Preview performances of the new Broadway revival of "West Side Story" have lifted spirits across New York theaters: Drawing gross revenues of more than $1 million in each of its first two weeks, the show demonstrates that the appetite for plays and musicals is alive and well despite the recession.
"West Side Story" is but one show — and a gold-standard audience magnet at that — but its gross receipts represent a clear fact amid the uncertainty about the near-term future of the Broadway economy: Audiences have not given up on the theater at this point in the downturn, and producers haven't either.
No major new Broadway production has been canceled because of economic or budget concerns so far this spring. Opening nights abound, from "33 Variations" starring Jane Fonda, which opened Monday, to "Blithe Spirit" with Rupert Everett and Angela Lansbury this Sunday to "Hair" on March 31.
Overall, Broadway is on track to have 43 productions open during the 2008-09 season, an unusually high number at any time, but especially during a recession. By comparison, 36 shows opened during the 2007-08 season and 35 the year before.
"Most of these new shows were being financed before the stock-market meltdown, or decided to go ahead even if they weren't at 100 percent financing" as the extent of the faltering economy became clear this winter, said Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of the Broadway League, the theater industry association. "So there's a lot of reason to feel good about the spring season and the commitment to New York theater."
At the same time, many of these shows — including most of those still to come — are star-driven productions that are only starting to build advance ticket sales, making it far from clear whether Broadway marquees will be bright or dark through this summer and into the fall.
"Hopefully, this run of new plays and musicals will sustain and flourish, but most of the new productions already have a closing date," said Emanuel Azenberg, the Broadway producer who is casting Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" and "Broadway Bound" for revivals next season.
"What I'm wondering is, will we have more than 12 shows running on Broadway on Sept. 15? I just don't know."
Some shows are filling more seats than others, but the latest data on Broadway attendance indicate that ticket discounting and other steps to attract audiences are generating some positive results. Total gross revenue for this season stands at $713.7 million so far, compared with $682.8 million at the same point last season. The 2007-08 total was diminished, though, by the stagehands' strike that shuttered much of Broadway for 19 days.
This January and February, compared with the first two months of 2008, there was a 27 percent reduction in the number of "playing weeks" on Broadway. (The 26 Broadway shows running last week represented 26 playing weeks, a business term used by the theater industry.) Despite that cut — due partly to the many productions that closed during those two months — Broadway shows experienced only a 14 percent slide in attendance over the same period.
"In other words, even though we had fewer shows playing, we still had a lot of people going to the theater," St. Martin said.
No industrywide data exist on sales of premium tickets — priced from $250 to $350 for the best orchestra seats — in the current economic climate. In interviews, several producers said that the premium market was strong for some shows and weak for others, but ultimately represented a small fraction of overall ticket sales.
Meanwhile, off-Broadway has fared unevenly. Some critically acclaimed productions that have closed have yet to find sufficient backing to move to another house, much less to Broadway. The Theater for a New Audience's production of "Othello," which received several rave reviews, closed last weekend after a scheduled limited run, and is reopening briefly in April in hopes of winning support for a transfer to another theater.
On Broadway and off, ticket sales are not setting many records in this economy; many long-running shows have started to see a falloff this winter, and one, the musical "Hairspray," closed for good in January.
