Aw, spring has sprung!
Late-Season Plays Fuel a Surge on Broadway
When the musical “Spring Awakening” closed on Broadway in January, a dark month when the recession threatened shows with big budgets and casts, the modest-sized play “33 Variations” took its place at the Eugene O’Neill Theater.
And when the musicals “13,” “Monty Python’s Spamalot” and “Gypsy” all closed that month as well, their Broadway theaters also went to plays that were, in general, less costly to produce: “God of Carnage,” “Blithe Spirit” and “Desire Under the Elms.”
Broadway has had bust-and-boom cycles before, but based on a review of this season’s grosses, attendance and production, none in recent memory has been quite like the 2008-9 season, which unofficially ended Thursday with the eligibility deadline for the Tony Awards. (The season formally ends in June.) This winter’s cascade of show closings led to some unexpectedly vacant theaters, and producers rushed to fill them - with plays, for the most part, even though musicals usually generate higher grosses and typically account for 85 percent of attendance on Broadway.
That burst of plays helped drive up the number of new Broadway productions this season to 43, the most in 25 years.To date, Broadway has reported $843 million in grosses, about $25 million more than at this point in the 2007-8 season. (A major factor in that difference is the 19-day stagehands’ strike, which shuttered much of Broadway last season.) Several industry leaders - including Charlotte St. Martin, the executive director of the Broadway League, the trade association of theater owners and producers - are predicting that grosses could hit $945 million before the Tony Awards, on June 7. That would set a record. The most unusual swing in the bust-boom cycle has involved recently opened plays. A total of 14 opened on Broadway from March 1 to April 30, compared with 7 that opened or were in previews during the same period last year. This season may seem unusually play-heavy, but the number of plays was about the same in 2007-8; the openings were just spread more evenly across the season.
The fierce competition among plays has left some of them without an audience. One of them, the critically praised “reasons to be pretty,” took an unusual step on Friday: two of the producers, Jeffrey Richards and Jerry Frankel, expressed their concerns about box office receipts in an e-mail message to the cast and crew and urged them to forward the message to friends and others, hoping to raise ticket sales.
“Think of this as a variation on a ‘chain letter,’ ” said the message, a copy of which was provided to The New York Times by a recipient. “The goal is to get this to as many family, friends and colleagues as possible. You send it to your e-mail list, and the recipient does the same prompted by your personal e-mail at the top of the letter. Hopefully, this will turn into increased attendance for our show.”
Mr. Richards said in an interview that the chain e-mail message was one of “many marketing elements” he is exploring to turn positive reviews into revenue. “Having so many great play productions on Broadway is a smorgasbord of thrilling treats for theatergoers, and this season probably will be one of the most successful in recent memory, critically and commercially,” he added.
Indeed, the revivals of the plays “The Seagull,” “Speed-the-Plow” and “All My Sons,” as well as Will Ferrell’s “You’re Welcome America. A Final Night With George W Bush,” earned back their investments (and then some). Yet for many other plays, strong reviews have not translated into strong sales - an indication, several producers said, that Broadway may have reached a breaking point in the number of plays that can be sustained at once.
“I think we’ve finally hit a wall and realized that the audience for Broadway plays is only so big,” said Jeffrey Seller, a musical theater producer whose credits include “Rent,” “Avenue Q,” “In the Heights” and the current revival of “West Side Story.” “I think the play producers finally stretched the rubber band too far, and it snapped.”
In contrast to the 8 new plays and 16 play revivals that opened this season (there were also special attractions, like “Liza’s at the Palace”), the 11 new musicals and 4 musical revivals this season have battled the recession by tapping into the larger market of Broadway theatergoers. Last season, the most recent for which full statistics were available, 10.4 million tickets were sold for musicals and 1.9 million were sold for plays.
For 2008-9, the revivals of the musicals “West Side Story” and “Hair” both received strong reviews and have set box office records, and both have joined the new musical “Billy Elliot” in the top tier of weekly grosses, alongside the continuing hit musicals “Wicked,” “The Lion King,” “Jersey Boys,” “South Pacific” and “Mamma Mia!”
Some new musicals, like “Next to Normal” and “Rock of Ages,” received strong reviews but have been earning low grosses and are hoping that Tuesday’s announcement of the Tony nominations will help build an audience. That is even more true for the plays “reasons to be pretty,” “Irena’s Vow,” “Mary Stuart” and “Desire Under the Elms,” all of which have had blocks of empty seats at recent performances.
While many of the new musicals and most plays ended up discounting tickets this season to cope with the recession, the relatively stable grosses are a counterpoint to predictions in the fall and winter that the recession would crush Broadway - especially after the economy-related postponements of shows that were expected to come to Broadway this season, like the musicals “Vanities” and “Godspell.”
Why didn’t Broadway collapse? Producers and theater owners have only anecdotal information at this point, but based on that, they say that many people in the New York area put off expensive vacations this year, stayed home and chose to see theater instead.
“I’ve heard stories and seen studies of tough economic times in which people do give up their big luxuries, but they really work to keep their affordable luxuries because they feel they deserve it and they still want their time on the golf course or at the spa or at the theater,” Ms. St. Martin said.
“It just defies logic - 43 new productions and these grosses,” she said. “But the fact is that all those shows closing this winter revealed pent-up demand for theaters, and this spring turned out to be crowded with shows.”
