Who are seeing all these shows?

[jsand25]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 8:44pm

Who exactly are going to see all of these broadway shows? Did you see the grosses for last week? A record! Seriously, over the past few weeks there have been all of these new shows, yet they continue to get at least 80% attendance. How long can this continue?

[Carrie White]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 8:47pm

Me

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 8:53pm

I am.

So far this year, I've seen:
Lestat
Festen
Three Days of Rain
The Drowsy Chaperone
The Pajama Game
The Odd Couple
The Threepenny Opera
Tarzan
Barefoot in the Park
Sweeney Todd
Ring of Fire
Doubt
Well
Awake and Sing

and I'll be seeing History Boys, Lt. of Inishmore, Wedding Singer, and Caine Mutiny before May 10.

I've seen everything. Updated On: 4/25/06 at 08:53 PM

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 9:02pm

WickedGeek is!

[All_For_Laura]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 9:04pm

who exactly *is* going.

Sorry I had to make that grammatical change.

And yes, I am going to all these shows! :-p

[C is for Company]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 9:11pm

Chita River: The Dancer's Life
Sweeney Todd
The Woman in White
Wicked
Spamalot
The Woman in White
Chicago
Sweeney Todd
Chicago
Bernarda Alba
Lestat
The Drowsy Chaperone
The Drowsy Chaperone are the shows I've seen this year

Hooray for supporting Broadway

Updated On: 4/25/06 at 09:11 PM

[meggsison]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 9:31pm

I don't know, Kevo and I are seeing Tarzan in June.

[popular_elphie]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 9:48pm

The grammar is killing me here. Who is, not who are.

It's tourists, Broadway obsessors like us, and locals who want something to do. Some colleges are even getting out now, so people are going to the city.

[jsand25]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 9:51pm

I apologize for the grammatical error, its been a long day! But its not just us broadway groupies going to see all of these shows. There are some expensive seats being purchased!

[Come Back to Me]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 10:02pm

I've seen:

Altar Boyz
Bernarda Alba
The Color Purple
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Festen
Jersey Boys
Sweeney Todd
The Threepenny Opera

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 10:12pm

I think two factors are contributing to this semi- phenomenon:
1. Increasing presence of mainstream personalities, talents, and titles on Broadway (from Julia Roberts to Elton John to Wedding Singer)
2. Long- running name- recognizable commodities (most of which have penetrated mainstream culture due to movie adaptation) like Phantom, Lion King, Rent, Mamma Mia, etc...

[OOTI2004]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 10:23pm

I hope it keeps up. I was so happy to see so many of the shows doing well, except for some. I think its great that so many people are supporting Broadway.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 10:31pm

It really isn't much of a phenomenon. Attendance isn't up significantly (and in fact is lower than it was a few years ago). Ticket prices (especially premium ticket prices) are causing the record grosses and giving the appearance that Broadway is booming. The same number of people are coming as have in the last couple of years, only they're paying $111 (or $250 for premium seats) for shows that cost $95 just a few years ago. Not to mention, April is when the tourists start coming back which is why numbers are up from a couple of months ago (February is always a struggle). There are really no surprises here.

[Vespertine1228]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 10:55pm

So far this year I've seen 10 Broadway shows. They are:

Sweeney Todd
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life
The Woman in White
Bridge & Tunnel (twice)
Barefoot in the Park
Rent
Rabbit Hole
Well
The Odd Couple

Big plans for the upcoming weeks as well. I'm seeing The History Boys, Festen, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Color Purple, Hot Feet, and Ring of Fire for sure. (Don't worry, I got tickets through a friend for the final two for free.) A part of me also wants to see Lestat just to see what everyone's talking about.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:09pm

The total number of seats available per year is 18,500.

43.3 million people will visit New York this year. If only a 30 percentage see shows (and who doesn't want to see a show?) coupled with the local business, the theaters are filled. It's an amazing statistic.

Then, of course, there seems to be a few people on this site who account for 10% of the seats sold themselves....

