Producer Scott Rudin‘s big gamble — moving Tony winner The Humans from the intimate Helen Hayes to the larger Gerald Schoenfeld — kicked off on a high note with its first $600K week since opening last spring. The Stephen Karam drama, with more
Tony Awards than stars, posted sales of $603.8K when the number of seats available per performance bumped to 1,035 from 600. That was 62 percent of gross potential, with just over 87 percent of the seats at the Shubert Organization’s theater filled — no small feat during tourist season.
Andrew Lloyd Webber had a comely week with his trio of musicals: Cats gained $26K to reach $1.11 million at the Nederlander Organization’s Neil Simon; School of Rock fell $50K at the Shuberts’ Winter Garden but still surpassed the million-dollar mark, while the sturdy Phantom of the Opera, at the Shuberts’ Majestic, fell just shy of that gateway while filling 85 percent of the 1,605-seat house after 11,878 performances.
Disney Co.’s pair — Aladdin, at the flagship New Amsterdam) and The Lion King, at the Nederlanders’ Minskoff — tallied $1.7 million and $2.2 million, respectively. Most of the big musicals showed well, including Wicked ($1.8 million at the Nederlanders’ Gershwin), Waitress ($990K at the Nederlanders’ Brooks Atkinson), The Book of Mormon (at Jujamcyn’s Eugene O’Neill), Les Miserables ($1 million at the Shuberts’ Imperial) and, of course, Hamilton ($2 million at the Nederlanders’ Richard Rodgers).
But speaking of gambles, let’s keep an eye on Cirque du Soleil’s Broadway effort Paramour, at the Ambassador Theatre Group’s 1,896-seat Lyric, on 42nd Street. That costly show has only been grossing a bit over half its potential — $997.9K last week, 55 percent, with three-quarters of the seats filled). Those numbers aren’t brilliant for a musical extravaganza that ought to be tourist bait, and high running costs make the prospects for recoupment look iffy unless things pick up.
Otherwise, it was a generally good Week 12 of the 2016-2017 season, according to figures from the trade group Broadway League, despite a 2 percent dip from the previous week. (Of more concern is the nearly 3 percent drop from one year ago.) Total gross was $24.4 million for 26 shows. Hamilton had the highest average ticket price ($190.14).
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