Presidential payoff
Holiday weekend delivers healthy B.O. gain
The big uptick is actually even more impressive since the city's "Spend Your Regards to Broadway" subsidy of about $183,000 in purchased tickets per week was suspended last session due to the holiday; the program returns this week and will run through March 9 despite the generally upbeat biz.
Indeed, Feb. 11-17 compared favorably with midmonth B.O. a year ago, which rang up $11,688,124 for 25 shows. Twenty-four shows this time around produced a nearly identical $11,528,697, with "The Goat" and "The Crucible" in previews putting in only two perfs each, and Lincoln Center's "QED" and "Mostly Sondheim" doing just one apiece.
A quartet of musicals experienced huge six-figure increases: "Aida" (up $223,820), "Beauty and the Beast" ($178,940), "Chicago" ($160,202) and "42nd Street" ($143,186). The long-running "Rent" also impressed with a $97,754 bump that translated into a final $418,512.
"Les Miserables" and "The Phantom of the Opera," which had dipped under their respective break-even levels for the last three weeks of January, saw less awesome increases last week. Up $56,133, "Les Miz" closed with $425,035, while "Phantom" picked up an additional $45,398, helping it to a $558,533 finish.
Medium gainers
More modest gains also were reaped by "Cabaret" (up $13,778); "Contact" (up $20,053); "The Full Monty" (up $41,853); and "Urinetown" (up $38,206), which finished with $343,846 on its gross potential of $386,346.
The last week of previews for "Bea Arthur on Broadway" jumped $33,353 to finish with $238,382 on its gross potential of $362,923. Still in previews, "Elaine Stritch at Liberty" increased its biz marginally to wind up with a final $314,967 on its potential of $425,379.
Surprisingly, "Mamma Mia!" experienced the only B.O. dip from the previous week. Performing at 95.9% capacity, the Abba tuner dropped $563 to close at $981,102, just under its gross potential of $985,504.
Sizzlin' Bacon
As for the plays, Kevin Bacon's solo turn with "An Almost Holy Picture" zoomed up $63,527 to close with $259,042 on a $349,943 potential. "Noises Off" also took a leap, up $62,414 for a $419,128 final tally. And the long-running "Proof" had one of its best weeks ever, taking in $327,630 thanks to a $46,801 bounce over the previous week.
Just under 100% capacity, one perf of Alan Alda in "QED" ($49,861) performed at 98.4%, two perfs of "The Goat" ($61,603) came in at 95.95% while two of "The Crucible" ($181,934) did 96%. Respective average price tickets for those three plays were $47.49, $39.95 and $75.18, the third highest on Broadway after "Mamma Mia!" and "The Producers."
"The Lion King" and "The Producers" did their usual sold-out business, with the latter producing its best figures ($1,275,342) with only four more weeks of Lane and Broderick.
