Summer heats up Broadway B.O.

'Legally Blonde' gets bump from reality show

By GORDON COX

Helped by the bow of a tie-in MTV reality show, 'Legally Blonde' got the biggest sales boost of the frame.

Broadway sales started to gain a little summer sizzle last week, with most productions seeing receipts rise -- though not, in general, in great leaps and bounds.

Biggest gain of the sesh was seen by "Legally Blonde" ($590,753), which bumped up more than $140,000 on the same week that "Legally Blonde the Musical: The Search for Elle Woods" preemed on MTV, suggesting there may indeed by a B.O. payoff to the reality TV competish to replace star Laura Bell Bundy.

Many of the individual boosts of the week were in the $30,000 or less range, although two Disney offerings, "The Little Mermaid" ($976,491) and "Mary Poppins" ($789,723) stepped up by more than $75,000 each, and estimates for "Young Frankenstein" ($868,000) climbed around $70,000.

Heading in to the Tony ceremony Sunday, "In the Heights" ($659,937) was up more than $50,000. Gains were minimal for fellow tuner nominees "Cry-Baby" ($232,269) and "Passing Strange" (213,088), while an additional $25,000 for "Xanadu" ($187,244) still didn't push the show over the $200,000 mark.

None of those offerings outpaced two popular revivals, with both "South Pacific" ($763,341) and "Gypsy" ($705,200) staking out spots in the top ten.

Top play of the frame was "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" ($694,741), followed by Tony-nommed shows "August: Osage County" ($400,733) and "Boeing-Boeing" ($379,190).

Total cume for the street climbed around $645,000 to $18.2 million for 34 show reporting, or $19.1 million including "Frankenstein" estimates.

Most of the frame's box office dips were minimal, although "Rent" ($330,942) sank a mammoth $220,000. Blame it on the fact that biz the prior week had been juiced by the original closing announcement that the long-running musical was skedded to shutter June 1.

The end date for "Rent" has since been postponed til September, so expect sales to build momentum again as the final perf approaches.