Broadway Box Office Tweets - Week Ending June 27, 2010
Broadway Box Office Tweets - Week Ending June 27, 2010
If you follow me on
Twitter, you'll know that each Monday, I offer my quick analysis of each preceding week's box office on Broadway.
For your viewing pleasure, here are my tweets in chronological order for the
week ending June 27, 2010:
4:30 pm June 27 - WICKED, LION KING, ADDAMS FAMILY, PROMISESx2, FENCES, JERSEY BOYS, BILLY ELLIOT, MARY POPPINS each have $1MM+ weeks
4:32 pm June 28 - WICKED remains #1 at Broadway box office grossing $1,641,718 last week. Average ticket price: $113.44. 100% capacity.
4:33 pm June 28 - LION KING last week's #2 show grossing $1,551,798 on Broadway playing to 100.1% capacity. Average ticket price: $115.59
4:34 pm June 28 - FENCES remains Broadway's top grossing play: $1,138,982.Also highest average ticket: $129.89 & highest capacity: 101.6%
4:35 pm June 28 - NEXT FALL had Broadway's lowest weekly gross: $180,317. Average ticket price: $59.24. Playing to 64.6% capacity.
4:36 pm June 28 - RACE has week's lowest capacity 46.6% & lowest average ticket price $51.95. Grosses $204,944 Will show close early?
4:37 pm June 28 - Just-closed HAIR goes off with bangs! Grosses $712,008 playing to 85.3% capacity up 15.2%. Highest over week over week
4:38 pm June 28 - FELA! has week's biggest capacity decrease of 4.1% to 88.2%. Grosses $588,286. Average tickets priced $80.99
4:39 pm June 28 - FELA! and RACE are only two Broadway shows last week to lose capacity. Overall, a very strong week at box office.
4:40 pm June 28 - Despite the critics, both ADDAMS FAMILY and PROMISES PROMISES are building audiences. Each earned $1.3 million+
Feel free to comment and let me know if you're surprised by any of these results.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post.Labels: average ticket price, Broadway, Broadway Box Office, Capacity, Fences, Promises Promises, Race, The Addams Family, Wicked
The Addams Family (The SOB Review) - Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, New York City, New York
**1/2 (out of ****)So there I was walking down Eighth Avenue.
Much to my delight, I realized I was walking side-by-side with
Jackie Hoffman, who portrays Grandma in the new musical based on
Charles Addams' cheekily macabre
New Yorker cartoons.
Now, Hoffman doesn't know me from
Adam. Heck, for that matter, she doesn't even know me from
The Addams Family. But she was quite receptive to my chatting her up. I couldn't resist informing her I had seen the show during its Chicago tryout. With brutal honesty, I admitted
I hadn't enjoyed it much there.
But I also told her I had just seen
The Addams Family again on Broadway the very evening before our chance meeting. Without being one least bit sycophantic, I shared how much improved I believed the tuner had become since Chicago. Indeed, the show is tighter and fortunately much snappier. Even better is that
Marshall Brickman and
Rick Elice have tipped the balance more toward the eponymous brood's favor than that clan of interlopers who had me scratching my head in Chicago.
The one last thing I told Hoffman before saying goodbye was while I enjoyed her hilarious comic turn, I still wondered why she didn't have a solo number. She took that comment in stride, literally, and then graciously thanked me and asked me to spread the word about the show.
So here goes.
The critical response certainly been less than kind, often bordering on
scathing. But the truth is that the show
isn't all that bad.
The Addams Family offers geniune laughs, particularly during its first act. It also turns out to be quite a bona fide crowd pleaser with many brilliantly eccentric turns, from the king of comic-timing
Nathan Lane -- whose Gomez consistently rises above the book and
Andrew Lippa's lackluster score -- to
Kevin Chamberlin's scene-stealing Uncle Fester. As Morticia,
Bebe Neuwirth at least looks great, but as much as I've admired her acting prowess, her singing voice isn't what it once was. But she sure still has the moves.
As in Chicago, I still admire
Phelim McDermott and
Julian Crouch's evocative scenic design. Rich in dark reds and black and supplemented by
Natasha Katz’s lighting, the stage is resplendent with a creepy vibe.
