Two of the fall Broadway season’s buzzy new musicals – A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical and Some Like It Hot – began previews last week, both doing solid business in their first, partial weeks.
A Beautiful Noise pulled in an impressive $845,074 for five performances, filling 88% of seats at the Broadhurst with an average ticket price of $166. The show opens December 4.
Over at the Shubert Theatre, Some Like It Hot, the musical adaptation of the 1959 classic film comedy, took in $539,593 for 6 performances, filling 82% of seats at the venue with a $76 average ticket. Opening night is Dec. 11.
In all, Broadway’s 32 shows grossed in $29,813,739, a boost of 9% from the previous week. Attendance was up about 8% to 246,013.
Some other recent arrivals include & Juliet, in previews at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre and grossing a hefty $779,402 for seven previews, with attendance at 98% of capacity. Kimberly Akimbo, the acclaimed Off Broadway musical making its Broadway debut, filled 90% of seats at the Booth, grossing $420,700.
Almost Famous, the musical adaptation of the 2000 film, had its official opening at the Jacobs last Thursday, so press seats and other comps took their usual bite of the apple. The musical, receiving mixed reviews, grossed $641,886, with 81% of seats filled.
Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man & the Pool, in previews at the non-profit Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont, grossed $358,288, attendance at 73%.
KPOP, in previews at Circle in the Square ahead of a Nov. 20 opening, was at 83% of capacity for seven performances (a matinee performance was canceled), but with a minuscule average ticket of $35 grossed just $139,388. (The musical has also canceled its Nov. 9 matinee performance.)
Take Me Out, last spring’s hit baseball play that returned this fall, was still finding its post-hiatus audience last week, filling 57% of seats at the Schoenfeld for a gross of $451,494. Similarly, Topdog/Underdog played to 54% of capacity at the Golden, grossing $260,677. Walking With Ghosts, the one-man-show starring Gabriel Byrne, filled only 46% of seats at the Music Box, grossing $168,378 for seven performances.
In its final week, Cost of Living grossed $239,420, at 75% of capacity at the Friedman.
Top earners for the week were the usual suspects: The Music Man ($2,899,405); Hamilton ($1,963,828); The Lion King ($1,761,156); MJ ($1,760,183); Funny Girl ($1,696,277); and The Phantom of the Opera ($1,643,240). Other shows surpassing the $1 million mark were Aladdin, Beetlejuice, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Leopoldstadt, Moulin Rouge!, Six (at the newly renamed Lena Horne Theatre, formerly the Brooks Atkinson) and Wicked.
Season to date, Broadway has grossed $669,784,339, with total attendance of 5,276,451 at about 87% of capacity.
The 32 productions reporting figures on Broadway last week were & Juliet, 1776, Aladdin, Almost Famous, A Beautiful Noise, Beetlejuice, The Book of Mormon, Chicago, Cost of Living, Death of a Salesman, Funny Girl, Hadestown, Hamilton, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Into the Woods, Kimberly Akimbo, KPOP, Leopoldstadt, The Lion King, Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man & the Pool, The Music Man, MJ, Moulin Rouge!, The Phantom of the Opera, The Piano Lesson, Six, A Strange Loop, Some Like It Hot, Take Me Out, Topdog/Underdog, Walking With Ghosts and Wicked.
All figures courtesy of The Broadway League.