Pllaybill.com grosses

[Poppy]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 4:43pm

are up. Lots of downers during the week. Little Shop down 20.5 %. How long can it go on?

[mominator]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 4:46pm

Yikes that hurts! So much for stunt casting!

Updated On: 7/7/04 at 04:46 PM

[J.]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 4:47pm

I love Little Shop but how the hell is it still playing with those results?? Does anyone know seriously?

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 4:53pm

It's not going to last out the summer, unfortunately. The numbers have been low for a while.

[BroadwayBound06]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 4:58pm

Assassins' attendence has been in the 90's for a while, why is it closing? AHHHHHH

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 4:58pm

Two words for assassins. LIMITED. ENGAGEMENT.

[BroadwayDiva]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 5:13pm

But wasn't Cabaret also a limited engagement? That ran for awhile!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 5:33pm

But when Cabaret was about to shift from Roundabout's LORT contract to the standard Broadway Production Contract (a substantial increase in weekly running costs) it had an advance of over a million dollars, so it made sense for Roundabout to continue on with the show in an open ended run. It was reported that "Assassins" has an advance of $90,000, so once all the subscribers have seen the show (which is very soon -- the reason grosses look so high is that Roundabout has something like 50,000 subscribers), weekly grosses will drop substantially and the show would start losing money. Single ticket sales have been extremely weak, so Roundabout, being a not-for-profit not willing to sustain huge losses, is doing the financially prudent thing and closing the show.

[BroadwayDiva]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 5:35pm

Thanks Margo! That made sense. I see why ASSASSINS is closing, but I just don't want it to!

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 5:37pm

exactly Margo. Thanks a bunch for your post.. and all of your other posts as well

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 5:43pm

I understand. A show about a bunch of presidential assassins is apparently just not a big seller with the out of town tourist market, no matter how many Tonys it wins. We have to be grateful that Roundabout and The Public and other not-for-profits are willing to take the risk in mounting challenging, non-commercial shows, even for a limited time. It's just too bad that the general public seems unwilling to support anything that's not light, "feel good" entertainment.

[Plum]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 5:44pm

So the near-capacity houses...weren't?

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 5:47pm

they were more of the city, usual Roundabout crowd and not the tourist crowd.

I hold a place in my heart for both the heavy, challenging shows AND the fun shows.. the classically scored shows AND the more pop scored shows..... a person needs a balance. One of the things I love aout being an actor is the wide variety of shows and roles that I have the chance to take on

[J.]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 5:55pm

does anyone know why it took an extra 2 days for playbill to publish this weeks results?

[magruder]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 5:57pm

July 4th holiday - Variety didn't have their grosses story in until today either, and it usually runs on Tuesdays.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 5:57pm

Plum--

Not exactly. A large chunk of those were heavily discounted subscriber seats (when I subscribed there a few seasons ago, my membership fee worked out to something like $40 per show). So yes, attendance is near capacity, but only a relatively small percentage of those people paid full price for those seats. Look at the average ticket price for last week -- $59.56, even though the vast majority of seats in the theatre go for $91.25 at the box office. Compare that to BFO ($85.60), Mamma Mia ($83.36), Wicked ($80.57) or Hairspray ($79.30). $59.56 means a LOT of people saw that show at a very steep discount.

Updated On: 7/7/04 at 05:57 PM

[J.]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 6:01pm

Margo makes a good point as usual. Attendance is not everything. They could have all gone to TKTS, TDF, rush, or subscriptions and then where's the $$?

[mominator]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 6:10pm

Speaking as an "out of towner" I and my husband loved Assassins!
WE were lucky enough to have great seats in the front Mezz. opening week. I am just bummed that we didn't get a second go around with this one.
B

[testing123]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 6:12pm

Margo,

Your post about light-hearted, feel-good entertainment is right on ! Makes me think of my experience at "CoC" today... Two older women, unfortunately, sitting close to me, decided to talk the entire show, voicing their displeasure for everyone to hear. At one point, one of them said... "why do they have to sing all of the words"..

I felt like putting them in a cab and sending them to see "42nd Street" !!!

[Plum]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 7:17pm

"Why do they have to sing all the words?"

*cries*

I am so making my kids listen to opera...

And thanks for the full explanation, Margo. I was wondering about those average ticket prices.

[localonecrew]

Posted: 7/7/04 at 7:32pm

little shop was over 400,000 the week before. its numbers last week reflect what is always a bad week, the 4 th of july. even still, the show made its nut.