How much do the main leads of the top 2 shows in Broadway get?- Page 3

[sabrelady]

Posted: 3/11/06 at 8:17pm

And this is why their agents HATE when they do stage- the only way they justify it is as a career move that can give their client greater legitimacy as a muti facteted performer and that could bump their fee. Eventually.

[COOOOLkid]

Posted: 3/11/06 at 9:39pm

How much do lead performers get in a concert of a musical such as at Carnegie Hall and such?

[PB ENT.]

Posted: 3/11/06 at 11:09pm

Well, my money is on Margo's accuracies. Regarding perfomer concerts, it depends on which performer, of course, and the veunes budgets.

A space like Carnegie Hall would be a better paying gig than a smaller or less popular venue.

I would venture to price it out as follows:

1. A well known very popular non-Broadway celebrity $75,000- $100,000+ (1 night solo show).
2. A well known Broadway star recently or currently in a show $50,000 to $75,000 ( 1 night solo show)
3. A lesser known but popular Broadway star or non-Broadway celebrity $30,000- $50,000 ( 1 night solo show)

* this is not based on a "musical" in concert, but on a performer's individual concert show w/without his/her band.


OK...I'd better stop there. Yeah, I know this is vague and a bit crazy and not meant to start matching actors with numbers. (and I would never do so!) But this gives you an idea of what a venue sits down with when they put out a bid based on their budget. Presenters ask each other all the time what they paid for different performers.

Updated On: 3/11/06 at 11:09 PM

Posted: 3/28/06 at 12:56pm

An old topic, but I found this info in an old LJ entry of mine that puts some perspective on this:

From NewYorkPost.com:
"[Tonya]Pinkins did not say how much she wanted in the e-mail, but a production source said the figure she later told the producers was $25,000 a week.

That would put her on par with such other Broadway leading ladies as Donna Murphy, who is said to be making $15,000 a week in "Wonderful Town," and Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel, who are each pulling more than $20,000 a week in "Wicked."

[uncageg]

Posted: 3/28/06 at 1:20pm

"Menzel and Chenoweth are far from household names and are only famous to their obsessive teen fan base and to folks who read message boards. Mention either name to a random person on the street (somewhere other than in the Broadway district) and you'll get a lot of blank stares."

Not trying to get anything started here, but Margo, I am not a rabid teen fan of Wicked and I knew of Chenoweth and Menzel before reading the boards. As you know I live in Denver and a number of people my age (40...something!) and people around my age here know who they are and don't read the boards, live in New York and are far from being in their teens. They may not be household names but many people who just like theatre in general know who they are. JMO

Updated On: 3/28/06 at 01:20 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/28/06 at 1:20pm

Further evidence of why you should NEVER rely on Michael Riedel and The Post for these sorts of things. He's not a reporter and never asks for corroborating evidence (as real journalists do) and simply prints rumors -- half of which he overhears having drinks at Angus McIndoe's.

Incidentally, Pinkins ended up making $1,900/week plus perks like limo service and the producers picked up the tab on her apartment. But, he never printed that because that number isn't as juicy as the ones he makes up.

Updated On: 3/28/06 at 01:20 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/28/06 at 1:53pm

uncageg, you and your friends are part of a tiny fraction of people in this country who follow theatre (obsessively in your case given your frequent posting on BWW) and you don't in any way represent mainstream tastes and knowledge (I don't mean that in any way as a criticism). I'd wager that Chenoweth and Menzel are unknown to 98% of the general public. If you've never starred in a film that was a box office hit or on a tv show or had a song in the top 40, then you are NOT part of mainstream pop culture and not famous enough to demand a high salary.

Look at the Tony ratings year after year. Barely 6 million people in a country of 300 million ever watch or care about them. And for all the hoopla over Wicked in the little worlds of BWW, ATC and teenage girls out there, fewer than a million people ever got to see either Chenoweth or Menzel in the year+ they were in the show -- there's only so many people who can fit in the Gershwin. More people saw the Larry The Cable Guy movie last weekend (which wasn't even a hit, finishing 7th at the box office) than saw Wicked in its entire first year.

My point is that with such incredibly limited mainstream popularity (which is the case with every stage actor who doesn't have at least some exposure in tv & film), they are not big box office and thus cannot command $25,000 salaries. The people who are are at least "mini" stars that even the folks from Nebraska (tourists make up 70+% of broadway ticket buyers) recognize immediately and are willing to shell out $110 a piece for their family of 4 to see, so they can go back and tell their neighbors that they saw _______ (Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Nathan Lane, etc...). Very few people (who don't regularly follow theatre) are willing to pay $110 JUST to see Menzel or Chenoweth and the producers of WICKED knew that and that their show was the star, not the two of them and so they paid them accordingly -- a handsome sum for stagework, but not one on a par with those actors who are true box office draws.