The show may still not be a
complete scream, but compared with Chicago, there's at least plenty more here for people wanting to come see ‘em.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post.Labels: Bebe Neuwirth, Cartoon, Jackie Hoffman, Kevin Chamberlin, Marshall Brickman, Musical, Nathan Lane, Rick Elice, The Addams Family, The SOB Review
Broadway Box Office Tweets - Week Ending May 31, 2010
If you follow me on
Twitter, you'll know that each Monday, I offer my quick analysis of each preceding week's box office on Broadway. Because of the Memorial Day holiday, we had to wait until today to get our fix.
For your viewing pleasure, here are my tweets in chronological order for the
week ending May 31, 2010:
3:26 pm June 2 - Last week's Broadway box office was down 2.17% from last week. Total gross was $22,320,549. Average tix priced $80.51
3:27 pm June 2 - WICKED, LION KING, ADDAMS FAMILY, BILLY ELLIOT,PROMISES PROMISES, JERSEY BOYS, FENCES each gross $1 million+ last week
3:28 pm June 2 - Sold-out WICKED Broadway's top grossing show last week pulling in $1,570,390. Average ticket priced $108.51
3:29 pm June 2 - With week's highest capacity (101.6%) FENCES gains momentum as top grossing play $1,002,741.Average tix priced $114.32
3:30 pm June 2 - A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC boasts last week's highest average ticket price of $115.52. Grosses $795,273 on 92.4% capacity
3:31 pm June 2 - COLLECTED STORIES had 2 of bottom 3.Lowest grossing show of week $134,885/lowest av tix priced $42.18. 61.5% capacity
3:32 pm June 2 - RACE had week's lowest capacity at just 48.7% down 4.3% from last week. Grossed $308,931. Average ticket price $74.89
3:34 pm June 2 - It must be tourist season, as PHANTOM OF THE OPERA had week's top capacity increase of 81.% to 94.3%. Grosses $923,158
3:37 pm June 2 - COME FLY AWAY had week's largest capacity drop: 11.7% to 57.4%.Grossed $713,653 with av tix priced $96.44
3:39 pm June 2 - ADDAMS FAMILY still strong with steady box office gross of $1,307,046. Average ticket price $112.52 w/ 95.6% capacity
Feel free to comment and let me know if you're surprised by any of these results.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post.Labels: A Little Night Music, average ticket price, Box Office, Broadway, Broadway Box Office, Capacity, Come Fly Away, Earnings, Fences, Promises Promises, The Addams Family, The Lion King, Wicked
Broadway Box Office Tweets - Week Ending May 23, 2010
If you follow me on
Twitter, you'll know that each Monday, I offer my quick analysis of each preceding week's box office on Broadway.
For your viewing pleasure, here are my tweets in chronological order for the
week ending May 23, 2010:
4:40 pm May 23rd - WICKED, LION KING, ADDAMS FAMILY, PROMISES PROMISES, BILLY ELLIOT, JERSEY BOYS all have million $ weeks on Broadway
4:41 pm May 23rd - Sold-out WICKED is once again Broadway's top grossing show last week with $1,576,010. Average ticket price is $108.90
4:43 pm May 23rd - FENCES once again Broadway's top grossing play w/$985,577. Also week's highest capacity: 101.7%. Av tix priced $112.30
4:44 pm May 23rd - Week's highest average ticket price: $115.67 for A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. Show grossed $751,745 on just 87.3% capacity
4:46 pm May 23rd - NEXT FALL was Broadway's lowest grossing show last week: $150,982. Capacity just 54.3%. Average ticket price: $59.05
4:47 pm May 23rd - HAIR had Broadway's lowest capacity last week: 51%. Grossed $407,172 with average ticket price of $70.71
4:49 pm May 23rdh - Broadway's cheapest ticket last week was COLLECTED STORIES' $45.79. Grossed only $156,680 on 65.8% capacity.
4:50 pm May 23rd - Snap! ADDAMS FAMILY gets last laugh as box office increases to $1,312,216 gross. Av tix priced $109.79/98.4% capacity
4:53 pm May 23rd - CHICAGO has Broadway's biggest capacity increase of week: 13.5% to 89%. Grosses $597,460. Average ticket price: $77.72
4:55 pm May 23rd - HAIR has Broadway's biggest capacity decline last week of 10% to 51%. But gross increases from $401,681 to $407,172
4:57 pm May 23rd - With several weak weeks in a row, could HAIR be showing danger signs exhibited by most Broadway fare before they announce closings?
