Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 11/6/22 — Page 3

Matt Rogers said: "Bill Snibson said: "I thought that "Death of a Salesman" was going to be no brainer and a much bigger hit but their numbers have been really lack-luster."

Maybe they shouldn’t have yanked the discount code the day the reviews came out. Maybe people in post pandemic America don’t have $183.00 to spend, per ticket, on a play that has been revived to death already, And yes, I know it’s always at TKTS and there are cheaper seats in the back and high in the rafters."

Someone needs to write an analysis of just that -- aside from probably being quite interesting, they'd be able to use the title "Death of a 'Death of a Salesman'".

May I also point out that Hamilton, The Piano Lesson, MJ The Musical, and Six are pulling in good-to-great numbers.

And while their numbers aren’t great now, Tony Award winning ethically diverse shows like Hadestown and A Strange Loop have done pretty well. Not to mention other culturally diverse pretty successful shows like & Juliet and Into The Woods.

And let’s not forget all the predominantly white shows that are/were struggling: Almost Famous, Cost of Living, Kimberly Akimbo, Walking With Ghosts.

That’s not to say that racism does not permeate all parts of American culture, including Broadway. But plays especially are always harder sells on Broadway unless they have a huge star attached (i.e. Bryan Cranston, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeff Daniels - although I think in that last instance the biggest star was the book and movie).

it seems to me that being a Broadway investor is not for people who like safe bets. They go in knowing shows may or may not be commercial hits. In some cases, it may be a passion project or it may more often be that shows they believe in just don’t perform at the box office like they’d hoped.

Thank goodness for investors who sink their money into less than safe bets. Very few of Sondheim’s shows ever recouped. But I think we can still agree that we are still glad they were produced. And I’m thankful that the “great white way” is a little less white these days.

I believe “Beautiful Noise” has the largest advance of any new musical this season.

"A Beautiful Noise" has become the sleeper hit of the season, as far as new musicals are concerned.. Little marketing yet the Neil Diamond name alone is pushing sales. It's very impressive. It sounds like lazy play writing but, alas, it is generating dollars and bringing people to the theater. I'm conflicted!

Far too soon to jump to conclusions about BEAUTIFUL NOISE –– flops like SUMMER grossed over $1m for a few months, and often with jukebox titles like this the diehards flock to early previews. But it's a better start than some other shows here.

KPOP is crazy. Just a complete disconnect from buyers. I wonder if the title is too bland?? Would "[WORD]: THE KPOP MUSICAL" have sold better?

Matt Rogers said: "BorisTomashevsky said: "Matt Rogers said: "BorisTomashevsky said: "Well sh*t. Looks like the Broadway audience are racists!

(That’s the line, right? That’s what we’re all meant to say now, right?)"

Huh????????"



“So now we should blame the clearly-racist audience for not buying tickets, right? That’s the next verse of how the song goes, no?”

I have not heard one person saying anything like this…..until now.


"

"

Playbill's editor-in-chief tweeted something along the lines of an accusation about why Leopolsdadt was doing so well but Piano Lesson and Topdog/Underdog are not. It was incredible stupid and she deleted it quickly but there is this simmering attitude of resentment towards the lack of audience flock to these fine productions. I am assuming thats what is being referred to here...



THAT SAID: why isnt Beautiful Noise similar to MJ? Both musicians have fans flocking to hear their music.

I hate to say that my words on the kpop musical remain true. F(X)'s Luna will not sell tickets to teenage kpop fans, because we are here to see our specific idols, not these watered down kpop recreations, and adults are equally disinterested. Nobody investing or producing KPop even though of who the audience is and how they work, and that's their fault.

Real kpop groups have their structure for a reason (the R3mis side plot about pregnancy mentioned in the other thread would've been good drama though!). Fans are disillusioned to view themselves as personally close to their favorite idols, and kpop Broadway fails to realize that creating fictional idols that are made as a critique to the industry, and don't have any structure of real kpop groups (like hype around streams/a cast album), spend a lot of the plot commenting on the negativity of the industry, and from the press clips, have nowhere near the amount of talent any kpop group has (not even just BTS, look up Tomorrow x Together, NMIXX, and Sunmi, all of whom could be in real like equivalents of the groups in the kpop musical), and you will see that true kpop depends on visuals, strong charismatic humans, all round dance skill, and a fanbase willing to support their idols until the very end. I never wish people out a job, but closing this early would at least mean cutting the losses. And while they're at it, I'll gladly take a paper ticket and write exactly how they can improve this show to appeal to real KPop fans, real teenagers, and not whatever wishy washy audience they imagined for the show.

A nice bump for Almost Famous and Kimberly Akimbo.

Phantom4ever said: "Lot666, I think Cameron would close Phantom today if he could. He wants to cut off those royalty checks to Harold Prince and Bjornson ASAP. Feb. 18 can't get here soon enough for him."

You may be right, but I'm not convinced. A $1 million per-week bird-in-the-hand seems like strong motivation to me. Of course, I'm not talking about an open-ended run; I'm just wondering about an extension for as long as it continues the current numbers.

Updated On: 11/9/22 at 08:59 AM

I don't think anyone mentioned that there were fifty thousand well-to-do tourists here for the NYC Marathon. The three I knew all saw shows.

BorisTomashevsky said: "Matt Rogers said: "BorisTomashevsky said: "Well sh*t. Looks like the Broadway audience are racists!

(That’s the line, right? That’s what we’re all meant to say now, right?)"

Huh????????"

Producers gave what was demanded, which is more POC stories onstage, and for almost a year those stories have been absolutely not reeling them in and have instead been losing money.

So now we should blame the clearly-racist audience for not buying tickets, right? That’s the next verse of how the song goes, no?

Exaggeration to illustrate the point, but the elephant in the room is that people simply don’t want to see much of what only made it to Broadway because producers had their arms twisted over the past two years. Rather than anyone being incredulous about why people aren’t flocking to Topdog/Underdog, maybe what should be acknowledged is that the audience for it just doesn’t exist right now.


"

Maybe it's worth putting POC perspectives on Broadway even if they aren't blockbuster sellers?
A weird thing to make-up a "that's racist!" accusation when no one in this thread mentioned racism.
I feel like if you have to exaggerate to illustrate a point, maybe the point isn't well-made to begin with.

Lot666 said: "Can Cameron Mackintosh bring himself to officially pull the plug on Phantom (i.e., actually put February 18 on sale),with the show now consistently earning $1 million+ per week and posting the highest capacity on Broadway?"



I say this as a die hard Phan that wished it didnt have to close: the question is what would the grosses be if it wasnt closing, I doubt it would be doing that kind of business. Also booked for the 35th anniversary show, can't wait!