Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 12/30/18 — Page 2

Wick3 said: "I enjoyed Torch Song too and have myticket for itsfinal performance on Sunday."

i hope I make it. Oklahoma is getting winter weather including snow tomorrow night on top of the ice we’re already getting. Hoping my flight out of here doesn’t get cancelled Friday morning.

Oh, not ridiculous on THEIR end....I understand the whole supply & demand thing, (Which is why I seldom go to NY during the holidays.) I was thinking about "us". An additional MILLION is just insane.

Yes these numbers are really good but like we all know they will be pretty depressing for a bunch of these shows in the next couple of weeks.

Not to mention the crowds. I was in NYC for a wedding on 12/29 and was stunned by the crowds in Times Square. For the first time ever, I actually felt a little 'Day of the Locusts' unsafe. I concluded that I will NEVER go to a Broadway show during Christmas week. Just not worth it ands you said, they aren't going tombs my dollars that week.

Couple of things to add:

-- If I were an investor in Cher, I would be worrying. Yes, it grossed $1.3MM, but it was Christmas week with inflated prices, their average price was actually on the low side (which leads me to surmise that there were a lot of discounted tickets) AND it still only hit 90% of capacity. This on Christmas week for a new musical that received a lot of publicity. Labor Day week-end??

-- Don't know what its weekly nut is, but Chicago just had its highest grossing year EVER. That is pretty amazing, even with inflated ticket prices. Anyone know what their nut is??

-- I would imagine that we won't see a Christmas special starring people from American Idol or The Voice or America's Got Talent next year. What a shame.

-- It hasn't done gangbusters, but I am still surprised that Waverly Gallery has grossed an average of around $425K a week. Disappointed that it won't result in a profitable run, but it did better than I expected.

-- There must be a lesson from Torch Song's abysmal grosses. Damned if I can figure out what it is, other than Arnold needing to be played by a box office attraction???

Jarethan said: "Not to mention the crowds. I was in NYC for a wedding on 12/29 and was stunned by the crowds in Times Square. For the first time ever, I actually felt a little 'Day of the Locusts' unsafe. I concluded that I will NEVER go to a Broadway show during Christmas week. Just not worth it ands you said, they aren't going tombs my dollars that week."

I was also in that day and at one point, I literally could not exit The Disney Store in Times Square. The crowds were insane.

That said, I was easily able to rush American Son that day arriving less than hour before the box office opened. I also noticed the rush lines for DEH and CFA and neither looked bad that day. I also ended up at TKTS when I missed the window to get a rush ticket for Summer. I paid $98 for an Orchestra site, same price my dad paid at the box office a few weeks ago. There definitely were some inflated prices on the TKTS board that day but not all seemed to be and some weren't as bad as expected.

Ado Annie D'Ysquith said: "This is a dumb question re: Arnold needing a "name."

Am I just out of the loop, or was Cynthia Erivo not a "name" before she did Color Purple? She was touted above-the-title, won a Tony, etc....then she was in Bad Times at the El Royale and Widows. Was she always that well-known, or is Celie a different kind of role in that regard?"

Comparing the two productions is ignoring a few things. One, a musical will always be an easier sell on a Broadway stage than a play, with or without a name, since for many of the ticket buying tourists "Broadway" and "musical" are synonymous. So the success of a play mounted on Broadway is often more dependent on having a cast that will be able to entice those tourists away from the musicals.

The revival of The Color Purple was also a transfer of a highly acclaimed London production of the show that many over here had not seen yet, as opposed to this revival of Torch Song, which many of the local ticket buyers had seen just a year ago (I know it's anecdotal, but for both myself and a number of my friend we didn't feel the same urgency to try to fit this in to our schedules, and I can't believe we were the only ones in that situation). No offense to Urie, who I thoroughly admired when seeing it Off-Broadway, but if it had been recast with a new actor in the role for the transfer my interest may have been a bit more piqued to see what someone new could do with it.

I always assumed the reason for the transfer was along those lines as well and that it was known the prospect of recoupment, let alone a huge payoff, was slim. I just wonder if it would have made it through the entirety of its limited run if the Off-Broadway run hadn't happened first (and that of course brings a whole other host of "what ifs" including whether it could have been revived without that first run at all)

@Judy I think the same lack of resonance also applies to gay men below a certain age. These are just not their stories to connect with.

Hogan's points re: TORCH SONG are spot-on. People had 11 weeks to see it Off-Broadway last year, and most of them probably didn't say "I NEED to see that again at a higher price!" The New York theatergoing crowd has also seen Urie a lot: he's done 7 Off-Broadway shows in ~8 years, so it wasn't the novelty of an Erivo "star is born" moment.


Ado Annie D'Ysquith said: "Am I just out of the loop, or was Cynthia Erivo not a "name" before she did Color Purple? She was touted above-the-title, won a Tony, etc...."

COLOR PURPLE was a very different situation. It was a "star is born" moment for Erivo, whereas Michael Urie has worked steadily in theatre/TV for 12 years. But remember, COLOR PURPLE wasn't a big commercial hit: it didn't announce recoupment, and it averaged about 68% gross potential over the course of its run. And as for the billing, Erivo got lucky since the second- and third-leads were more famous than her. The Tonys/awards season were also part of what anointed her.

RippedMan said: "I can only speak for myself, but I'm a gay man "below a certain age," and I was really taken by Torch Song. If I had a better schedule, I'd love to see it again before it closes. I thought it was just marvelous all around. Not a huge Urie fan, but I thought he was great in the role. And I thought it was just a splendid production all around. I would have loved to have seen the original production and hate that we didn't get the full text. Guess I've got to go read it now.

But that said, I'm not sure why it's not a bigger sell? Maybe it didn't have the "epic" nature of Angels to attract people who weren't initially interested? And I don't think Urie is much of a name outside of the theater community? Although he did sell "Buyer and Cellar" downtown for awhile."

Interesting perspective although I think you fall in the "us" demographic I referred to earlier. Stereotypes notwithstanding, most gay men of any age don't pay attention to the theatre. And regarding Buyer and Cellar (and you could say the same about Torch Song at 2ST) those are off-B venues with far less seats than even the Hayes, and they were substantially able to sell them out. Note that at 3309 attendance last week, the show would have sold out at 2ST and sent a thousand people away disappointed. (Also: I went back to see the show at 2ST with a friend from out of town and paid more for my not-great tickets than I paid on Broadway. Welcome to theatre economics.)

Though you could argue that despite being a fictional character, the title character is one of the biggest stars in the world.