Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 5/1/22- Page 4

[Kad]

Posted: 5/5/22 at 10:55am

Once DEH closes, it will be done heavily regionally for years to come- employing and reaching more people than the Broadway show ever could. 

[7thbighero]

Posted: 5/5/22 at 10:56am

David10086 said: "The one title no one has mentioned yet is "Phantom", which looks like it's doing record low business. If this has been tourist-dependent for the last 25+ years, it looks like this may be the end of the road for them."

Not as long as ALW keeps throwing money at it

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/5/22 at 11:48am

After DEH opened, I think most of us thought that at best it would have a NEXT TO NORMAL-length run (a run that was respectable and profitable at 733 perfs). It has now more than doubled the length of N2N's run, which is pretty amazing.

Lord knows Stacey Mindich has the financial means to keep it open if she wanted to and if the Shuberts are not pushing her to close. Though if its running costs are around $500K per wk it may still have some juice, depending on what money they have in the bank.

Updated On: 5/5/22 at 11:48 AM

[stoptheworld38]

Posted: 5/5/22 at 12:49pm

I could be wrong but I'd probably put my money on DEH closing before Come From Away.

I absolutely loved DEH when it first came out and up until a couple years ago but as others have said, it just hasn't aged well. (And I don't think the movie was much help either). I finally saw it onstage (on tour) last month, and while the cast was outstanding, I still love the album, and I'm very grateful to have seen it once, I probably won't go out far of my way to see it again. That's not to say I want it to close by any means, but having run for over 5 years now, it's had a good life, and (many) people seem to be realizing the more problematic aspects and not connecting with it the way they used to. Plus, my guess is whenever the time comes that it closes, it'll probably continue on tour, and I can totally see it becoming popular among regional/community/school groups.

CFA, on the other hand (which is tied with Hadestown as my absolute favorite), is a show that is, in my mind, nearly perfect. It's a story of kindness and hope and community - all the things that I feel like the world really needs more of especially as we're still dealing with the challenges of the pandemic. Whenever I see people online asking for recommendations of what shows they should see, it's almost always at or near the top of the list. I've heard of many people who actively choose to see it multiple times and who bring people they know to see it because it's that good. CFA obviously does have the proshot going for it and I haven't heard much about how that's impacted ticket sales (unlike the Hamilton one, for which there was confirmation that it's actively increased them), and while proshots are great if you don't have the means to see something in person as often as you may like, they don't replace that live experience. I have no inside knowledge as to why the CFA grosses have been as low as they are - my biggest guess is simply the fact that now that the show has been running for this long, people are putting their money and focus on seeing newer stuff.

I think summer, when more people are off from work/school, will be the real key period for all these struggling shows, to see whether or not they bounce back.

[cwilliams]

Posted: 5/6/22 at 1:55pm

Phantom is not doing "record low" business 

[HogansHero]

Posted: 5/6/22 at 11:14pm

cwilliams said: "Phantom is not doing "record low" business"

Are you sure about that? In 1988, Phantom's grosses were in the $500k range. In today's dollars, that's over $1.2mil. This week's gross was $600k+. That's pretty amazing. I don't shed a tear if they lose money but it's pretty obvious this is running because of ego and not to make money.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 5/6/22 at 11:43pm

HogansHero said: "cwilliams said: "Phantom is not doing "record low" business"

Are you sure about that? In 1988, Phantom's grosses were in the $500k range. In today's dollars, that's over $1.2mil. This week's gross was $600k+. That's pretty amazing. I don't shed a tear if they lose money but it's pretty obvious this is running because of ego and not to make money."

Hogan, the data is at your fingertips. They had worse weeks following 9/11, and in 2007/2008, though with inflation it probably equals out to what it is now. And they've had similarly low weeks scattered across the last 20 years, even as recently as 2019. The data from the last decade or so also shows a consistent pattern of fluctuation, which has continued through this season. And the numbers from the past few months are well within their usual range of fluctuation (with the exception of the first wave of omicron which is notably lower), albeit with perhaps somewhat fewer 7-figure weeks.

Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean it's making good margins, nor does it preclude the ego factor which I'm sure is also present. But regardless, I wouldn't call this "record low" except in the sense that it's matching roughly the same record many times over many years.

Updated On: 5/6/22 at 11:43 PM

[HogansHero]

Posted: 5/7/22 at 12:05am

@JBroadway, I was asking

I am still not totally convinced but I am also not inclined to dwell on it. It is not doing well enough from an accountant's perspective.  

[soulmistin]

Posted: 5/7/22 at 11:18am

stoptheworld38 said: "I could be wrong but I'd probably put my money on DEH closing before Come From Away.

