Boys: Broadway's Biggest Box OfficeYesterday, I discussed the precipitous drop at Broadway's box office for a large cross section of major hit shows, but I neglected to note the relatively few success stories.
The biggest boffo show to buck last week's downward trend was the Tony Award winning Best Musical
Jersey Boys, which continues to sell beyond capacity at 100.7%. With a standing-room-only crowd in the 1222-seat
August Wilson Theatre,
Jersey Boys actually posted a .2%
gain over the previous week (the only other show to enjoy an increase in audience was the now departed
Kiki & Herb: Alive On Broadway -- up 6.6% to a closing capacity of 55.9% in the relatively small 586-seat
Helen Hayes Theatre). What's more,
Jersey Boys boasts the only average ticket price
over $100 at $119.15.
Wicked, of course,
continues to pack them in at the cavernous
George Gershwin Theatre. Despite the fact that its capacity was off by .2% last week, it was still playing to a capacity of 99.8%. That translated into the week's highest gross at $1,376,769 compared to
Jersey Boys' impressive second place finish at $1,173,290. But look below those numbers and consider that
Wicked has about 600
more seats to fill each night and has a considerably lower average ticket price ($95.34).
Thus, the past week's true box office champ in a technical knock-out has to be
Jersey Boys, which shows no sign of waning.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for Jersey Boys tickets.Click here for Wicked tickets.Related Stories:Fall At Broadway's Box Office (September 12, 2006)
Labels: Box Office, Broadway, Jersey Boys, Kiki And Herb, Kiki And Herb: Alive On Broadway, Wicked
Kiki & Herb Find Signs of Life Among CriticsMaking their first foray onto the Great White Way, Kiki and Herb are earning the respect of even the most jaded of theatre critics with their new show
Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway.
Perhaps the most notoriously jaded critic of all is
The New York Times' Ben Brantley. Yet, even Brantley can't resist the allure that
Justin Bond and
Kenny Mellman breathe into their alter egos.
Brantley writes, "It is a tribute to the perverse showbiz genius of Kiki and Herb that once you twig on to this shameless trompe l’oeil, you don’t feel merely amused....Kiki and Herb onstage are Alive with a capital A, with all the human vitality and fallibility that that implies."
Over at the
New York Post, theatre critic
Clive Barnes gives this dynamic duo 3 1/2 stars, noting, "But last night at the
Helen Hayes Theatre, Justin Bond (Kiki) and Kenny Mellman (Herb), superlative actors and musicians both, resuscitated their lounge-act extraordinaire under the defiant title of
Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway. Alive, and we might add, well! Very well, indeed."
Much less enthusiastic was
Elyse Gardner of USA Today who -- in addition to providing only 2 1/2 stars -- opined, "It's a premise that could make for a great comedy skit, and Bond certainly has the timing and dexterity to pull it off, but not for more than two hours. Much as I enjoyed most of the first half of
Alive on Broadway, I had the sinking feeling I might remember the experience more fondly if I left during intermission. I didn't, so I had to watch Bond's repartee with the more subdued Mellman grow thinner, although Mellman showed spurts of comical animation."
Agreeing with Gardner of the show's length was New York
Daily News'
Joe Dziemianowicz: "At 140 minutes, with intermission, the show goes on too long." Yet, Dziemianowicz also offers up one of those critique lines quite likely to find its way into future advertising: "It's shrill, delirious and demented."
Most critics accept the fact that Kiki and Herb may not be for everyone. Barnes evens sniffs that the folks in Peoria likely wouldn't understand the humor (although I can attest to the fact that a mere 150 miles northeast of Peoria, Kiki and Herb struck a huge chord with the Chicago audience attending
Steppenwolf's Traffic Jam last December). I might suggest that if visitors to New York really want to be entertained by an authentic slice of Big Apple life, Kiki and Herb may be just the ticket.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Kiki & Herb Celebrate Broadway Debut This Evening (August 15, 2006)
Kiki & Herb Spice Up Broadway This Summer (July 21, 2006)
Labels: Broadway, Critics' Capsule, Kiki And Herb, Kiki And Herb: Alive On Broadway
Kiki & Herb Celebrate Broadway Debut This EveningThe decidedly downtown New York City cabaret act of
Kiki and Herb takes over Midtown Manhattan tonight when
Kiki & Herb Alive on Broadway opens on the Great White Way. Performances will run through September 10 at the
Helen Hayes Theatre.
Kiki & Herb, also known respectively as
Justin Bond and
Kenny Mellman, are best known for their irreverent humor that targets society through song and spoken word. The duo received acclaim for their 11 week stint at
Carnegie Hall in 2004.
But what about their latest show? Will Broadway critics "get it"? We'll see in tomorrow's reviews.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Kiki & Herb Spice Up Broadway This Summer (July 21, 2006)
Labels: Broadway, Kiki And Herb, Kiki And Herb: Alive On Broadway, Opening Night
