'Boeing-Boeing' takes flight

Broadway Grosses

By VARIETY STAFF

NEW YORK -- Broadway grosses saw a healthy bump-up from Tony Awards exposure in Week 4 (June 16-22), with the ripple effect impacting not only prize winners but notably some also-rans that went home empty-handed but made the most of their exposure on the kudocast.

Top musical winner "In the Heights" boosted business by 12%, scoring its best week to date at the Richard Rodgers Theater; the hip-hop tuner grossed $902,866, skirting close to 100% capacity. Best play honoree "August: Osage County" climbed by a more modest 2%, raking in $528,473.

The winner for play revival, "Boeing-Boeing," broke the house record at the Longacre Theater for the second consecutive week, tallying $438,405, while top musical revival "South Pacific" continued to play to SRO business with an $811,173 haul. Honored in three acting categories, "Gypsy" had a strong week, boosting business by 16% to land in the eighth spot with $898,739.

Producers of "Xanadu" say reaction to the show's musical number on the Tonycast was directly responsible for a 17% jump in grosses to $245,632, with four sold-out perfs. Other shows that failed to turn their nominations into wins but scored box office upticks nonetheless included the "Grease" revival, up 18% to $678,348, and the short-lived "Cry-Baby," which grew by 20% in its closing week, adding $331,170 to its $4 million cume.

Also in its closing week, the all-black "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" revival was the top-grossing nonmusical, with a sell-out $784,781 gross contributing to its $12.6 million total. The show recouped its $2.1 million capitalization in May, joining "A Raisin in the Sun" and "The Color Purple" among the more profitable recent productions to court African-American auds.

Heading into its final week of performances, Manhattan Theater Club's critically lauded revival of Caryl Churchill's "Top Girls" registered its best week yet, with $244,326.

Elsewhere on the boards, "Avenue Q," "Chicago," "A Chorus Line," "Curtains," "Hairspray," "Mamma Mia!," "Monty Python's Spamalot" and "Spring Awakening" all saw significant hikes. The Tony performance by the reassembled original "Rent" cast helped push that show's grosses by 27%, and "Legally Blonde" continued to benefit from exposure on MTV's "Blonde"-related reality show, increasing sales by 19%.

Perennial favorites "Wicked," "The Lion King" and "Jersey Boys" all held strong, pumping the week's overall total to $20,546,989, up by $1.4 million from the previous week but consistent with the same frame last year. Unofficial estimates for the week peg the tally for "Young Frankenstein," which does not report grosses, at $949,000.

Major exceptions to the upward trend were Laurence Fishburne starrer "Thurgood," which dipped by 11%, and Harvey Fierstein-John Bucchino musical "A Catered Affair," down by 23% after last week's announcement of a July 27 closing date.

The 27 musicals grossed $17,553,811 for 83.7% of the Broadway total, with an attendance of 234,700 at 85.3% capacity and average paid admission of $74.79.

The nine plays grossed $3,409,036 for 16.3% of the Broadway total, with an attendance of 50,684 at 75.9% capacity and average paid admission of $67.26.

Average paid admission was $73.45 for all shows.