week when most productions played just seven performances due to the July 13 Saturday night Midtown Manhattan power outage. (The July 21 heatwave power cut mostly hit Brooklyn.)

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Power problems aside, Broadway’s summer of closings and closing notices (Frankie And Johnny In The Clair De Lune, Pretty Woman, The Cher Show, King Kong, The Prom, Be More Chill, Hillary and Clinton, King Lear, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, Waitress, Beautiful) had its usual bright spots last week. Ain’t Too Proud, the Temptations musical at the Imperial Theatre, was SRO yet again, grossing a hefty $1.6M.

Hadestown at the Walter Kerr was at 101% of capacity, grossing $1.3M, while the ever-mighty Hamilton at the Richard Rodgers scored its sold-out-as-always $3M.

Of special note last week: Beetlejuice at the Winter Garden wasn’t quite a sell-out (94% of seats filled) but posted a show best – and joined Broadway’s Millionaires’ Club in the bargain. Grossing a strong $1,036,333, the musical – directed by Alex Timbers, whose previewing Moulin Rouge! officially opens July 25 – played its 100th performance yesterday, hitting the million-dollar mark for the first time.

Timbers’ Moulin adaptation of Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 hit movie continued its pre-opening momentum – SRO at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre and grossing $1,724,492 for seven previews (the musical begins the standard eight-performance schedule upon opening).

Some other notable figures for the week:

• Dave Chappelle closed out his two-week residency at the Lunt-Fontanne, playing six shows (one extra than originally scheduled to make up for the previous week’s Saturday night cancellation). Chappelle’s show (critics not invited) grossed $1.7M, filling all seats (Edit note: this number reflects a Broadway League revision from an earlier League report today);
• Frankie And Johnny In The Clair De Lune, starring Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon, is heading to its early close of July 28, the last-chance status not seeming to help overmuch. The revival at the Broadhurst grossed $311,165, with attendance below the 50% mark;
• The glowingly reviewed Tootsie, starring Tony winner Santino Fontana, didn’t have the week it should be having: The musical grossed $947,726, about 55% of potential, with attendance at 76% of capacity at the Marquis. Average ticket price last week was $97, about the same as The Cher Show starring the Tony-winning Stephanie J. Block.

Sell-outs (or nearly so, at 98% of capacity or more) for Week 8 were Ain’t Too Proud, Come From Away, Dear Evan Hansen, Hadestown, Hamilton, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Mean Girls, Moulin Rouge!, The Book of Mormon, The Lion King, To Kill a Mockingbird, What The Constitution Means To Me and Wicked.

Season to date, Broadway has grossed $275,371,299, down about 9% year to year. Total attendance to date is 2,300,490, about even with last season at this time.

All figures courtesy of the trade group Broadway League.