I was just checking out the Broadway grosses for last week. And they talk about the winter doldrums. Well, these are some major late-summer doldrums we got here.
If you click on the link above and sort the columns by attendance percentage, you'll see that Rent, Hairspray, and The Wedding Singer were all playing to half-empty houses last week, and The Producers played to even less than that.
Could these shows be nearing the ends of their respective runs? Or are we just witnessing the inevitable lull before the holiday season? Will the producers attempt to keep these shows temporarily afloat with some stunt casting? Jerry Lewis as Edna Turnblad, perhaps? Or Ralph Maccio as Mark Cohen? Or will the Nederlander, the Neil Simon, the Al Hirshfeld, and the St. James theaters soon be ready for new tenants?
While you're checking out the grosses, try sorting by average ticket price, and by highest price paid. Who's paying $300 to see Spamalot when it's playing to 75% capacity? Perhaps it was for Saturday night and the show was sold out, but even so. People were even paying over $200 to see the aforementioned playing-at-half-capacity shows.
How lazy can you be?
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