The State of Broadway

Andrew Lloyd Webber has released a statement in regards to Cats: The Jellicle Ball closing:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DaxlrZWDDHj/

So given that, what do you all think needs to happen? What do producers, theatre owners, and unions need to do, to save, nurture, and preserve broadways future?

It all comes down to cost’s. As for federal bailout, that’s not coming under this administration.

Are there any theater art fans among the new AI billionaire overlords? For them the cost of bailing Broadway and supporting theater in the long run would be like losing pocket change between the sofa cushions. Alas, one can hope.

I don't know much about the intricate workings at play here, but Broadway feels a little bit like a mafia.



A series of monopolies, forcing costs to be exorbitant.



Does anyone here have insight into this? Why does everyone use the same company to load up sets when a run closes? Is everyone using the same scene shop/set builders? Do producers really have a choice, or is it virtually impossible as things are to reduce costs?

EDSOSLO858 said: "This entire industry needs an overhaul, and not just from a monetary perspective.

Most likely our landlords simply get greedier, producers simply wring their hands, nothing is done, and all that we're left with are intimate plays and solo shows,a smaller handful of long-runners, and maybe the occasional musical if we're lucky.

Remember that Broadway is driven by ego and self-aggrandizement from the top down and has been for over a century."

Exactly and they refuse to adapt which is why other theatre institutions and individuals need to step up and take broadway's place. I believe we're about to see a theatrical revolution of small off broadway and regional theaters and theater companies both in NYC and across the country being the prime landscape of American theater. It's the reason why certain shows like Mexodus (which I think is one of the best and most important pieces of musical theatre out there right now) doing a regional theater tour instead of going on broadway.

At this point, I'm not really excited about anything coming to broadway this coming season (except for maybe Wanted Paddington and Warriors)

Updated On: 7/14/26 at 12:21 PM

BwayMusician said: "I really do believe the crux of blame lies on the theater owners in this regard. I frequently point to this Philip Boroff article, where he showed that in the flop of the 23-24 season, Jujamcyn came home with a pure profit of $34 million off a revenue of over $160 million. And they owned far less theaters than Shubert.

https://www.broadwayjournal.com/p/jujamcyn-profit-revealed-in-rare-disclosure

Can we say that any other cog in the industry is making that much? It's clear that landlords are bleeding the producers dry, and doing everything they can to shift the blame on to rising costs and unions. If anything, the League of Broadway Producers, 802, AITSE, and Equity, should band together and pressure the landlords to open their books. One player is taking a huge bite of the pie and has everyone from politicians to ALW talking about how unions need to tighten their belts."

Remember when we had the March on Broadway in five years ago? It now feels like those demands we fought for were for absolutely nothing now

I will not claim to know anything about prices and how much is needed to break even, running costs, etc. But how much do people realistically expect theater tickets to cost? Does anyone have a specific realistic number?

I also recently saw someone mentioned also how large the Broadway Houses are now as well. Is it sustainable to fill these many seats for such an extended period of time? I love the intimacy of theaters on the West End.

Does this leave an opening for another city to become the "new Broadway"? Or will off-broadway shows become the feasible route?

South Korea is / will be the new Broadway.

Bway is waaaay expensive and the landlords are greedy as greedy comes, but they shouldn’t take all the blame. I’m very pro union, but umm… have you seen the salaries of some of these Local 1 members??

I think several factors come to play. The cost of coming to the city is crazy. We would come 4 to 5 times per year for the past 20 years. This past year we have not come because hotels, flights, restaurants, and tickets are through the roof.

Also tours are going out so fast in the past few years that several friends have said that they don’t want to pay the expense of travel to the city to see a show when it will be in their town in the next 12 to 18 months. It just doesn’t seem that special to see a new show on Broadway when in 2 to 3 years a non-equity tour will be doing it Utica, NY.

Unfortunately with Broadway's state, it is a mix of a number of dire situations: 1) Affordability - I know people that would come to the city annually, and see 12-15 shows in 8-10 days, then their budget for shows would remain the same but they would only be able to see 4-5 now its 3-4. That as well as the overall increase in expense to spend a week or 10 days in the city between accommodations and food and everything has become so out of budget, that many are choosing Tennessee road trips, or European vacations for much the same budget.

2) What is being produced. I know that I have said this before on here to much ridicule, but a large portion of the "tourists" and visitors to the city are not enjoying the hyper-political topics, and ones that feel agenda driven or lecturing. In the "middle-America" areas people, want an enjoyable evening, some spectacle, something welcoming. A couple of friends of mine who are not on "budget" travel and would frequent 14 plus shows, this spring went and ended up seeing 5 shows (including 2 shows they had already seen before). There was nothing that really that was interesting, they were not one bit interested with the Cats revival. They also felt that what was being produced also just felt, meh. Revivals like Chess fell flat in many areas for them. They enjoyed Ragtime and loved Death of A Salesman. But I hear over and over from people that they with Broadway producers would put something on that a "middle-America" would enjoy - and no, they are not a simple group of people that will buy into a jukebox musical or thrown together revue of some singers life.

3) Safety - another topic that I have been ridiculed before about, but a lot of visitors, do not feel safe in the city. This has been increased in the last 5/6 years, but they don't and therefore many of them are choosing areas that are safer, and going to see some concerts or theatre while there.

4) The cost to produce on Broadway vs West End or Toronto has become insane. They need to deeply restructure their model, and I don't know if the easiest and quickest model is to have theatre owners more influencing what goes into the houses and what's created.

Theatrefanboy1, I would actually argue Broadway needs to focus on getting locals back in the theater. There has been more and more focus on tourists, but I think producers should be producing new interesting work that on paper might not appeal to the masses. That doesn’t mean liberal or conservative btw, but just something NEW. The best work in the last five years has come from new works by Michael R Jackson, Shaina Taub, Bess Wohl, Bruce Norris, Annie Baker, Tracy Letts, David Lindsay Abaire, Abe Koogler, Nazareth Hassan, Martyna Majok, David Ives, Jeremy O Harris. We have brilliant American playwrights that are not getting an ounce of the attention they deserve. No marketing, no buzz, the press barely talks about them. These writers create the type of thing that New Yorkers actually want to see. Broadway needs to get that audience back. We need strong producers who will actually command and demand attention and bring the people in. I wouldn’t go near musicals given how expensive they are and the quality of writing has not been up to snuff.