My wife wants to know.

[HBBrock]

Posted: 9/25/08 at 12:35am

We were talking about Broadway shows closing and why they are closing, and I was explaining that each show has a different weekly nut and has to be making a certain amount of money to keep it going.....does "nut" stand for something or is that the official word?
Updated On: 9/25/08 at 12:35 AM

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 9/25/08 at 12:39am

The word is "net" and it means net-sales. That means the total cost of all of the tickets sold for a particular show a particular week. When you subtract the show's running costs, you get the net-profit. Generally, if a show is making a decent net-profit and has returned or is on the track for returning it's initial investment, it will not close.

[HBBrock]

Posted: 9/25/08 at 12:43am

So how did it get known as "nut"?

[Luckydave14]

Posted: 9/25/08 at 12:43am

People usually refer to the running costs as the "nut."

[Anakela]

Posted: 9/25/08 at 12:43am

The reason for the word "nut" that I learned (and actually- I've always wondered if this was getting into urban legend territory, so please feel free to correct me :)) is that it goes back to shows that would travel from town to town via wagon, and the nuts would be taken off the wagon wheels by venue owners, so that the show could not travel to the next town, until all expenses were paid up, and the nuts returned, thus making the "nut."

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 9/25/08 at 12:45am

Lol I always assumed the word "nut" was a typo