Updated On: 4/25/06 at 11:09 PM

[jsand25]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:16pm

I disagree Margo, look at how many shows are currently out there and how each one of them is filling every night. Last year there were not this many shows, just look at the shows that have opened recently, Tarzan-100%, Color Purple 98%, Drowsy Chap- 82%, ThreePenny-83%, Wedding Singer- 76%, Lestat 85%. And the existing shows are still pulling in huge numbers! Dont ask me why people go see shows like Phantom and Mamma Mia instead of good ones though...I know- Japanese tourists...

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:41pm

You're talking about ONE WEEK. Look at the numbers for those same shows a month and a half ago. You have to understand these patterns over the course of years. EVERY April and May the box office improves -- tons of shows open to make the Tony deadline (14 shows will or have opened this year between March 30th and May 10th), there's lots of press, the weather improves, the locals realize its time to catch up on the shows they missed during the winter, the tourists return (bumping up the business for the long-running shows), there's Spring Break and Easter Holidays and Memorial Day....... You could go back decades -- and I've been folllowing Broadway for over 30 years -- and see that exact same pattern year after year for this time of the year. This ALWAYS happens. Making some grand pronouncement about how we're in some sort of golden age is just not the case.

Attendance is roughly the same as it was for this time of the year last year and the year before and the year before, and overall attendance is actuually lower than it was prior to 9/11 5 years ago. Box office is growing from those dark days, but it still isn't anywhere near what it was around 1997.

Updated On: 4/25/06 at 11:41 PM

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:50pm

"The total number of seats available per year is 18,500."

Is that a typo? Because that's not even possible...

[FeelingElectric]

Posted: 4/26/06 at 7:46am

What I have Seen this year

Broadway:
Chicago
The Odd Couple
Wicked x2
Sweeney Todd
Ring Of Fire (I admit it!)

Off Broadway:

Dog Sees God
Grey Gardens

And I have Tickets to:

The Threepenny Opera (Tommorrow)
Landscape Of The Body (Next Thursday)
The Wedding Singer (May 1

And in June:

Jersey Boys
The History Boys
Faith healer
Three Days of Rain
The Drowsy Chaperone
Avenue Q
Awake And Sing!

So I am one of the people seeing all these shows, and I don't plan on stopping until I see them all!

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 4/26/06 at 8:06am

Will you kids please spare us the "So far this year I've seen these shows" lists? Just a tad obnoxious.

[Katurian2]

Posted: 4/26/06 at 9:56am

lol- Nice request Foster! I'll say that my school is though! They recently sent half of our student body across the country to NYC to see a few shows.

[Princeton78]

Posted: 4/26/06 at 10:14am

I'd just like to congratulate Jersey Boys on making over 1 million dollars last week. Yaay!

[GoSmileLaughCryClap]

Posted: 4/26/06 at 10:20am

This was a very good week, and significantly better than the equivalent a year ago. Last year 2 shows went clean, while this year 7 achieved capacity. Last year 6 were over 90% and this year 11.

Margo's right in terms of historic trends in attendance from year to year, and season to season. But it was an exceptionaly strong week.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/26/06 at 10:24am

The "record break" in question seems to be in dollars not in percentages, which is what Margo is saying. It's only because they are charging more that they can report "records" being broken.

It's the same thing in the movie industry... Attendance for films continues to decline each year (thanks to home video), but the industry keeps talking in terms of dollars and records being broken because the price of tickets continues to rise (quite a bit) every year. It's not a reflection of how many seats are being filled anywhere.

This is "Marketing's" little fake dance, and it's been going on forever.

EDIT: And I believe the correct way to say it is, "Who BE seeing all these shows?"

Updated On: 4/26/06 at 10:24 AM

[JustChillin8908]

Posted: 4/26/06 at 10:27am

"Dont ask me why people go see shows like Phantom and Mamma Mia instead of good ones though...I know- Japanese tourists..."

Please remember some people actually like those shows, and that statement is just a tad bit racist.