Broadway Hits and Flops for 2008/2009 season

Variety did not publish their annual statistics on the Broadway season 2008/09.These are based on reports from Playbill.com. Shows that were undetermined as of the season's end but have since been declared are included.


The Hits: (Shows that recouped their investments):
THE SEAGULL
SPEED THE PLOW
ALL MY SONS
YOUâ??RE WELCOME AMERICA
BLITHE SPIRIT
GOD OF CARNAGE
WEST SIDE STORY (declared Sep 2009)
HAIR (declared Aug 2009)

Holdover shows from previous seasons now declared as having recouped:
BOEING-BOEING
GREASE
IN THE HEIGHTS

The Flops (Shows that closed without recouping):
[title of show]
A TALE OF TWO CITIES
EQUUS
13
AMERICAN BUFFALO
THE STORY OF MY LIFE
GUYS AND DOLLS
9 TO 5
DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS
THE NORMAN CONQUESTS
MARY STUART
REASONS TO BE PRETTY
IRENAâ??S VOW
EXIT THE KING
IMPRESSIONISM
33 VARIATIONS

Holdover shows that closed without recouping:
A CATERED AFFAIR
THE COUNTRY GIRL
CRY BABY
GYPSY
THE LITTLE MERMAID
NOVEMBER
PASSING STRANGE
THURGOOD
XANADU
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN

Shows whose status is not determined as yetâ?¦
THE 39 STEPS (commercial transfer)
BILLY ELLIOT
NEXT TO NORMAL
ROCK OF AGES
SHREK
IRVING BERLINâ??S WHITE CHRISTMAS (resuming November 2009)

-The next group of shows are nonprofit/miscellaneous and do not get classified:
WAITING FOR GODOT (Roundabout)
JOE TURNERâ??S COME AND GONE (Lincoln Center Theatre)
ACCENT ON YOUTH (Manhattan Theatre Club)
THE PHUILANTHROPIST (Roundabout)
HEDDA GABLER (Roundabout)
THE AMERICAN PLAN (Manhattan Theatre Club)
PAL JOEY (Roundabout)
DIVIDING THE ESTATE (Lincoln Center Theatre)
TO BE OR NOT TO BE (Manhattan Theatre Club)
SOUL OF SHAOLIN
SLAVAâ??S SNOWSHOE
LIZA AT THE PALACE

I thought I had missed the issue but when I was in NYC I checked at Lincoln Center library and discovered that there was no report published in Variety this year.

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Updated On: 10/14/09 at 03:48 PM

It was a limited engagement. I am not sure if the producers got concessions to run it under the "Limited Broadway" contract, but they had little hope for recouping within that short a time frame. By closing it had sold far fewer tickets than they had hoped.

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Updated On: 10/14/09 at 03:54 PM

So were SPEED-THE-PLOW, EQUUS, YOU'RE WELCOME AMERICA, and THE NORMAN CONQUESTS, but those are listed under Flops and Hits.

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You are correct. It was a commercial production, so I will move it to the Flops list.

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re: 39 STEPS

It should have recouped by now but there has been no official announcement.

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on the list of shows that means muiscal all but on get a cast cd made i thing cry baby should have made a cast cd

It's heartbreaking to me to have to admit that my beloved bryan is a mere sockpuppet after all. Et tu, bryan?

aw man, now I feel like a jerk. Sorry, Bryan. My sincere apologies.

Variety came up with the term, and it's the only objective way to measure these shows' success or failure.

The term has nothing to do with the quality of the show, and/or the critical reception. It just reflects how the show did business wise.

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Firstly can I say I am honoured to have you reply to my message. I am generally a lurker here and occasionally post when something bothers me enough. I always appreciate your posts, don't neccesarily agree but always appreciate your point of view.

Back to the subject, I understand that its just the business side but I imagine most of us here are not here to read about the business side of the shows we patronise. I can't remember the last time I went to a show and said "that was a fantastically managed financial production". Why don't we on here refer to them as critically a success or failure and forget the business side?

Am I looking too deep?

I understand the millions of dollar argument and thank heavens for those people who are business minded enough to put on these shows. But I'm sure they are not the majority of people on here, I'm pretty certain the majority o f people who post here are those like me that just enough going to see those shows, yet, they will call them hits and flops based on there financial success. Ah well... I'll go and enjoy listening to my 9 to 5 flop cd and go back to lurking!!!

But at the end of the day who really cares... Flop, hit... It's art. It's subjective. And your relationship to it is personal.

So what if your favorite show has been labeled a flop... or a hit? So what if it was a huge embarrassing failure for it's producers... or bought them all villas in France? So what if it only had four performances... or won't go away like Phantom? So what if every critic in the world thought it was garbage... or called it the next Showboat? All of these things don't matter.

The fact is, all live art is transient... the experience is fleeting and like I said before, personal. And it exists only in that moment YOU saw it live. Like the Buddhists say, a rose is beautiful BECAUSE it dies. That's what makes theater great! It dies!

Let's not get hung up on the label, flop or hit. Those two words should only matter to the small percentage of those who have a financial stake in the show... and even then I would argue that those people know what they are getting into when they invest or they would put their money in something far less risky.

I understand your point when you put art into a solely commercial context. MY point is that to Joe Message Board Poster the terms "flop" and "hit" should be irrelevant. Art is personal, commerce is collective. If you aren't making money off one of these shows then who cares? If you enjoyed them then they were successful... to you. There are many facts regarding the commerce of theater that are indisputable. But the fact that sits above all of them is that art is subjective and the theatrical experience is ephemeral. THAT is what makes it unique and special, and THAT is all the average theater goer or even obsessive broadway message board fan needs to really concern themselves with.