Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 12/17/23- Page 2

[RippedMan]

Posted: 12/19/23 at 7:07pm

Exactly. I mean it is limping along, but it's also in a very tiny theater and a hard show to market, so by all accounts it's not doing that badly. 

[Cory Schimmoelelr]

Posted: 12/19/23 at 7:38pm

The producers for Ohio keep talking about going on so maybe they think they can find their audience. Harmony seems to be in a rougher spot, and it’ll only run if they wanna throw money in a hole. My best bet for catching Harmony in late January is that they limp along till then.

[OMG U Guyz]

Posted: 12/19/23 at 7:45pm

RippedMan said: "Exactly. I mean it is limping along, but it's also in a very tiny theater and a hard show to market, so by all accounts it's not doing that badly."

And I heard the original cast members are staying thru March 

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 12/19/23 at 8:07pm

OMG U Guyz said: "RippedMan said: "Exactly. I mean it is limping along, but it's also in a very tiny theater and a hard show to market, so by all accounts it's not doing that badly."

And I heard the original cast members are staying thru March"

Got a feeling Stone will post closing shortly after New Year’s for the day the OGs’ contracts expire. It’s run long enough to announce a closing around a couple months in advance. 

[quizking101]

Posted: 12/19/23 at 8:07pm

Cory Schimmoelelr said: "The producers for Ohio keep talking about going on so maybe they think they can find their audience."

The show that I saw seems to have no idea what their audience is. It's stuck in this weird valley of wanting to be daring and different, but also somehow pandering to the general commercial theatregoer and trying to make ASD musically palatable and the aggressively generic sum of its parts does not a hit make.

If Hal Prince was still alive, this would probably be his 21st Century "Merrily We Roll Along"...

 

[BdwyFan]

Posted: 12/19/23 at 8:11pm

I wonder what the weekly running costs are for Ohio? And whether they are close to burning through the reserve ? 

[Bobster159]

Posted: 12/19/23 at 9:33pm

Ohio's current strategy doesn't make sense to me. They're losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a week and doing so with 30% of the house empty. Barring a miracle, they're not getting to profitability, so they will close sooner rather than later. They've really got three paths at this point: two hard but sensible and one easy but awful.

Close in two weeks, juice the numbers from the last opportunity to see the show (and holidays), and return whatever reserve they have left to their investors. This is terrible, but it's not spending good money after bad.

Announce closing for a couple of months out. Do everything they can to get butts in seats regardless of price ($50 rush ain't this). Do a vast amount of outreach to appropriate charities/student groups, etc., essentially giving swathes of tickets away for free to get this show seen. Just accept they'll lose the rest of their reserve/any loans they've taken out but get an audience to remember the show in the process. Good for the mission of inclusivity as well as potential licensing down the road. But expensive...

Or they just do what they're currently doing, which appears to be hoping for a miracle but doing nothing to achieve it. Spend the rest of their reserves playing to half-empty theaters and close in a few months anyway. This path is easy, but it achieves no meaningful goals beyond not closing embarrassingly quickly.

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 12/19/23 at 9:59pm

Ohio cost about $575k a week to run.

as of this week they have run through their reserve and are considering taking out a priority loan.

 

 

[JoeW4]

Posted: 12/19/23 at 9:59pm

Bobster159 said: "Or they just do what they're currently doing, which appears to be hoping for a miracle"

 

It may not be logical, but this has been the strategy of many Broadway shows in recent years. Unclear whether it stems from denial, or whether they think of it as "donating" the money to keep a passion project open longer (for the sake of the company, and whoever DOES want to see it).

But when productions like this come along, it becomes pointless to try to predict when they'll close, or ask "how is it still open?" Because they're not operating from a place of fiscal logic.

 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 12/20/23 at 12:15pm

I think the show just gives off bland musical theater. It doesn't seem special enough. Reminds of The Prom. Just generic musical theater. Which I think the public is not interested in. 

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 12/20/23 at 12:32pm

In a post-COVID world, the general public just doesn’t seem to be interested in new musicals that don’t have at least one A-list celeb and don’t already have a rabid fanbase from its source material (if any). And it doesn’t matter if the musicals are good or bad. 

Hadestown should be thanking their lucky stars they opened in early 2019 and built up enough buzz to keep it going after the shutdown. It probably would’ve flopped hard if it had opened post-shutdown and received the same Tony love. 

 

Updated On: 12/20/23 at 12:32 PM

[forfivemoreminutes]

Posted: 12/20/23 at 12:34pm

I think Ohio would have been a better show artistically and also been more successful commercially if they'd made up their mind about what kind of story they want to tell - a generic feel-good one (as they market in their advertising) that "anyone" can relate to, or a highly specific story that opens a window into a community that most people aren't familiar with (or think they are, but actually aren't)? Artistically successful shows like A Strange Loop, The Band's Visit, and Fun Home took the latter option; artistically generic shows like The Prom took the former option. I would have liked Ohio a lot better if it was "A Strange Loop for autistic people," artistically.

[BETTY22]

Posted: 12/20/23 at 12:54pm

Ohio grosses make me sad. 

