Broadway lost six productions on Jan. 15 — including the top-grossing one The music man — until the usual thinning of schedules in January, and every show went out merrily with a high turnout.
With 29 productions on the shelves, Broadway grossed $33,859,988 for the week ending January 15, down about 9% from the previous week, when it reported 32 productions. The total attendance was 247,667, a drop of 10% commensurate with the lesser number of shows. The overall capacity percentage remained at approximately 93%.
Each of the last week’s six shows filled at least 90% of the seats in their venues, and all reported a significant increase in box office dollars from the previous week. A strange loopfor example, set a new house record at the Lyceum, beating (by eight performances) the 2020 record of Jack Thorne’s A Christmas carol (and that was for nine performances).
The music man, meanwhile set previous records of 8 shows in 53 of 54 performance weeks and the record of 9 shows 51 times. The production broke its own house record 10 times during its run and routinely sold out with some of the highest ticket prices on Broadway. Last week’s average Music man ticket price was a grand $288.73, surpassing second place Funny girl and Hamilton with a healthy margin.
(All house records are, of course, at least in part due to year-over-year price increases).
The six shows that played in recent weeks were:
- A strange loopgrossing $955,591 (up from $461,485) and filling 99.31% of seats;
- Death of a salesman$914,407 (+$197,794), 97.56%
- Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool$762,803 (+$109,129), 97.43%;
- Murders in the state of Ohio$641,977 (+$280,735), 93.50%;
- The music man$3,589,149 (+$442,985), 101.89%
- Top Dog/Under Dog$572,922 (+$171,867), 93.03%
New in the selection was Photos from home with Nathan Lane, Danny Burstein and Zoë Wanamaker. Playing four previews at Studio 54, the piece cost $283,572, accounting for 93% of the seats. Opening night is February 9.
Fills only about 75% of the seats in the Shubert, Some love it when it’s hot didn’t get above 90%+ of most other shows last week. The musical grossed $921,894. The collaboration had about 83% capacity at the Manhattan Theater Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theater, grossing $351,840 and earning its third and final one-week renewal (the play now runs through Saturday, February 11).
Season to date, Broadway has grossed $1,036,878,642, with a total attendance of 7,967,176 at approximately 87% capacity.
All numbers courtesy of The Broadway League. For the full box office list, visit the League’s website.
