Tony Awards help give Broadway ticket sales a bump

The 2011 Tony Awards and long-anticipated opening of “Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark” helped fuel a slight increase in Broadway ticket sales to $21,540,623 for the week ending Sunday June 12, up from the previous week’s tally of $20,598,779. The total for the new season to date is $42,139,402, down 2.1 percent from the same period last year of $43,061,754.

The American Theatre Wing’s 65th annual Tony Awards took place over the weekend at Beacon Theatre in New York City with the musical “The Book of Mormon” leaving as the big winner of the night. The show took home nine awards including Best Musical and Best Direction, which went to Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker.

While “The Book of Mormon” and many productions celebrated their award-winning accomplishments, the producers of “Spider-Man” celebrated finally having their show hold its opening night after having more previews than any show in Broadway history. The show officially opened its doors last night, June 14, and was one of only six productions with sales of more than $1 million last week, finishing at $1,210,619.

Along with “Spider-Man,” the other five productions to reach seven figures were “Wicked” at the Gershwin leading at $1,752,076, “The Lion King” at the Minskoff, $1,690,120, “The Book of Mormon” at the Eugene O’Neill, $1,184,507, “Jersey Boys” at the August Wilson, $1,056,720 and “How to Succeed in Business” at the Al Hirschfeld, $1,001,672. The play “Ghetto Klown” at the Lyceum reported the lowest return at the box office, $182,653.

Of the 10 plays on Broadway, “War Horse” at the Beaumont, another multiple Tony winner, continues to lead ticket sales at $919,440, with “The Motherf**ker With the Hat” at the Broadway trailing at $633,130.

Attendance was up from 75.96 percent to 79.72 percent overall with seven shows reported 95 percent or more capacity. Again this week, four shows reported 100 percent or better: the musical “The Book of Mormon” at 102.41 percent, with “Wicked,” “War Horse” and “Anything Goes” reporting full houses at 100 percent. The one-man play featuring Robin Williams, “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” playing at the Richard Rodgers, reported the lowest percentage of capacity at 43.20 percent. It will close July 3.

Comparing performance in the Gross Gross Potential category, three shows achieved 95 percent or better with “The Book of Mormon” reporting 115.53 percent, “Wicked” reporting 111.85 percent and “The Lion King” 99.99 percent. Reporting the lowest figure again was “Arcadia” at 22.37 percent.

The same five shows continue to post tickets with face values at or exceeding $300, including “Jersey Boys” at $350. “Arcadia” at the Marquis offered the best bargain-priced average ticket this week at $44.38.

“Master Class” starring Tyne Daly as opera super-star Maria Callas begins previews this week at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on June 14 and opens July 7.

“Million-Dollar Quartet” closed its doors Sunday. In its run, it played 34 previews and 489 regular performances.

All data provided by The Broadway League