Many Broadway shows see box office jumps after Tony’s exposure
NEW YORK (AP) — New Broadway musicals “Kimberly Akimbo,” “Shucked,” “Some Like It Hot” and “& Juliet” — as well as the play “Leopoldstadt” — all saw nice bumps in their box office after the Tony Award-winning broadcast .
Data from The Broadway League released Tuesday shows many of the musicals and plays on show the award ceremony on June 11 benefited financially from gaining valuable fame for millions.
Dear Tony winner, “Kimberly Akimbo,” about a teenager who ages four times faster than the average human, won five awards, including Best New Musical, and earned $695,405 over eight post-air performances, an increase of $169,229 from the previous week.
Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt,” which explores Jewish identity through an intergenerational narrative, won Best New Play Tony and did even better, earning $273,804 more than the week before and finishing with $924,033 the week after the Tonys.
The Writers’ strike in Hollywood left the legendary awards show without a script, but the Writers Guild of America let the show go on without picket line.
“& Juliet,” which reimagines “Romeo and Juliet” and adds some of the biggest pop hits of the past few decades, took in $205,694 more last week and ended up with a very healthy $1,339,854 after a smashing broadcast and zero Tony’s. while “Shucked,” a surprise lightweight musical comedy celebrating corn and starring newly minted Tony winner Alex Newell, made $162,233 more than the previous week to finish with a respectable $862,188.
“Some love it when it’s hot,” a musical adaptation of the cross-dressing comedy, which saw only a modest $103,039 increase despite J. Harrison Ghee’s historic win, and “New York, New York,” a love letter to Manhattan inspired by the 1977 film directed by Martin Scorsese , took in $141,105 last week to a final $995,844 gross.
“Prima Facie,” which stars Best Actress winner Jodi Comer, saw a $161,576 bump to cross the $1 million threshold. Producers announced earlier Tuesday that the show had recouped its $4.1 million capitalization cost after 10 weeks and that the show had set a house record eight performances a week for the Golden Theater with $1,107,829.
The broadcast featured performances of all nominated musicals and Will Swenson — leading Broadway role in a Neil Diamond musical — led the audience in a powerful rendition of “Sweet Caroline.” Lea Michele from “Glee” and now “Funny Girl” fame also performed a soaring version of “Don’t Rain on My Parade”. Data on the last two entries was mixed: The Neil Diamond musical actually saw its revenue drop by nearly $91,000 despite the notoriety, while Michele’s show made $1 million during its pre-Tony week, when Michele was absent.
Not all numbers pointed to a broadcast. “Procession,” a doomed musical love story set against the real-life backdrop of a murder and lynching in pre-World War I Georgia received a $108,734 raise to finish last week with $1,168,463 after earning the best revival of a musical and a Tony for director Michael Arden. But “Peter Pan Goes Wrong,” a farce that was not shown at the awards show, goes up by the same price: $109,853.
The good news for many shows has been tempered by some sad, including the impending closing announcements for two shows – “Life of Pi,” about a castaway who spends hundreds of days floating in the Pacific in the company of a Bengal tiger, and “Thick Ham” – James Ijames’ adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ is set at a black family’s barbecue in the modern South.
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Mark Kennedy is present http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
