Box Office: Theatregoers Don't Passover BroadwayEven though Broadway box office traditionally declines the week of Passover, most Great White Way productions enjoyed boosts -- some very healthy -- during this year's holiday week that also included Easter.
Even
Christine Ebersole's
much-ballyhooed vacation from
Grey Gardens didn't result in lower capacity for the show (
up 0.5% to 62.2%). However, the musical was clearly dumping seats at TKTS and elsewhere given that its average ticket price fell to just $51.69 from $72.23 one week earlier. Only
Prelude To A Kiss had a lower average ticket at $43.52.
Last week was so robust that only five shows experienced any decline in their box office, including:
Lest I forget, in the week where Rialto's longest-running production ever reached yet another milestone with performance #8,000,
The Phantom Of The Opera reigned supreme in terms of overall capacity at 101.5%. I guess there
is still some life in that tuner.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for Grey Gardens ticket information.Related Stories:In The Company Of Underperforming Shows (March 27, 2007)
Labels: Box Office, Broadway, Grey Gardens, Musical, Play, Prelude To A Kiss, The Phantom Of The Opera
In The Company Of Underperforming ShowsTake a look at this past week's box office totals for Broadway, and you'll see familiar names in the top two slots in terms of both capacity and total dollars earned.
Wicked remains Rialto's top grossing show with $1,380,917 and 100% capacity.
Jersey Boys continues its reign as the top capacity show at 100.7% while earning $1,166,505, enough to make it the second top-grossing production of the week yet again.
But look down the list, and you'll see largely well-reviewed shows in the bottom five, both in terms of capacity and earnings for the week:
Lowest Grossing Shows:
Journey's End ($157,884)
Prelude To A Kiss ($198,534)
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee ($251,860)
Talk Radio ($305,723)
Company ($314,585)
Lowest Capacity Shows:
Journey's End (41.2%)
The Producers (53.9%)
Company (56.5%)
Talk Radio (61.4%)
Grey Gardens (71.4%)
Look below those numbers, and you'll find that the limited run of
Prelude To A Kiss has the distinction of having the lowest average ticket price of just $42.88, followed by
Journey's End at $47.10. That tells me that
Prelude To A Kiss has been very successfully selling cheap seats through TKTS -- enough that the
Roundabout Theatre production has been boosted to 78.2% of capacity.
Journey's End, on the other hand, appears to be flat out suffering from America's battle fatigue from all things warlike. Indeed,
The Playgoer reports that the end of this limited run show may be expedited.
No surprise on the other end of the spectrum as
Jersey Boys and
Wicked provide the one-two punch in terms of highest average ticket price, coming in at $118.51 and $95.42, respectively.
Granted, a couple of the shows that turn up on the bottom end have run their course:
The Producers and
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee -- the former is already set to close, while the latter's Chicago sitdown incarnation closed Sunday.
Grey Gardens' 70%+ capacity is probably not sounding alarm bells at the
Walter Kerr just yet.
But
Talk Radio's placement on both charts demonstrates that not even a critically-acclaimed performance by
Liev Schreiber, who was dubbed
"the finest American theater actor of his generation" by Ben Brantley, is enough to attract theatregoers.
Much to my personal chagrin, Company appears to be losing steam. In a week where the majority of shows enjoyed an upward bump at the box office, Company lost 5.8% of its capacity week over week, although if there's a silver lining, its average ticket price increased from $63.50 to $66.49.
After finally getting around to seeing this production last month,
I was struck by how good it actually is, and I couldn't help but think how deserving it was of a larger audience. But judging from its box office, it could very soon be placed in the company of other closing shows. That would be a shame.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for Company tickets. Click here for Grey Gardens ticket information. Click here for Jersey Boys ticket information. Click here for Journey's End ticket information. Click here for Prelude To A Kiss tickets. Click here for Talk Radio tickets. Click here for The Producers ticket information. Click here for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee tickets. Click here for Wicked tickets. Labels: Box Office, Broadway, Company, Jersey Boys, Journey's End, Musical, Play, Prelude To A Kiss, Revival, Talk Radio, Wicked
Postlude: Most Critics Seal With A Kiss
Proclaiming
Prelude To A Kiss a "small comic fantasy with a big heart," the Associated Press'
Michael Kuchwara lavishes praise: "[T]he meticulous direction of
Daniel Sullivan...mines not only the work's laughter but its tears....The actors could not be more appealing...In the end, what makes
Prelude to a Kiss reverberate so strongly is its joyous embrace of life, from its very beginning to the end. Sermonizing has never seemed so sweet and unassuming."
Deeming the revival both "moody" and "touching,"
The New York Times'
Charles Isherwood is fairly positive: "The new Roundabout Theater [sic] Company production, directed with his customary sensitivity by Daniel Sullivan, holds fast to the melancholy of Mr. Lucas’s vision....Mr. (
Alan) Tudyk and Ms. (
Annie) Parisse...both give distinctive, appealing performances that capture the shaky excitement of youth rushing headlong into the potentially treacherous waters of commitment....Mr. (
John) Mahoney...is an admirably unsentimental actor whose economy of means works well for him here. The scenes between Mr. Mahoney and Mr. Tudyk, in which the young lovers struggle to renew their intimacy in bizarrely altered circumstances, are wonderfully tender, sad and funny too."
