Biz slips; 'Fiddler' 457g

Broadway grosses

By VARIETY STAFF

NEW YORK -- Broadway receipts retreated $436,169, or 2.67%, for Week 10 (Aug. 1-7), but still added up to a grand total of $15,899,215 for 27 shows. That's a record in dollars, but not paid attendance, where the week's 225,728 fell a couple thousand short of what Broadway sold in tix in the same sesh of 2001 and '02.

Despite the overall dip, house records were set at the Gershwin, Shubert and Circle in the Square, thanks to, respectively, "Wicked" ($1,312,297), "Monty Python's Spamalot" ($1,012,946) and "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" ($475,470).

Only nine other shows saw their grosses grow -- and not by much. Up $17,138, "Fiddler on the Roof" ($456,662) saw the biggest increase.

Elsewhere under the top 10, smaller gains benefited "Avenue Q" ($469,495); "Chicago" ($502,378); "Glengarry Glen Ross" ($423,569); "The Constant Wife" ($290,223); "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" ($179,098); and "Rent" ($459,198).

"Lennon" ($265,474) took the biggest dive, down $64,285. The tuner played only six previews, taking off a Wednesday matinee and its originally scheduled opening night (Thursday). .

Other shows' tumbles did not have the good excuse of skipped perfs. "All Shook Up" ($427,033) slipped $42,682, losing 9.1% vs. its former gross and playing to only 62.1% capacity.

The 20 musicals grossed $13,692,714 for 86.1% of the Broadway total, with attendance of 191,495 at 85.8% of capacity.

The seven plays grossed $2,206,501 for 13.9% of the Broadway total, with attendance of 34,233 at 71.7% of capacity.

Average paid admission was $71.50 for musicals, $64.46 for plays and $70.44 for all shows.