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When the musical “Spring Awakening” closed on Broadway in January, a dark month when the recession threatened shows with big budgets and casts, the modest-sized play “33 Variations” took its place at the Eugene O’Neill Theater.
And when the musicals “13,” “Monty Python’s Spamalot” and “Gypsy” all closed that month as well, their Broadway theaters also went to plays that were, in general, less costly to produce: “God of Carnage,” “Blithe Spirit” and “Desire Under the Elms.”
Broadway has had bust-and-boom cycles before, but based on a review of this season’s grosses, attendance and production, none in recent memory has been quite like the 2008-9 season, which unofficially ended Thursday with the eligibility deadline for the Tony Awards. (The season formally ends in June.) This winter’s cascade of show closings led to some unexpectedly vacant theaters, and producers rushed to fill them - with plays, for the most part, even though musicals usually generate higher grosses and typically account for 85 percent of attendance on Broadway.
That burst of plays helped drive up the number of new Broadway productions this season to 43, the most in 25 years.To date, Broadway has reported $843 million in grosses, about $25 million more than at this point in the 2007-8 season. (A major factor in that difference is the 19-day stagehands’ strike, which shuttered much of Broadway last season.) Several industry leaders - including Charlotte St. Martin, the executive director of the Broadway League, the trade association of theater owners and producers - are predicting that grosses could hit $945 million before the Tony Awards, on June 7. That would set a record. The most unusual swing in the bust-boom cycle has involved recently opened plays. A total of 14 opened on Broadway from March 1 to April 30, compared with 7 that opened or were in previews during the same period last year. This season may seem unusually play-heavy, but the number of plays was about the same in 2007-8; the openings were just spread more evenly across the season.
The fierce competition among plays has left some of them without an audience. One of them, the critically praised “reasons to be pretty,” took an unusual step on Friday: two of the producers, Jeffrey Richards and Jerry Frankel, expressed their concerns about box office receipts in an e-mail message to the cast and crew and urged them to forward the message to friends and others, hoping to raise ticket sales.
“Think of this as a variation on a ‘chain letter,’ ” said the message, a copy of which was provided to The New York Times by a recipient. “The goal is to get this to as many family, friends and colleagues as possible. You send it to your e-mail list, and the recipient does the same prompted by your personal e-mail at the top of the letter. Hopefully, this will turn into increased attendance for our show.”
Mr. Richards said in an interview that the chain e-mail message was one of “many marketing elements” he is exploring to turn positive reviews into revenue. “Having so many great play productions on Broadway is a smorgasbord of thrilling treats for theatergoers, and this season probably will be one of the most successful in recent memory, critically and commercially,” he added.
Indeed, the revivals of the plays “The Seagull,” “Speed-the-Plow” and “All My Sons,” as well as Will Ferrell’s “You’re Welcome America. A Final Night With George W Bush,” earned back their investments (and then some). Yet for many other plays, strong reviews have not translated into strong sales - an indication, several producers said, that Broadway may have reached a breaking point in the number of plays that can be sustained at once.
“I think we’ve finally hit a wall and realized that the audience for Broadway plays is only so big,” said Jeffrey Seller, a musical theater producer whose credits include “Rent,” “Avenue Q,” “In the Heights” and the current revival of “West Side Story.” “I think the play producers finally stretched the rubber band too far, and it snapped.”
In contrast to the 8 new plays and 16 play revivals that opened this season (there were also special attractions, like “Liza’s at the Palace”), the 11 new musicals and 4 musical revivals this season have battled the recession by tapping into the larger market of Broadway theatergoers. Last season, the most recent for which full statistics were available, 10.4 million tickets were sold for musicals and 1.9 million were sold for plays.
For 2008-9, the revivals of the musicals “West Side Story” and “Hair” both received strong reviews and have set box office records, and both have joined the new musical “Billy Elliot” in the top tier of weekly grosses, alongside the continuing hit musicals “Wicked,” “The Lion King,” “Jersey Boys,” “South Pacific” and “Mamma Mia!”
Some new musicals, like “Next to Normal” and “Rock of Ages,” received strong reviews but have been earning low grosses and are hoping that Tuesday’s announcement of the Tony nominations will help build an audience. That is even more true for the plays “reasons to be pretty,” “Irena’s Vow,” “Mary Stuart” and “Desire Under the Elms,” all of which have had blocks of empty seats at recent performances.
While many of the new musicals and most plays ended up discounting tickets this season to cope with the recession, the relatively stable grosses are a counterpoint to predictions in the fall and winter that the recession would crush Broadway - especially after the economy-related postponements of shows that were expected to come to Broadway this season, like the musicals “Vanities” and “Godspell.”
Why didn’t Broadway collapse? Producers and theater owners have only anecdotal information at this point, but based on that, they say that many people in the New York area put off expensive vacations this year, stayed home and chose to see theater instead.
“I’ve heard stories and seen studies of tough economic times in which people do give up their big luxuries, but they really work to keep their affordable luxuries because they feel they deserve it and they still want their time on the golf course or at the spa or at the theater,” Ms. St. Martin said.
“It just defies logic - 43 new productions and these grosses,” she said. “But the fact is that all those shows closing this winter revealed pent-up demand for theaters, and this spring turned out to be crowded with shows.”
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