Theater & Broadway News

A new comedy written by Martin McDonagh, "A Behanding in Spokane," opened March 4 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in New York, NY. Directed by Tony Award nominee John Crowley, this is the world premiere of the play, starring Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan.

The production begins with a bizarre premise: Carmichael, played by Walken, has been searching for a missing body part, his left hand, for 47 years. When a couple, played by Mackie and Kazan, offer a hand for sale that they do not actually possess, they learn Carmichael only needs one hand to use a gun. Rockwell takes the part of a skittish hotel clerk.  Full Story...

The twenty seven shows on Broadway struggled in the cold last week posting $14,246,755, a significant drop compared to the $17,755,739 seen in the previous reporting period. This figure is even below the same week last season of $14,829,109. On a brighter note, the gross for the season to date is $766,506,343, exceeding last season's $763,017 total.

Of all the shows currently playing, only Wicked at the Gershwin and The Lion King at the Minskoff were able to reach the million dollar plateau. Of the nine plays, the one with the best performance at the box office was A View from the Bridge at the Cort, reporting $899,916.  Full Story...

There was a welcome bump up in total box office and attendance this week, $15,774,092 compared to last week's anemic $12,878,030. This beats the numbers for the same week last year of $15,660,734. Even the season as a whole is an improvement going from last year's $731,765,303 to $734,503,849 this year. Overall, attendance was up to a comfortable 80.4 percent.

One of the most successful shows this past week was A View from the Bridge at the Cort. It was the only production to fill virtually 100 percent of its 1,079 seats. Four shows ranked in the million-dollar club compared to three last week. They were Wicked at the Gershwin, The Lion King at the Minskoff, Billy Elliot at the Imperial and West Side Story at the Palace.   Full Story...

The Philadelphia Orchestra, one of the nation's most renowned classical music symphonies, is suffering with a financial crisis exacerbated by slow ticket sales. According to the New York Times, the orchestra had a $3.2 million deficit in 2009, and it projects a possible deficit of more than twice that in 2010. The orchestra has generated about $8 million worth of emergency donations and officials hope to raise another $7 million. The exact level of ticket sales was not disclosed, but it is off from the pace of previous years. In 2009, the orchestra cut salaries and canceled a European tour due to budget problems.  Full Story...