Posted: 8/17/23 at 5:51pm
JoeW4 said: "People keep citingthe Booth’s small capacity as the reason for its low grosses, but I don’t think that’s the case.
First off, it’s not hitting 100% capacity each week. Meaning that, even with its small number of seats, the supply is still higher than the demand. No prospective ticket-buyer is getting shut out; 5,037wanted to see Kimberly Akimbo last week, and that’s how many people saw it. Theoretically, it would still be 5,037 people if the show were in the Gershwin. If anything, the intimacy might be a selling point that the Gershwin wouldn’t have.
Secondly, if you look at something like Hadestown as a point of comparison; another Best Musical winner that was in a small house, and kind of off-beat (not the sort of show that tourists would automatically flock to without a Best Musical win and strong word of mouth).After their Tony win, Hadestown was making 2-3 times the money than Kimberly is making, in a house that’s only about 200 seats larger."
I think Kimberly is an even tougher sell to a tourist than Hadestown, Fun Home. First, the name makes you go "wait what?" and then any imagery from the show is an older woman with teenagers. It's a very weird show. So it was always going to be an uphill battle to convince people to go check this show out. It didn't really have any built-in word of mouth. It's not the show that's going to appeal to a Bridge and Tunnel crowd, or a girl's night out kind of crowd. Honestly, I'm not sure who their audience is? When I saw it - it was sold out - but the audience was all over age wise, which I guess is a good thing.
