By Stacey Willets
TicketNews.com
Although Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band make the charts this week, it’s been Hannah Montana rocking the rankings. Will Hannah be able to maintain her position atop TicketNews.com’s weekly exclusive Top Tens, or will The Boss put an end to her Glory Days?
If you’re fighting the urge to weep over the unofficial end of summer, look no further than the Overall Top Tens to find events that will make this fall worth looking forward to. Hannah Montana retains the top spot for a third straight week, putting her on course to rival The Police for the title of concert event with the most consecutive weeks at number one. She may soon see competition from Bruce Springsteen, who debuts on the chart at number six even before the explosion of the upcoming weekend’s on-sale. It has yet to be seen if Springsteen and the E Street Band will offer more of a challenge to Miss Montana than Van Halen. Despite the fact that fans have been waiting for this Van Halen tour since the 1980s, their sales have already begun to taper, causing them to drop from the number two position to number three this week . . .
While sports fans have their undying allegiances and love their underdogs, it can’t be denied that winning is generally good for ticket sales. With a three game sweep of their series against the Boston Red Sox and their current lead in the American League Wild Card race, the New York Yankees once again take the top of the Sports chart. The Sox, leading the AL East, stay at number three, the Chicago Cubs move up to eight, and the NFL occupies the remaining seven spots.
Classics like tenth-ranked Phantom of the Opera are certainly well-loved, but for the New York theatergoer looking for something fresh, Cirque Du Soleil’s Wintuk opens at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden this November. While the show is preparing for its first winter of a four year seasonal run, it is already climbing through the rankings, debuting at number seven on the Top NYC Theatre chart.
Young Frankenstein, a musical adapted by Mel Brooks from his movie of the same name, just wrapped up in Seattle and will be opening on Broadway November 8. The show appears at number nine on the Top Theatre chart and moves up to number six in the Top NYC Theatre rankings, and provides another bit of novelty . . . unless you’ve seen the film.
After watching how quickly tickets to top-ranked concerts Hannah Montana and Van Halen sold out, concertgoers are not willing to chance missing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Though the public on-sale is not scheduled until Saturday, fans of The Boss are already reserving their tickets through the secondary market, propelling Springsteen to number four this week. With four years between this tour and their last, it joins several long-awaited concerts reviving the industry with “old” music, including the much anticipated Van Halen tour at number two and Stevie Wonder’s tour at number five.
It looks as if Céline Dion will reign supreme til the end, continuing to hold the top spot on the Vegas chart as procrastinators buy their tickets to Dion’s A New Day . . . before it end its five year engagement at Caesar’s Palace. The hotel is also home to fifth-ranked Elton John and sixth-ranked Bette Midler.
To see this week’s rankings, check out the press release in the Daily Buzz section of TicketNews.com.