I absolutely loved DEH when it first came out and up until a couple years ago but as others have said, it just hasn't aged well. (And I don't think the movie was much help either). I finally saw it onstage (on tour) last month, and while the cast was outstanding, I still love the album, and I'm very grateful to have seen it once, I probably won't go out far of my way to see it again. That's not to say I want it to close by any means, but having run for over 5 years now, it's had a good life, and (many) people seem to be realizing the more problematic aspects and not connecting with it the way they used to. Plus, my guess is whenever the time comes that it closes, it'll probably continue on tour, and I can totally see it becoming popular among regional/community/school groups.

CFA, on the other hand (which is tied with Hadestown as my absolute favorite), is a show that is, in my mind, nearly perfect. It's a story of kindness and hope and community - all the things that I feel like the world really needs more of especially as we're still dealing with the challenges of the pandemic. Whenever I see people online asking for recommendations of what shows they should see, it's almost always at or near the top of the list. I've heard of many people who actively choose to see it multiple times and who bring people they know to see it because it's that good. CFA obviously does have the proshot going for it and I haven't heard much about how that's impacted ticket sales (unlike the Hamilton one, for which there was confirmation that it's actively increased them), and while proshots are great if you don't have the means to see something in person as often as you may like, they don't replace that live experience. I have no inside knowledge as to why the CFA grosses have been as low as they are - my biggest guess is simply the fact that now that the show has been running for this long, people are putting their money and focus on seeing newer stuff.

I think summer, when more people are off from work/school, will be the real key period for all these struggling shows, to see whether or not they bounce back."

This summarizes it better than I could! Working at CFA, I’ve seen more repeat visitors, and people visibly affected by the work more than ANY other show I’ve worked at. Maybe it’s my bias of getting to work there, but I see the show as still having life left in it.

I find Dear Evan Hansen to be, and this is putting it generously, incredibly dated. 

[soulmistin]

Posted: 5/7/22 at 11:18am

stoptheworld38 said: "I could be wrong but I'd probably put my money on DEH closing before Come From Away.

I absolutely loved DEH when it first came out and up until a couple years ago but as others have said, it just hasn't aged well. (And I don't think the movie was much help either). I finally saw it onstage (on tour) last month, and while the cast was outstanding, I still love the album, and I'm very grateful to have seen it once, I probably won't go out far of my way to see it again. That's not to say I want it to close by any means, but having run for over 5 years now, it's had a good life, and (many) people seem to be realizing the more problematic aspects and not connecting with it the way they used to. Plus, my guess is whenever the time comes that it closes, it'll probably continue on tour, and I can totally see it becoming popular among regional/community/school groups.

CFA, on the other hand (which is tied with Hadestown as my absolute favorite), is a show that is, in my mind, nearly perfect. It's a story of kindness and hope and community - all the things that I feel like the world really needs more of especially as we're still dealing with the challenges of the pandemic. Whenever I see people online asking for recommendations of what shows they should see, it's almost always at or near the top of the list. I've heard of many people who actively choose to see it multiple times and who bring people they know to see it because it's that good. CFA obviously does have the proshot going for it and I haven't heard much about how that's impacted ticket sales (unlike the Hamilton one, for which there was confirmation that it's actively increased them), and while proshots are great if you don't have the means to see something in person as often as you may like, they don't replace that live experience. I have no inside knowledge as to why the CFA grosses have been as low as they are - my biggest guess is simply the fact that now that the show has been running for this long, people are putting their money and focus on seeing newer stuff.

I think summer, when more people are off from work/school, will be the real key period for all these struggling shows, to see whether or not they bounce back."

This summarizes it better than I could! Working at CFA, I’ve seen more repeat visitors, and people visibly affected by the work more than ANY other show I’ve worked at. Maybe it’s my bias of getting to work there, but I see the show as still having life left in it.

I find Dear Evan Hansen to be, and this is putting it generously, incredibly dated. 

[soulmistin]

Posted: 5/7/22 at 11:22am

Lot666 said: "soulmistin said: "I’d love to see Dear Evan Hansen gone"

That's a very mean-spirited thing to say."

I don’t intend it in a mean spirited way, I know people who work on the show who obviously I don’t want to see lose a job. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s a show I in many aspects detest and don’t think should have been allowed to been made in it’s current incarnation. Opinions may disagree with me which is fine, but I find it a sincerely harmful show in its depiction of mental health issues and how people with mental health issues behave. Some of the music is gorgeous, though.

[Luminaire2]

Posted: 5/7/22 at 2:01pm

We all know CFA deserved best musical that year… I hope it continues to shine on Broadway.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 5/7/22 at 2:16pm

Luminaire2 said: "We all know CFA deserved best musical that year… I hope it continues to shine on Broadway."

 

No we don't. But you're welcome to your own valid opinion!

I agree with your 2nd sentence, though!