The Sad State of the Broadway Musical
For a brief moment, all 41 Broadway theaters were occupied, playing the latest plays and musicals, as we got closer to the TONY awards ceremony on June 5. But the season has not been a healthy one and the closings have begun. This past weekend, *Beaches* played their last performance. We’ve already had the closing announcement for *Moulin Rouge* and today comes the announcement that the revival of *Chess* won’t play past star Lea Michelle’s departure on June 21.
A barometer of production health has always been the percentage of seats filled, combined with the average ticket price. Are people paying full price for shows or are they relying on discounted tickets through rush, lottery and TKTS? Looking at the numbers last week, I see trouble on the horizon, and not just for new shows. *Six* is playing to under 60% of capacity with an average ticket price under $100. The long-running hit *Chicago* may have finally worn out it’s welcome as they are playing to houses less than 65% full. *Great Gatsby* and *Two Strangers* are struggling along with 75% of seats filled at those shows.
Broadway has ups and downs and this season has seen a much higher number of plays, historically lower attended, even with the incredible star power of John Lithgow, Don Cheadle, Jon Bernthal, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Nathan Lane. Hope springs eternal, though, with hits like Schmigadoon, hovering between 85-90% of capacity, *Ragtime*, selling out fairly consistently and last year’s Best Musical winner, *Maybe Happy Ending* filling 95% of seats.
Many shows currently playing on Broadway were designed to be limited engagements. All of the plays have scheduled closing dates, while several musicals do as well, including *Operation Mincemeat*, which has extended it’s run 9 times, *Titanique* and even the huge hit *The Rocky Horror Show*.
Broadway musicals are expensive to put on and people are simply not buying tickets far in advance like they did pre-pandemic, so something has to give. There are many ways to get discounted tickets, I rarely pay more than $60 per ticket for a show.But without those full priced ticket sales, the musical as we’ve come to know it must change. How is up to the theater owners and the creative minds to come up with new, innovative ways to mount the shows.
