Box office for most Broadway shows last week faded slightly as June’s Tony glow gave way to the old New York summer heat, though a few newcomers were among those who bucked the downward trend, a very impressive one. .
In the second week of previews, Back to the Future: The Musical grossed a whopping $1,222,731 in just six previews, filling 99% of Winter Garden seats. The stage adaptation of Michael J. Fox’s classic comedy starring Casey Likes and Roger Bart opens August 3.
Another recent arrival, of Alex Edelman Just For Us he also made some dollar gains, if on a smaller scale. The well-reviewed one-man show took in $348,998 for the week ending July 9, up about $20,000 from last week, even with low attendance. A higher average ticket price — $64.73 compared to last week’s $58.44 — had an impact.
This is where love lies, which played seven previews last week compared to eight last week, dropped $87,223 to $514,969, filling 95% of Broadway seats. The David Byrne-Fatboy Slim musical opens July 20.
New to the list is villa, the Sandy Rustin comedy directed by Jason Alexander and starring Eric McCormack, Laura Bell Bundy, Lilli Cooper, Nehai Joshi, Alex Moffat and Dana Steingold. The production grossed $117,998 for its first three performances, filling 86% of the seats at the Hayes. Opening night is July 24th.
Among the products that showed special signs of summer strain were: A beautiful noise$111,208 less and only 56% seats filled; New York, New York, down $139,602 and down 70%; AND Some like it hot, less $115,969 with participation at 71% of capacity. Almost half of the places available for Once and again were empty, with 51% attendance. Display at a smaller scale Gray house AND Good night, Oscar were respectively at 61% and 71% of capacity.
In total, the 30 Broadway productions grossed $28,859,591 for the week ending July 9, a 14% drop from the previous week when there were 33 shows on the boards Fat Ham, Prima Face, Leopoldstadt AND Sign in the Window by Sidney Brustein). Attendance last week was 242,358, down 11% from the week before. About 86% of the total available seats on Broadway were filled.
Season to date, Broadway has grossed $224,506,959, a 5% increase over last year at this time, with total attendance up 11% year-over-year to 1,840,675, 87% of capacity.
All figures courtesy of The Broadway League. For complete lists of cashiers, visit the League’s website.