Calling this a "fun play but also oddly, unexpectedly, moving" in his three-out-of-four-star review,
New York Post's
Clive Barnes says: "Daniel Sullivan's direction puts a closer emphasis on the mysterious old man...now receiving a perfect performance of agonized befuddlement from the present great John Mahoney, far too long absent from the New York stage. He wanders aimfully through the play, subtly expressing a disconcerting inner self. Alan Tudyk as Peter, the puzzled young bridegroom...is superb....He's beautifully matched by the imperturbable and proper duality of Annie Parisse as Rita, his fiancée unwittingly turned monster-wife, and the rest of the cast, led by
James Rebhorn and
Robin Bartlett, both unerring as Rita's parents, a wealthy dentist and his considerate wife."
Saying "[T]he years have proven kind to
Prelude,"
Eric Grode of the
New York Sun writes enthusiastically: "A deft touch is required if the fanciful and the profound are to coexist -- and that's just what director Daniel Sullivan provides in this bewitching revival. Even when the plot mechanics show their age, or when Mr. Lucas settles for an easy laugh, Mr. Sullivan and his extraordinarily nuanced cast conjure a modern-day fairy tale in which love and loss amplify each other with stinging melancholy."
Noting how the play feels "emotionally encumbered,"
Variety's
David Rooney is mostly positive: "It takes a gossamer-light touch to achieve the play's magical balance and coax forth the sorrowful subtext beneath the eccentric fantasy. That touch is the domain here mainly of the wonderful John Mahoney, whose tender performance is the Roundabout production's chief reward....Lucas' exquisite writing spins out sentiments that could be treacle in other hands, in a scenario that might just as easily have dissolved into contrived whimsy. But there's an anchoring sincerity that makes you believe in the crazy fantasy....But it's Mahoney who really captures the haunting emotional transparency of Lucas' play and its lyrical sense of loss. "
One voice of dissent comes from
Joe Dziemianowicz of New York's
Daily News, who pans : "Unfortunately, the spell cast by the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Craig Lucas' dark fable is one of near-total inertness. Alan Tudyk and Annie Parisse...are talented and appealing and look better in bathing suits than 99% of the U.S. population. But neither is so bewitching that we fall for them as quickly and completely as they fall for each other. The director, Daniel Sullivan, hasn't been able to help them find their way....There are bright spots. Mahoney, after years of sitting in that ugly '
Frasier' chair, plays the wizened widower with a new lease on life. His wry grin is delightful."
All things considered, those are some pretty favorable reviews for this limited run production.
Prelude To A Kiss runs through April 29 at the
American Airlines Theatre.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:
Labels: Broadway, Craig Lucas, Critics' Capsule, John Mahoney, Play, Prelude To A Kiss, Revival, Roundabout Theatre
Prelude: Previews To Opening NightThis evening marks the official opening for the revival of
Craig Lucas'
Prelude To A Kiss on Broadway. Renowned director
Daniel Sullivan helms this
Roundabout Theatre Company production at the
American Airlines Theatre.
The play already appears to be contending with quite a bit of negative buzz generated during its preview performances.
One friend advised me that in the show's pivotal "kiss," there was a complete lack of magic associated with it, leading several of the audience's members to say aloud, "I don't get it." Additionally, two bloggers I regularly read, Rocco of
What's Good/What Blows In New York Theatre and Mondschein in
Third Row, Mezzanine, have already offered mostly negative assessments of the show. Rocco is scathing, leading his preview review by saying, "The dirty laundry on my bedroom floor has more life in it than Roundabout's
Prelude To A Kiss, which I recommend avoiding at all cost."
One positive advance voice belongs to Cameron of
Theatre Snobbery At Its Finest, who says, in part, "I fell in love with the play and production....the play (is) a truly darling marriage of style and substance."
The big question I've been asking is whether Sullivan will have been able to shore up this production during previews to make for a compelling and successful opening night. We'll learn soon enough when the critics weigh-in.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Prelude To Prelude Previews (January 11, 2007)
Labels: Blogs, Broadway, Craig Lucas, Play, Prelude To A Kiss, Revival, Roundabout Theatre
Prelude To Prelude Previews
The earlier incarnation of
Prelude For A Kiss had a top-notch cast, including
Timothy Hutton and
Mary-Louise Parker as a newlywed couple who received an unexpected kiss by an "old man" played by the late great
Barnard Hughes. Other castmembers included
Larry Bryggman,
John Dossett and the inimitable
Debra Monk, who like Parker is no stranger to Lucas' plays (they also appeared together in the lone Broadway run of
Reckless in 2004).
The 1990 production not only received two Tony nominations including for Best Play and Best Actress in a Play, but Lucas was also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. The comedy about the pure connection of love enjoyed 440 regular performances before closing in May of 1991.
Over the course of the past year, Mahoney found it necessary to drop out of two Chicago productions -- including the Goodman's staging of
David Mamet's
Romance (Mahoney would have reprised his role from the London production) and Steppenwolf's
The Unmentionables.-- reportedly for health concerns. A much-beloved veteran of "
Frasier," Mahoney did show up earlier this television season in an episode of "
ER" appearing rather gaunt.
Here's wishing Mahoney Godspeed and the entire cast and crew a terrific limited run of Prelude To A Kiss.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Broadway, First Word On New Show, John Mahoney, Play, Prelude To A Kiss, Revival, Steppenwolf
