Broadway Grosses: Week Ending 9/1/24

Good bump for most shows for the holiday weekend. Questionable start for The Roommate though, and let’s see how much of a drop Water for Elephants experiences sans Gustin.

What's next at the Music Box?

The Outsiders, with the top average ticket price this week, is succeeding beyond all my expectations, and I love that. What do you think is driving its success compared to Kimberly Akimbo and A Strange Loop, the two previous Best Musical winners?

I suspect the familiarity of the title has a lot to do with it. In saying that, I don't mean to question the show's quality at all, but The Outsiders is vastly outperforming its two equally esteemed predecessors. What are your thoughts?

kdogg36 said: "The Outsiders, with the top average ticket price this week, is succeeding beyond all my expectations, and I love that. What do you think is driving its success compared toKimberly AkimboandA Strange Loop, the two previous Best Musical winners?

I suspect the familiarity of the title has a lot to do with it. In saying that, I don't mean to questionthe show's quality at all, but The Outsiders isvastly outperforming its two equally esteemedpredecessors.What are your thoughts?"

Many kids in high school are seeing it as individuals or in groups. I have had 5 different parents call me to get tickets for them to take their teenagers. We are going back for a 3rd time and taking a 20 year old who is dying to see it.

kdogg36 said: "The Outsiders, with the top average ticket price this week, is succeeding beyond all my expectations, and I love that. What do you think is driving its success compared to Kimberly Akimbo and A Strange Loop, the two previous Best Musical winners?

I suspect the familiarity of the title has a lot to do with it. In saying that, I don't mean to question the show's quality at all, but The Outsiders is vastly outperforming its two equally esteemed predecessors.What are your thoughts?"

I think a lot of it has to do with the appeal of the show--it's a known title which does help, but because it's taught in a lot of schools that means it's something that becomes a little bit more of a family show, or at least one that would appeal to both teenagers and adults. And it also deals with the idea of family, social structures, wealth disparity, etc, which are all things that are more broadly relevant.

A Strange Loop in particular would always have a somewhat niche audience due to some of the scenes which can be fairly explicit, and some of the topics which certainly stirred up pearl-clutchers, and was generally somewhat esoteric in the sense that it didn't have a traditional plot etc. Kimberly Akimbo also just felt a little more like an off beat "small" musical, which while interesting to theater folk, didn't really have any "must see" moment that could be marketed (like the rumble in Outsiders) or just the kind of musical song and dance style that people might expect when they think of a Broadway musical. While it was heavily lauded in theater circles, I didn't really hear anyone casually bringing it up or urging people to go outside of those circles.

Did Hell's Kitchen not sell SRO this week? I nice, even 100% capacity.

As far as "IP" goes, OUTSIDERS has about the same level of recognition as BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY and TUCK EVERLASTING. It built word of mouth because it is genuinely good, and it has a sellable production: a show that looks expensive and interesting and is really inventive in its direction and choreography. Similar to HADESTOWN and ONCE and AN AMERICAN IN PARIS and MATILDA and SPRING AWAKENING (some of those not comparable by IP name value obviously, but the production values became sales assets).

Updated On: 9/3/24 at 07:56 PM

When you have two shows with somewhat middling written material, the one with the better production surrounding it wins. And that was OUTSIDERS.

A "preachy" Tony campaign probably would have lost SUFFS even more votes, and a campaign that was too progressive might have turned off some of the more moderate-to-conservative voters and ticket-buyers.

Would love to know how close SUFFS and OUTSIDERS were...bet it was close.

It's a flaw of the business model that a small show basically must win Best Musical to have any shot at success, but that's the world we live in and as long as the running costs and production costs are this high it won't change.

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "As far as "IP" goes, OUTSIDERS hasabout the same level of recognition as BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY andTUCK EVERLASTING. It built word of mouth because it is genuinely good, and it has asellable production: a show that looks expensive and interesting and is really inventive in its direction and choreography. Similar to HADESTOWN and ONCE and AN AMERICAN IN PARIS and MATILDA and SPRING AWAKENING (some of those not comparable by IP name value obviously, but the production values becamesales assets)."

The Outsiders as IP is WAY more well known than Bridges. Not even close. Maybe a little closer for Tuck but still I would say The Outsiders has much more of a lasting cultural impact than Tuck.

As far as "IP" goes, OUTSIDERS has about the same level of recognition as BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY and TUCK EVERLASTING.

Yeah no.

For somebody who repeatedly has said that the Tonys are a sham and don't matter, you sure do fixate on them a lot.

"Lots of people" thought Suffs was mediocre. And "lots of people" really liked Outsiders.

Updated On: 9/3/24 at 08:38 PM

Mr. Wormwood said: "kdogg36 said: "The Outsiders, with the top average ticket price this week, is succeeding beyond all my expectations, and I love that. What do you think is driving its success compared toKimberly AkimboandA Strange Loop, the two previous Best Musical winners?

I suspect the familiarity of the title has a lot to do with it. In saying that, I don't mean to questionthe show's quality at all, but The Outsiders isvastly outperforming its two equally esteemedpredecessors.What are your thoughts?"

I think there's fourtypes of Tony winners (I'm just using back to 2011 for examples but it could go back further):

1. The little, somewhat niche showthat is critically beloved and wins the Tony. Its life gets prolonged to one degree or another, but only so far because it was never going to be a massive hit even with the Tony win (Fun Home, Gentlemen's Guide, The Band's Visit, A Strange Loop, Kimberly Akimbo, Once)

2. A musical that could have gone either way early on buthas already captured the zeitgeist and is on the ascent by the time the Tony win happens. Then the Tony win just confirms the ascent and catapults it into the stratosphere for awhile (Kinky Boots, Dear Evan Hansen, Hadestown)

3. The major IP property that is already well known because of its title but the Tony win cements it as an acclaimed show too so it ascends to the stratosphere for awhile because its pairing a well known property with a Tony win (Moulin Rouge, The Outsiders).

4. The unstoppable juggernaut that is just a straight up massive hit with no caveats and is destined to win the Tony months ahead of time (The Book of Mormon, Hamilton)"

I agree but also keep in mind the Tonys is a competition and there’s only 1 winner for Best Musical. Thus it also depends which other musicals gets nominated that year. In some years like 2004 the competition is fierce. I bet if WICKED or MATILDA or COME FROM AWAY were in another season it would have won Best Musical. If we didn’t have the pandemic, then Moulin Rouge would have had more competition.