The Stage

Summer success on Broadway as earnings and attendances rise

Published Friday 12 August 2005 at 17:20 by Judd Hollander

New figures show that earnings and attendances on Broadway have been higher than last season for almost every one of the last 20 weeks.

According to figures released by the League of American Theatres and Producers, grosses from the week ending March 27 to the one ending August 7 totalled $345.6 million, a 10.7% increase from the $312.1 million Broadway took for the same period in 2004. Paid attendance during those 20 weeks also jumped from 4.7 million in 2004 to 5.1 million in 2005 - a 6.6% increase.

During the period, the total number of playing weeks on Broadway reached 661, up from 597 for the same time last year. For the week ending August 7, five shows - Mamma Mia!, Spamalot, The Lion King, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Wicked - played to 100% capacity, while eight shows played to over 95%. For the same week in 2004, only two shows and six shows respectively reached those totals.

“Broadway seems well on track to set records for both attendance and gross sales in the 2005/6 season,” said League president Jed Bernstein. “Although the line-up for the fall season is just beginning to be announced, this tremendous start is giving us great confidence that this is going to be a remarkable Broadway season.”

According to the League, Broadway grosses for the 2004/5 reached $769 million, with the number of tickets sold for Broadway reaching 11.5 million. In order to try and top that total this year, producers will rely on such shows as the revival of The Odd Couple starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, as well as the drama Three Days of Rain, by Richard Greenberg, which is set to star Julia Roberts.

Also scheduled to come in during 2005/6 are The Importance of Being Ernest starring Diana Rigg, Jerry Springer - the Opera, the musical Jersey Boys, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd starring Patti LuPone, The Threepenny Opera with Alan Cumming, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Woman in White, Eugene O’Neill’s A Touch of the Poet with Gabriel Bryne, and the Disney musical Tarzan.