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Tony Nominees See Uptick At Broadway Box Office: ‘A Strange Loop’ Jumps By More Than $200K

Last week’s Tony Award nominations translated into box office sales for at least some of the contenders, with A Strange Loop seeing the biggest boost. The musical, which topped the Tony list with 11 nominations, saw a $213,871 increase in its weekly grosses, taking in $690,668 for the week ending May 15.

Overall, the 35 Broadway productions grossed $30,349,653, a slight 3% dip from the previous week’s $31,199,660, a decline largely attributable to the $1,054,792 drop in box office at Moulin Rouge! The Musical, which canceled four of its usual eight performances due to Covid cases among the cast. Moulin, with Broadway favorite Derek Klena now leading the cast, took in $537,705 for four performances, filling 91% of available seats.

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Also losing ground was Lincoln Center Theater’s The Skin of Our Teeth, which canceled three performances due to Covid, dropping $58,736 from the previous week to $115,745 for its five performances.

Total attendance for the 35 productions was 246,003, down about 1% from the previous week’s 36-show roster (The Little Prince closed May 8).

Patti LuPone and Katrina Lenk in ‘Company’ - Credit: Matthew Murphy
Patti LuPone and Katrina Lenk in ‘Company’ - Credit: Matthew Murphy

Matthew Murphy

Other productions that showed some post-nomination box office gains were American Buffalo (up $21,662 to $536,164); for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (up $90,261 to $249,354); Girl From The North Country (up $14,524 to $289,305); Hangmen (up $35,893 to $288,436); How I Learned To Drive (up $47,908 to $364,925); Paradise Square (up $41,935 to $235,604); POTUS (up $81,191 to $461,864 ); Six (up $28,167 to $1,190,681) and The Minutes (up $40,615 to $386,898 ). MJ held even at $1,352,143, while both Company (up $102,851 to $719,968 ) and Take Me Out (up $123,042 to $474,951) showed noticeable upswings in a week that saw Tony nominations and non-award headlines for each (see here and here).

Mr. Saturday Night, which received five Tony nominations including one for star Billy Crystal, was up by $293,436 (to $858,847 for seven performances) after playing only five performances the previous week due to non-Covid illness.

Still, even with the post-nomination bumps, the roster was showing some strain under the weight of all the recent openings (15 in April), with no fewer than 10 shows filling only 65% or less of their available seats: Beetlejuice, Birthday Candles, Come From Away, For Colored Girls, Girl From The North Country, Hangmen, Mrs. Doubtfire, POTUS, The Phantom of The Opera and The Skin of Our Teeth.

At the other end of the spectrum, filling more than 90% of their seats: Aladdin, Funny Girl, Hadestown, Hamilton, Macbeth, MJ The Musical, Moulin Rouge!, Plaza Suite, Six, Take Me Out, The Book of Mormon, The Lion King and, selling out, The Music Man.

Average ticket price for all shows for the week was $123 with Funny Girl, Hadestown, Hamilton, Macbeth, MJ, Mr. Saturday Night, Plaza Suite, Six, The Book of Mormon, The Lion King and Wicked hitting that average price or higher, and The Music Man topping them all with a $275 average price.

Season to date, Broadway has grossed $812,064,730, with attendance of 6,471,585 at 82% of capacity.

The 35 productions reporting figures on Broadway last week were Aladdin; American Buffalo; Beetlejuice; Birthday Candles; The Book of Mormon; Chicago; Come From Away; Company; Dear Evan Hansen; for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf; Funny Girl; Girl From The North Country; Hadestown; Hamilton; Hangmen; Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; How I Learned To Drive; The Lion King; MJ; The Minutes; Moulin Rouge!; Mr. Saturday Night; Mrs. Doubtfire; The Music Man; Paradise Square; The Phantom of the Opera; Plaza Suite; POTUS; Six; The Skin of Our Teeth; A Strange Loop; Take Me Out; Tina; and Wicked.

All figures courtesy of the Broadway League.

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