With the Tony Awards – and a seriously orange New York City sky – prompting some Broadway productions to reduce their playing schedules last week, total box office and attendance was down a bit, with the 33 shows taking in $30,961,479 for the week ending June 11.
In all, four productions – Kimberly Akimbo, New York, New York, Shucked and Summer, 1976 – had preplanned seven-performance schedules, while Camelot and Hamilton canceled their Wednesday performances due to the poor air quality conditions on June 7. (The June 11 matinee of Six was a Theater Development Fund Autism Friendly buyout performance.)
While the box office impact of Sunday’s Tony Award victories for Kimberly Akimbo, Leopoldstadt and Parade, among others, as well as the various shows’ Tony broadcast performances, won’t be reflected on the box office charts until next week and later, most of the nominated productions reported strong numbers leading into the big night.
Best Musical winner Kimberly Akimbo, for example, filled 97% of seats at the Booth, grossing $526,175. Best Musical Revival Parade was at 95% of capacity at the Jacobs, grossing a hefty $1,059,730. The year’s Tony-winning Best Play, Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt, could stand to see most-needed improvement from the win: The drama, which has been losing box office steam after a strong start last fall, grossed $650,229 last week, with just 63% of seats filled at the Longacre.
Some Like It Hot, which grossed $1,040,449, and Shucked, taking $699,954, have seen strong numbers in recent weeks and should see additional box office gains with the Tony wins of, respectively, J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell.
Grey House, the thriller starring Laurie Metcalf and Tatiana Maslany, had its official opening last week on June 6, grossing $396,276. A Doll’s House, starring Jessica Chastain, played its final week to a strong $974,353, selling out its seven performances at the Hudson.
Also ending its run was The Thanksgiving Play, filling 79% of seats at the Hayes for a $264,246 gross.
Productions filling at least 90% of their available seats were & Juliet, A Doll’s House, Aladdin, Fat Ham, Hadestown, Hamilton, Kimberly Akimbo, MJ, Moulin Rouge, Parade, Prima Facie, Shucked, Six, Sweeney Todd, The Book of Mormon, The Lion King and Wicked. Also of note: Funny Girl was down considerably at the August Wilson, filling only 58% of seats with star Lea Michele’s planned weeklong absence.
Season to date, Broadway has grossed $95,194,113 with total attendance of 795,309 at 86% of capacity.
All figures courtesy of The Broadway League. For complete box office listings, visit the League’s website.