The bad reviews and Tony snubbing seem to have dampened Finding Neverland momentum a bit but they are still doing great, grossing over a million. Since its numbers spiked over the spring break period I think that it should do well after the schools closes for the summer next month.

"Gigi is not doing THAT bad, and maybe the fact that Vanessa won the broadway.com awards for breakthrough performance of the year by a female will boost their numbers a bit."

LOL

Updated On: 5/12/15 at 03:02 AM

There is no denying that it's a very hot ticket right now but yes, I do not believe it raises much attention or praise simply because they're a subscriber house. They have a built-in audience, along with extremely generous supporters/benefactors, so it should be making those numbers. That is expected.

True, very true. I guess once again LCT and Bartlett Sher have struck gold for the second time in a row. But it's cool that when November comes around this year, Sher will have two revivals running at the same time on Broadway: THE KING AND I and FIDDLER ON THE ROOF.

Not saying this is what happening but can producers of musicals not "fudge" their numbers to make them look better than they actually are? I know movie studios do that quite often.

"A few passing comments:
1. Percentage of gross is an almost irrelevant metric to anyone except the landlord. The only meaningful metric for this discussion is the one that's not officially reported: the ratio of the grosses to the weekly expenses.
2. From what we know or can reasonably guess, Shoulda is doing semi-ok (at or not far from its nut, though certainly not raking in the dough), Gigi is drowning in red ink as is The Visit, with On the Town bad but not quite as bad.
3. The only way Harvey can cook the books would be by buying tickets. He has no control over or access to the selling of tickets. And while it might have been plausible that he bought tickets very early on to prop up sales, it is beyond belief that he still is in any significant way. First, it would make no sense. Second, it would require that he give those tickets away to seat fillers. Third, the idea that he is using a massive number of seat fillers without a single person here knowing about it is ridiculous."

I'm guessing a musical like Finding Neverland has a break even point of , say, 500-600 thousand a week? Just a guess, but Im thinking half a million at the minimum.

Anything under 550k/650k for most of those musicals is a loss. They can also see their future sales so short of an impossible upset I don't see any of them going far into the summer.

I don't know, I think It Shoulda Been You may make it through the summer, I mean it has a pretty small cast and orchestra. The costumes aren't over the top and extravagant and it seems to be one set so they probably don't require much tech. Along with the fact that the show is only 100 minutes long. The nut for the show can't be that big. I could see the show lasting through the summer if not the holidays.

"Along with the fact that the show is only 100 minutes long."

I forgot that shows have a per minute budget adjustment. Shoulda has two more cast members than Gentleman which also had a single set of sorts and Gentleman had no stars. It was published that Gentleman started with a $600k a week nut to crack and then later in the winter months scaled that back a bit. Even if Shoulda is only loosing $200k a week vs The Visit's possible $400k and On The Town's $100k a week loss ( and I think I think I am being conservative) why would anyone purposely continue to run past winning no trophies in award season?

Wayman, although I obviously agree that the books are not being "cooked," I'm surprised you'd give credence to Riedel as any sort of validation of that fact, especially in light of the number of typical Riedel mangling in his article.

In the years since Cohen's quote, as an example, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. It's no longer an issue of lying to Variety; falsifying grosses is a lie to everyone who is paid based on grosses, and to every investor. And those lies are fraud, for which you go to jail.

It Shoulda Been You - despite that awful grammatical incorrect name - will do very well in regional houses. It will make its money from regional dinner theaters. No shame. It's not doing great on Broadway because it's just not relevant.

I have to disagree. I don't think relevance is the problem here; when is a comedic family-rivalry wedding story NOT relevant? It has the cast, the director, and all the right assets, but the sour taste from the engagement a few years back out of town, the lack of award-nominations and the already crowded season made for a tough sell here. The critics didn't even slash this as harshly as some would expect, because overall it's a carefree, enjoyable night at the theater. Their problems lie elsewhere.

That being said, I've also heard on good authority that they are doing fairly well for all things considered above. Their weekly nut is low enough to keep them afloat into summer, and as for what I'm told, that is their plan.

Clyde: that's a pretty smart idea - especially with this cast! But do limited engagement musicals exist? I just figure with the budget it takes to get them up something like that wouldn't make financial sense or allow any guarantee to make a return.

Updated On: 5/13/15 at 12:56 AM

While they were advertised as such, I am under the impression that all three had plans and intentions to either extend or become open ended. The difference between King & I/Newsies and Bring It On is that Bring It On had started their run with the announcement that it was a sit down in NY before bringing the tour back out (which it never did, did it?) and wasn't doing well enough financially (the massive St. James did not help) to become open-ended. The other two had open-ended runs on their sights for quite some time before they even started, I'd be willing to bet.