Is it possible to open a new musical that isn't based on a hit movie anymore....

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 12/20/23 at 1:06pm

BETTY22 said: "Ohio grosses make me sad.

Is it possible to open a new musical that isn't based on a hit movie anymore...."

I think I was discussing this with someone on here at some point, and maybe them or someone else mentioned how difficult it is to put up a Broadway show that isn't either based on a pre-existing idea, or an adaptation of something. Do you think that's accurate too?

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 12/20/23 at 2:11pm

Gutenberg is making a million dollars a week and thats not based on a movie 

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 12/20/23 at 3:24pm

BoringBoredBoard40 said: "Gutenberg is making a million dollars a week and thats not based on a movie"

I was wondering if that had been based on anything- thank you for confirming that. I think the names in the show draw in most of those sales though

[Jarethan]

Posted: 12/20/23 at 4:15pm

OMG U Guyz said: "quizking101 said: "hearthemsing22 said: "Is it possible the Kerr could be too, even though Hadestown just released a new block of tickets? Maybe they have someone big coming in?"

Ani DiFranco is joining the cast on February 9th. They were also going to have Chris Sullivan joining as Hermes at the same time but filming commitments nixed that.

—————

As for the rest - HARMONY remains in big trouble and unless Barry & Co. want to dump some more money into the show, it’s gonna be over.

Also, DANCE is being HEAVILY papered after the polite but otherwise tepid reviews. Expect that to fold after the holidays as well. It really should’ve gone to a smaller off-Broadway house"


I was hoping Chris was going to take over for a bit. It would’ve been fun to see him and Ani together. Bummer."

 

I researched Ani DeFranco, since I had never heard of her.  The article I read said that she has released 20 'albums; with total sales of around 400,000 copies.  Sounds pretty niche to me, so I will be very surprised if she has any noticeable impact on the box office.  Chris Sullivan -- absolutely no way.

I have to admit that I never liked Hadestown, but I can't help thinking that the producers and investors should be pretty proud of the run it has had, regardless of when it ultimately closes.  I never expected it to run this long; I felt that it was in the same niche category as Fun Home, The Band's Visit and, more recently, KA.

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 12/20/23 at 4:24pm

''Gutenberg is making a million dollars a week and thats not based on a movie.''

True, but it's selling tickets because it's got two stars: Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells, who made a name for themselves in ''The Book of Mormon.''

It's not like audiences have been clamoring for a revival of ''Gutenberg!'' In 2007, it ran for only four months Off-Broadway at the Actors' Playhouse. 

[Kad]

Posted: 12/20/23 at 4:39pm

I'd say Ohio's problem isn't that audiences don't want to see more original work, it's that the audiences that have seen it aren't particularly enthusiastic about it.

Updated On: 12/20/23 at 04:39 PM

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 12/20/23 at 4:40pm

All this to say: for us frequent theatergoers, if you want to see pretty much any new musical these days, play digital lotteries daily or try rush. And if you don’t win early in a show’s run, KEEP PLAYING! It has never been easier to win for new musicals (and to snag great seats in the process).

There’s no denying that ticket prices are obscene, but these might be the best affordable steals in the Theatre District. Heck, it might not be hard to get comps for most of this spring’s titles!

[RippedMan]

Posted: 12/20/23 at 5:22pm

Agreed. I almost paid like $180 for Here We Are and then saw on TodayTix on my way into the city that they had a rush seat for $40 and I ended up dead center, best view. So def. keep checking and don't full price if you don't want to. 

[Jonathan Cohen]

Posted: 12/20/23 at 8:28pm

Jarethan said: "I researched Ani DeFranco, since I had never heard of her. The article I read said that she has released 20 'albums; with total sales of around 400,000 copies. Sounds pretty niche to me, so I will be very surprised if she has any noticeable impact on the box office. Chris Sullivan -- absolutely no way."

I'm a little more familiar with DiFranco, I liked her Little Plastic Castle album when it came out in 1998. 

Anyway, she has 254.1K monthly listeners on Spotify. In comparison, Barry Manilow has 5.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify and currently has a struggling show on Broadway. Granted that's not apples to apples - Manilow doesn't appear in Harmony, and while he does write the songs, it's not tunes his fans are familiar with. 

However, I'd guess her being in Hadestown is just a fun thing for DiFranco to try, as opposed to stunt casting expected to dramatically boost ticket sales.   

[Melissa25]

Posted: 12/20/23 at 10:02pm

DiFranco played Persephone on Anais Mitchell’s 2010 Hadestown concept album.

[bear88]

Posted: 12/21/23 at 1:08am

Dumb question re Hadestown:

The show seems like it’s running out of steam, but even though the average ticket price isn’t too impressive, the admittedly small Kerr is sold out just about every week. For a musical of this age, what’s more important?

[Theatrefan2]

Posted: 12/21/23 at 2:37am

I don't really agree on Hadestown. It may not have had major name ot brand recognition, but the Greek gods / myths angle is some what of a hook. A lot of people are interested in that. It's enough to get peoples attention. It's also a subject that isn't done a whole lot on broadway.

A musical about a dance is a fairly common musical story.