Feel free to comment and let me know if you're surprised by any of these results.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post.Labels: A Little Night Music, average ticket price, Box Office, Broadway, Broadway Box Office, Capacity, Earnings, Fences, Million Dollar Quartet, Promises Promises, The Addams Family, The Lion King, Wicked
Broadway Box Office Tweets - Week Ending May 16, 2010
If you follow me on
Twitter, you'll know that each Monday, I offer my quick analysis of each preceding week's box office on Broadway.
For your viewing pleasure, here are my tweets in chronological order for the
week ending May 16, 2010:
3:40 pm May 16th - WICKED, LION KING, ADDAMS FAMILY, PROMISES PROMISES, BILLY ELLIOT, JERSEY BOYS all earned $1 million+ last week
3:41 pm May 16th - Sold-out WICKED was Broadway's top earning show last week again with $1,549,754 and average ticket price of $107.09
3:42 pm May 16th - FENCES swung for second $1 million week and missed by a hair. Show still top earning Broadway play with $992,252
3:43 pm May 16th - FENCES attracted week's highest capacity on Broadway of 101.7% with average tickets selling for $113.01
3:45 pm May 16th - Broadway's top average ticket price last week was for LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC: $115.37.Show earned $821,698. 95.6% capacity
3:47 pm May 16th - Broadway's lowest earner last week was NEXT FALL: taking in just $152,021. Capacity at 52.8%. Av tix priced: $61.10
3:49 pm May 16th - GOD OF CARNAGE had last week's lowest capacity of just 51.9%. Show earned $292,793 with average tickets priced $65.37
3:50 pm May 16th - EVERYDAY RAPTURE may have had last week's lowest average ticket price-$49.19-but earned $206,516 on 70.9% capacity
3:52 pm May 16th - MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET looks almost like 1/2 million w/ week's top capacity increase of 8.3% to 57.7%. Earned $462,545
3:54 pm May 16th - HAIR had week's biggest capacity drop of 6.9% to 61%. Earned $401,681, which was up from last week.
3:55 pm May 16th - Despite critics, ADDAMS FAMILY & PROMISES PROMISES improve at box office by $20K and $43K respectively.
Feel free to comment and let me know if you're surprised by any of these results.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post.Labels: A Little Night Music, average ticket price, Box Office, Broadway, Broadway Box Office, Capacity, Earnings, Fences, Million Dollar Quartet, Promises Promises, The Addams Family, The Lion King, Wicked
The Addams Family (The SOB Review) - Oriental Theatre, Chicago, Illinois
** (out of ****)The pivotal clan on display in
The Addams Family musical doesn’t exactly epitomize “all together ooky,” but they most certainly turn out to be more than just a little kooky.
No, I don’t mean the eponymous brood, portrayed by some major stars from the theatrical firmament, each practically begging for their turns in the spotlight in this new tuner. Rather, I’m talking about Mal and Alice Beineke, along with their son Lucas, who’s newly engaged to Wednesday Addams.
What? Never heard of them? Neither had I.
Suffice to say, I could not have cared less about them, either. In short, they weren’t the family I was paying to see. Talk about mysterious and spooky.
Nor was I paying to see a retread of
La Cage Aux Folles. As in that work, conservative parents meet more flamboyant ones before their children marry, the child of the flamboyant parents tries and fails to rein them in, chaos ensues, everybody learns to love their inner freak, etc., etc. We’re seen this all before, but executed infinitely better. And with more verve and heart.
Therein lay the principal problems with this musical stage adaptation of
Charles Addams’ famously funny and macabre
New Yorker cartoons. What were the creative minds behind this show thinking?
Quite inexplicably,
Marshall Brickman and
Rick Elice’s book and
Andrew Lippa’s tunes have pushed the Beineke bunch forward complete with star turns for
Terrence Mann (Mal) and
Carolee Carmello (Alice). However, they come at the expense of a truly satisfying, original story, not to mention at the expense of those cast as the titular family.
Now please don’t get me wrong, I can’t blame Mann or Carmello. Both are actually pretty terrific. They imbue Wednesday’s would-be in-laws with a certain charm and ultimate giddiness that all but eludes Gomez (
Nathan Lane) and Morticia Addams (
Bebe Neuwirth). The Beinekes' very presence virtually sucks all the joy out of the two characters in whom the audience already has the most invested. And what are
The Addams Family without joy? This should be fun, right?!
