Broadway’s Covid Autumn: Brand-Name Hits Thrived While Riskier Shows Starved – Report
deadline.comBroadway’s pre-Omicron autumn might best be described using a song lyric sung on stage every night by American Utopia‘s David Byrne: “Same as it ever was.”As disappointing but hardly surprising private box office data obtained by The New York Times indicates, Broadway audiences returned from the 18-month pandemic shutdown last fall with old habits intact.
Ticket-buyers chose big, brand-name musicals (think Hamilton, Wicked, The Lion King, et.al.) and some equally high-profile plays (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Lehman Trilogy) while largely ignoring plays that were unfamiliar (Chicken & Biscuits) and/or experimental (Dana H., Is This a Room).New musicals did not go unscathed: The critically panned Diana played to half-empty houses during the week that ended Dec.
12, while musicals that were acclaimed (Girl From the North Country) or received mixed reviews (Flying Over Sunset) didn’t seem to fare much better, at least during some fall weeks.The box office figures obtained by The Times offer the first detailed glimpse of Broadway business during the post-shutdown era.
The Broadway League, which has traditionally released show-by-show weekly grosses, this season has opted to release only the combined weekly figure for all Broadway productions.
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