Broadway on holiday high
'Grinch' beats out 'Wicked' on Great White Way
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"Grinch" ($1,681,661) edged out "Wicked" ($1,681,134) by a mere $500. And those boffo $1.6 million tallies came even before the week between Christmas and New Year's, the sesh during which holiday B.O. traditionally goes through the roof.
"The Lion King" ($1,328,450), "Mary Poppins" ($1,299,957) and "Jersey Boys" ($1,190,518) rounded out the week's millionaire's club, while "A Chorus Line" ($908,915) registered exceptionally strong sales for a tuner in a smaller-sized house.
Many shows did solid biz along the Rialto, and of the shows that saw sales dips, most could be explained by a reduced holiday sked of seven perfs.
One notable exception was "Company" ($410,224), which saw a dip of more than $125,000 during a full eight-perf week, indicating that the intellectual, Gotham-centric tuner has yet to click with tourists.
Long runners such as "The Phantom of the Opera" ($874,325) and "Beauty and the Beast" ($768,229) got their usual tourist-fueled bumps, landing them in the top 10 for the holidays.
But while Broadway receipts totaled more than $20 million, expect an even higher tally from next week's holiday bonanza -- when "Grinch" and "Wicked" go head to head for the rematch.