Updated On: 3/28/06 at 01:53 PM

[Calvin]

Posted: 3/28/06 at 1:58pm

Yup. Even the stage actors who have had success in those big box office stuff fall into that category. I mentioned something about Rosemary Harris to some coworkers the other day and got a "Who?" in return. I said: "She was the old lady in Spiderman" and then they knew who she was.

Side note -- Larry the Cable Guy wasn't a hit? My faith in
"mainstream" America just moved up a notch.

[uncageg]

Posted: 3/28/06 at 2:08pm

Margo, I would not call myself obsessive. I just really enjoy the theatre and like to keep abreast of what's going on. I am also involved in the theatre here in Denver. Frequent posting does not make me obsessive. Maybe it makes you obsessive.

I would say my friends are all across the board and some represent mainstream tastes and knowledge along with the same tastes I do (I actually took your comment as a compliment!) I was just saying that not only the people you described are people who know Chenoweth and Menzel. numbers aside. And I agree they are not household names.

Updated On: 3/31/06 at 02:08 PM

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 3/28/06 at 2:29pm

Why doesn't everyone on this thread, who wants to know how much money the performers make, tell us all how much you make at your jobs?

Frankly, I was always taught that you don't ask how much someone makes, it's rude.

[inlovewithjerryherman]

Posted: 3/28/06 at 2:59pm

I find all this salary chat very interesting. It makes me very curious about shows like the new Doyle revivals of "Sweeney..." and "Company", or the Mendes revival of "Cabaret" and how much an actor makes when they have to double all those instruments, i'll bet they don't get paid a musician's salary on top of what they're making.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/28/06 at 3:13pm

In the case of Sweeney, no, the actors are not making two salaries. The producers compared the Equity minimum to the Musician's union rate for each performer and are simply paying the higher salary between the two (the musician one is generally higher because you receive bonuses for every extra instrument that you play).

The ensemble in Cabaret, I think were just paid the musician's union minimum since they functioned more as the orchestra than as actual (speaking) characters in the show.

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 3/28/06 at 3:21pm

a certain norma desmond - not glenn -- made 40k a week plus perks. (car, massages,etc) and that was 10 years ago.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/28/06 at 5:47pm

Plus a cut of the b.o. - bringing that figure to $55,000 some weeks.

[bially082]

Posted: 3/28/06 at 6:24pm

And who was that?

[TonyaFanatic]

Posted: 6/29/06 at 4:35pm

Oscar Nominee Diahann Carroll of course

[Pippin]

Posted: 7/3/06 at 1:30am

I think my earlier post was on page 2. presently, both witches get paid 7k a week.

at the start of Wicked, Idina got 7k and cheno got 10k.
after the tonys, cheno stayed at ten, and idina more than doubled up to 15k.

[NY212]

Posted: 7/3/06 at 3:27am

$2.75 a week. That's all anyone on broadway makes. $2.75

[Joshua488]

Posted: 7/3/06 at 4:19am

Does anyone else find it a little disturbing that people on here know such personal information as someone's salary?

[Bohoboy]

Posted: 7/3/06 at 4:21am

The people who know the actual salaries of the people mentioned on this board would not post it on this board.

[Pippin]

Posted: 7/3/06 at 12:15pm

yes I would.

[QOM]

Posted: 7/4/06 at 11:13am

I don't think it's disturbing...you hear all the time how much so&so movie star made for this film or that film. What IS disturbing is the disparity in show business salaries. If you compare actors' salaries on tv shows or in films to Broadway actors', it is a disgrace.

I have a family member who once was on a tv show on some cable channel that I had never watched before. He was hired as an original cast member and without even knowing if the show would take-off, his salary was enormous and he did not have to work anywhere near as hard as people on broadway do (and he'd be the first to admit that). I remember that he wasn't sure if he wanted to do the show at first but he said the money was so ridiculously good that even trying it for a little while would be worth it.

I think this is a very interesting thread. I've sometimes wondereded about shows like Spelling Bee...are they all considered leads or ensemble (and paid accordingly)? I guess that Dan Fogler got paid more after the Tony, but I really see the entire cast as having equal importance, which is rare, I suppose.

[QOM]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 6:14pm

I've also wondered how understudies salaries compare.

[Bret]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 6:42pm

If I am not mistaken, understudies get paid the normal chorus rate, plus a bonus of 1/8 of their weekly salary for each performance they go on as the role they understudy. So basically, they get payed double for the performance. Perchance Margo or somebody else could answer my questions- How much does the average standby make? What about an alternate(such as in Phantom)?

[OnMyWay]

Posted: 7/5/06 at 7:01pm

I was under the impression that the performers from Sweeney are payed both the musician and the actor salary. And they get all of the added bonus stuff for extra instruments.