Lane and Neuwirth make due as best they can with the pitiable trifle they’ve been thrown, including a sidebar story in which Morticia misconstrues Gomez’s comments on youth and beauty as an ageist indictment on her. If this musical is to be true to Charles Addams’ original vision, as it claims, would this already ghoulish character really care about being one step closer to the grave? Wouldn’t that be viewed as a welcome departure for this family?
While we’re on the topic of Addams’ concepts, the advance billing for this musical also seemed to suggest that there would be no allusions to the
television comedy and
subsequent films. Rather than dispensing with any such nod to those works at the onset of the tuner and simply move on, directors
Phelim McDermott and
Julian Crouch have inserted their impressive homage to the
TV show’s snappy theme song about a third of the way into the first act. But it needlessly diverts focus away from whatever story has already commenced.
All is not lost in this
Addams Family. No, I actually admire McDermott and Crouch’s evocative scenic design, rich in dark reds and the requisite blacks. Supplemented by
Natasha Katz’s lighting, the stage is resplendent with a creepy vibe.
Additionally, two of the Addamses are actually captured to absolute perfection.
Kevin Chamberlin ’s Uncle Fester gleefully manages to steal the show with a glorious dream sequence number in which he’s courting the moon. And as Grandma, the woefully underused
Jackie Hoffman may have found her solo tune cut on the way to opening night in favor of those star turns by Mann and Carmello, yet she manages the last laugh, almost literally, during the first act’s dinner sequence as she ad libs to hilarious effect -- during my performance, it was one incredibly funny, timely dig at
Tiger Woods.
Do I think that this
Addams Family can be salvaged? Absolutely. Not only because so much is at stake financially, but especially since it contains universally loved and established characters, a stellar cast and some exceptional design elements.
Yet in order to be Broadway ready, it will take more than just a tweak here and slight adjustment there. This demands a wholesale overhaul of focus and plot. Here’s a novel idea, why don’t Brickman and Elice give us a snappier story on how
The Addams Family got to be so eccentric in the first place? Whatever they do, they need to re-center this musical on the folks in the title.
Then maybe, just maybe, it could be a complete scream when people come to see ‘em.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post. I paid my own way for The Addams Family.Labels: Bebe Neuwirth, Carolee Carmello, Cartoon, Chicago, Jackie Hoffman, Kevin Chamberlin, Marshall Brickman, Musical, Nathan Lane, Rick Elice, Terrence Mann, The Addams Family, The SOB Review, Tryout
Bebe Neuwirth Heading Back To Chicago (Not What You Think)Incredible as it may seem, according to
Playbill,
Chicago veteran
Bebe Neuwirth is heading to the Windy City for her first starring role in an original-run of a Broadway-bound show. She'll be Morticia to
Nathan Lane's Gomez in the stage musical version of
The Addams Family, inspired by late cartoonist
Charles Addams.
The fantasy-league dream casting doesn't stop with those two principals. Neuwirth and Lane will be joined by
Kevin Chamberlin as Uncle Fester and
Jackie Hoffman as Grandmama. The cast also includes
Terrence Mann,
Carolee Carmello,
Zachary James,
Adam Riegler,
Wesley Taylor and
Krysta Rodriguez.
Marshall Brickman and
Rick Elice of
Jersey Boys fame are providing the book, while
Andrew Lippa is offering the score for the tuner that will enjoy its world premiere at Chicago's Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre, which had long been home to the city's sitdown production of
Wicked.
Given that this
Addams Family creation is based more on Addams' source material than the
television series or
films of the same name, I'm pretty stoked given the spot-on casting choices. The fact that
Phelim McDermott and
Julian Crouch of the seriously macabre
Shockheaded Peter fame are offering direction may make this altogether ooky, if not a scream.
Whether those decisions make it a snap in next year's Tony derby is yet to be seen.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Andrew Lippa, Bebe Neuwirth, Broadway, Cartoon, Charles Addams, First Word On New Show, Julian Crouch, Marshall Brickman, Musical, Nathan Lane, Phelim McDermott, Rick Elice, The Addams Family
