Of the ten plays and twenty-one musicals currently on Broadway, only two, Wicked and Jersey Boys passed the million dollar mark for the week ended Feb. 3. Coming in a distant third and fourth were The Lion King and The Little Mermaid.
Young Frankenstein is still not reporting ticket sales. The total gross ticket sales were $13,260,882, down from the previous reporting period’s sales of $14,451,085. The gross ticket sales for the season to date are $600,519,777, almost 5 percent less than the same time last season with nearly 4 percent less attendance.
In an otherwise light week on Broadway, good news: two icons of the American stage will be honored for their achievements. Award-winning playwright Edward Albee (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The American Dream, Zoo Story) will be honored for his 50-year career at the 5th annual benefit, “Love and Courage,” for the Theater for the New City’s Emerging Playwrights Program. The event takes place on February 10 at the National Arts Club. Albee will be 80 this year.
Separately, the late Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson will be feted at the Kennedy Center by a series of staged readings of his work, beginning March 4, by more than 30 actors and actresses. He is an African-American playwright, best known for his ten-play cycle, 20th Century, each set in a different decade in the 1900s. Radio Golf had a very successful run on Broadway last year.
Finally, David Hyde Pierce will host “A Musical Celebration of Broadway Honoring Roger Berlind” with performances by many of Broadway’s best-known stars. The event honoring the well-known producer takes place on Feb. 11 at the Rainbow Room at the top of the Rockefeller Plaza. Some of Berlind’s credits include: Copenhagen; Kiss Me, Kate; Proof; Anna in the Tropics; Caroline, or Change; Wonderful Town; Doubt; The History Boys; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Deuce and The Year of Magical Thinking.
CLOSING:
Mel Brooks’ The Producers, starring Tony Danza, closes at the Paris in Las Vegas, Feb. 9.
Broadway Gross Ticket Sales Week ending February 3, 2008
All data provided by The League of American Theatres and Producers
| Production (Theatre) |
Weekly Gross | Total Atten. | Prev. | Perf. | Total Capacity | Avg. Ticket Price | Atten. % |
| A Bronx Tale (Walter Kerr) |
$233,266 | 3,452 | 0 | 7 | 949 | $67.57 | 52.0% |
| A Chorus Line (Schoenfeld) |
$261,231 | 4,363 | 0 | 8 | 1,069 | $59.87 | 51.0% |
| August: Osage County (Imperial) |
$559,401 | 7,778 | 0 | 8 | 1,419 | $71.92 | 68.5% |
| Avenue Q (Golden) |
$233,724 | 3,800 | 0 | 8 | 796 | $61.51 | 59.7% |
| Chicago (Ambassador) |
$245,076 | 3,697 | 0 | 8 | 1,080 | $66.29 | 42.8% |
| Come…Sheba (Biltmore) |
$205,016 | 3,669 | 0 | 8 | 650 | $55.88 | 70.6% |
| Curtains (Hirschfeld) |
$370,435 | 5,380 | 0 | 8 | 1,422 | $68.85 | 47.3% |
| Grease (Atkinson) |
$476,769 | 5,825 | 0 | 8 | 1,072 | $81.85 | 67.9% |
| Hairspray (Neil Simon) |
$434,066 | 6,723 | 0 | 8 | 1,428 | $64.56 | 58.8% |
| Is He Dead? (Lyceum) |
$165,165 | 3,262 | 0 | 8 | 922 | $50.63 | 44.2% |
| Jersey Boys (August Wilson) |
$1,081,839 | 9,534 | 0 | 8 | 1,222 | $113.47 | 97.5% |
| Legally Blonde (Palace) |
$437,635 | 7,901 | 0 | 8 | 1,691 | $55.39 | 58.4% |
| Mamma Mia! (Cadillac Winter Garden) |
$600,571 | 8,338 | 0 | 8 | 1,498 | $72.03 | 69.6% |
| Mary Poppins (New Amsterdam) |
$670,553 | 9,216 | 0 | 8 | 1,797 | $72.76 | 64.1% |
| November (Barrymore) |
$424,198 | 5,397 | 0 | 8 | 1,058 | $78.60 | 63.8% |
| Rent (Nederlander) |
$254,859 | 5,078 | 0 | 8 | 1,181 | $50.19 | 53.7% |
| Rock ‘n’ Roll (Jacobs) |
$290,822 | 4,667 | 0 | 8 | 1,074 | $62.31 | 54.3% |
| Spamalot (Shubert) |
$502,097 | 6,936 | 0 | 8 | 1,441 | $72.39 | 60.2% |
| Spring Awakening (O’Neill) |
$416,865 | 6,098 | 0 | 8 | 1,090 | $68.36 | 69.9% |
| Sunday…George (Studio 54) |
$369,396 | 6,940 | 8 | 0 | 1,004 | $53.23 | 86.4% |
| The 39 Steps (American Airlines) |
$261,870 | 5,076 | 0 | 8 | 740 | $51.59 | 85.7% |
| The Color Purple (Broadway) |
$407,422 | 7,342 | 0 | 8 | 1,718 | $55.49 | 53.4% |
| The Farnsworth Invention (Music Box) |
$186,343 | 3,473 | 0 | 8 | 1,005 | $53.65 | 43.2% |
| The Homecoming (Cort) |
$227,557 | 3,871 | 0 | 8 | 1,082 | $58.79 | 44.7% |
| The Lion King (Minskoff) |
$875,769 | 10,684 | 0 | 8 | 1,654 | $81.97 | 80.7% |
| The Little Mermaid (Lunt-Fontanne) |
$860,403 | 9,679 | 0 | 8 | 1,518 | $88.89 | 79.7% |
| The Phantom of the Opera (Majestic) |
$475,303 | 7,653 | 0 | 8 | 1,607 | $62.11 | 59.5% |
| The Seafarer (Booth) |
$235,698 | 4,067 | 0 | 8 | 788 | $57.95 | 64.5% |
| Wicked (Gershwin) |
$1,344,206 | 14,268 | 0 | 8 | 1,809 | $94.21 | 98.6% |
| Xanadu (Hayes) |
$153,328 | 2,430 | 0 | 8 | 596 | $63.10 | 51.0% |