The Who's Tommy

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The Who's Tommy on Broadway: Show Is Now Closed

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The Who's Tommy Summary

Show Status: Closed
Genre: Musical
The Who's Tommy is 2.5 hours long, including an intermission of 15 minutes
8 Shows per week
Popularity Index: 15
Previews Began: March 8, 2024
Show Opened : March 28, 2024
Show Closed: July 21, 2024

Rock musical based on The Who's 1969 album, 1975 movie and 1993 Broadway stage show of the same name about an impaired child who overcomes his physical shackles and becomes a messiah

What's The Who's Tommy Like?

A four year old Tommy witnesses his father kill his mother's new boyfriend and Tommy is traumatized into a catatonic state.

He has no further means to communicate with the outside world as he is now deaf, dumb, and blind. Severely disabled by this state and as an adolescent growing up, he discovers a natural talent for playing pinball, a popular pastime in the 1960's.

Using this medium and a solid dose of LSD, Tommy is able to break through his catatonia and rises to becomes a Jesus like superstar with the success and fame that would easily corrupt lesser mortals.

Is The Who's Tommy Good for Kids?

This show contains a large amount of adult material and is not suitable for children including murder

The Who's Tommy Box Office Data

Ticket Sales for the Week Ending 07/21/24

This Week's Gross	$1,039,502.00
Last Week's Gross	$772,892.00
Gross Difference $	$266,610.00
Gross Difference %	+29.42%
Average Ticket Price	$113.21
Seats Sold	9,182
Total Seating Capacity	9,400
Top Ticket Price	$299.00
No. of Performances	8
Capacity This Week	97.68%
Capacity Last Week	72.6%
Capacity Difference %	+25.09%

The Who's Tommy on Broadway Background

1993 Broadway Show Was a Critical and Box Office Success

The 1993 Broadway show won five Tony awards and went on to perform for nearly 900 performances.

1997 London's West End Show Flopped

In an odd reversal of the traditional route, the show then appeared on the West End in London in 1997 and received only three Laurence Olivier Awards as the Brits felt slighted that this very-British musical would make its debut stateside. They hated the show for it

2019 50-Year Anniversary Broadway Run Cancelled

The Who's Tommy was set to return to Broadway in October 2019 to celebrate its 50th year anniversary since the original concept album that debuted in October 1969 .

With the highly acclaimed 1975 movie and the Broadway Premiere in April 1993, producers believes the time was right to finally bring this show back to life on the Broadway stage.

2023 Anniversary Production of The Broadway Show Set For Chicago

A 30th anniversary production of The Who's Tommy played at Chicago's Goodman Theatre in June 2023.

The show's co-book writer and Tony-winning original director, Des McAnuff, returned to stage the show and reexamine the material for the present day. Based on the groundbreaking album, The Who's Tommy features a score by Pete Townshend of the Who, who originally wrote the show with McAnuff.

The show had been scheduled to perform in June 2021, but was curtailed due to COVID-19 Shutdown.

2024 Opening on Broadway

The Who’s Tommy will return to Broadway in spring 2024. The musical revival will begin performances on March 8, 2024, ahead of an official opening of March 28 at the Nederlander Theatre. The production marks the transfer of the 2023 Jeff Award-winning show from Chicago’s Goodman Theatre.

How The Show Has Changed Since The 1993 Production

The ending in the stage musical is different from movie and has been rewritten a number of times to satisfy some more modern sensibilities.

Tommy Sets Closing Date

Barely four months into its run, Tommy is closing on Broadway. The Broadway revival of The Who's Tommy opened in March 2024 and it has announced it is closing on July 21, 2024.

Dwindling Ticket Sales In Summer

The show had started strong at the box office but was facing dwindling ticket sales during the start of the summer when Broadway is packed with shows but still has fewer patrons than before the pandemic.

Strong Start, Weak Follow-Through

The initial amount of show tickets that were sold was at a steady 80-90% of its total inventory for the first two months. The show ticket sales have since dwindled to mid 70%.

The weekly ticket grosses are now steady at $750,000 per week, but its total operating costs were just $100K less than that, so it makes the show a financial liability for investors with very little upside on the horizon.

Poor Marketing Lead To Failure

The show suffered from some poor marketing, even though they spent over $4 million on promotion, but it went in all the wrong places. Instagram ads was not the place where the potential audience was waiting for this show. Other marketing decisions spent the ad money in all the wrong places.

Failure at the 2024 TONY Awards

The Who's Tommy did not win a 2024 Tony Award. The show did receive a TONY nomination for Best Revival of a Musical, but it was beaten by Merrily We Roll Along.

The original show, which opened on Broadway in 1993, won five Tony Awards, including Best Original Score for Pete Townshend, and it was also nominated for Best Musical.