In The Week Ending April 5, 2015, Two New Shows Began Performances – Living On Love And Airline Highway, With Mediocre Box Office Performance.


New Shows: “Living on Love” And “Airline Highway”

In the week ending April 5, 2015, two new shows began previews on Broadway. First of all, Living on Love began previews on April 1, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre. Written by Joe DiPietro (Nice Work if You Can Get It) based on a play called Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, Living on Love is directed by Kathleen Marshall (Anything Goes) and stars opera singer Renee Fleming in her Broadway debut.

Over the course of its first five performances, it brought in $126,172, which represents only 26.13% of its gross potential. With a top ticket price of $275.00, the average paid admission was $31.73, which represents very heavy discounting. Furthermore, the show filled up 74.1% of its audience capacity, so many of these tickets must have been complimentary in addition to discounted.

Rare MTC Female Production

In addition, Airline Highway began previews on April 1, 2015 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in a Manhattan Theatre Club production. Written by Lisa D’Amour (Detroit) and directed by Joe Mantello (An Act of God), Airline Highway is one of the rare MTC productions on Broadway to be written by a woman in recent years.

In its first six performances, the show only brought in $90,799, which represents 20.54% of its gross potential. The average paid admission was $34.67, and average audience capacity was at 69.6%. Fortunately, an MTC production can afford these low wraps more than a commercial work such as Living on Love, as the not-for-profit’s endowment should help make up for some of these losses.

Big Leaps In A Nine-Show Week

This past week, three of the top-grossing musicals on Broadway made the choice to play for nine performances, up from the usual eight. It is unclear why all three of these shows made this decision for the same reason, although two of them – Aladdin and The Lion King – are both Disney Theatricals productions and therefore probably made this choice in tandem.

The third show is Wicked, which along with those two is generally at the top of the box office charts. In the week ending April 5, 2015, therefore, each of these shows saw a major increase in ticket sales. The Lion King went up by $569,329, which is accounted for not just by the extra performance, as the gross potential also went up to 100.78% from 99.2% the week before.

Increases For Wicked And Aladdin

Wicked saw an increase of $486,223, and Aladdin went up by $454,855. One of the reasons that these three musicals chose to add a performance may have been due to the timing of spring break, as these three shows are all major fare for tourists and families alike.

The following are the Broadway ticket sales numbers for the week ending April 5, 2015:
Broadway-Show-Ticket-Analysis-4-05-15
Show Name GrossGross Total Attn %Capacity AvgPdAdm
A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER $617,753 6,475 89.24% $95.41
AIRLINE HIGHWAY $90,799 2,619 69.62% $34.67
ALADDIN $2,024,667 15,508 100.01% $130.56
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS $967,151 12,114 92.28% $79.84
BEAUTIFUL $835,957 7,312 89.08% $114.33
CHICAGO $669,411 7,463 86.38% $89.70
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO $368,018 7,480 72.30% $49.20
FINDING NEVERLAND $1,153,212 11,804 99.76% $97.70
FISH IN THE DARK $1,196,788 8,720 101.58% $137.25
FUN HOME $310,222 4,221 90.54% $73.49
GIGI $585,448 8,619 90.80% $67.93
HAND TO GOD $213,302 4,848 77.49% $44.00
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH $493,136 5,454 77.37% $90.42
HONEYMOON IN VEGAS $368,966 5,371 58.38% $68.70
IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU $310,872 5,473 69.95% $56.80
IT’S ONLY A PLAY $514,337 6,093 70.72% $84.41
JERSEY BOYS $710,080 7,466 76.00% $95.11
KINKY BOOTS $937,627 9,165 80.45% $102.31
LES MISÉRABLES $981,252 10,848 96.24% $90.45
LIVING ON LOVE $126,172 3,977 74.13% $31.73
MAMMA MIA! $813,160 8,884 95.24% $91.53
MATILDA $1,416,637 11,493 100.32% $123.26
ON THE TOWN $563,746 9,468 63.15% $59.54
ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY $509,348 5,398 93.46% $94.36
SKYLIGHT $625,494 6,201 96.65% $100.87
SOMETHING ROTTEN! $507,102 10,257 95.33% $49.44
THE AUDIENCE $1,142,590 7,505 100.29% $152.24
THE BOOK OF MORMON $1,517,640 8,751 102.61% $173.42
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME $749,788 7,412 91.01% $101.16
THE HEIDI CHRONICLES $275,393 3,994 49.88% $68.95
THE KING AND I $828,367 8,376 100.00% $98.90
THE LION KING $2,633,531 15,295 99.97% $172.18
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA $1,230,960 11,142 86.78% $110.48
THE VISIT $214,803 5,155 71.52% $41.67
WICKED $2,358,372 15,857 91.48% $148.73
WOLF HALL PARTS ONE & TWO $689,541 8,127 73.45% $84.85
Totals $29,551,639 294,345 85.37% $91.82
Broadway ticket sales raw data are provided courtesy of The Broadway League All other data, text, opinion, charts and commentary are copyright © 2015 nytix.com