Mariska Hargitay, making her Broadway debut taking over from Daniel Radcliffe as the star of Every Brilliant Thing, proved quite the draw in her first week on the job: Attendance at the Hudson Theatre was at 97% of capacity, and although last week’s gross of $1,135,322 was a considerable drop from the previous when Radcliffe said goodbye with record-setting $2M+ numbers, the figure is comparable, even higher, than the grosses of Radcliffe’s earliest weeks in the role.
Hargitay is with the show through Sunday, July 5. Tracee Ellis Ross takes over thereafter.
With this Sunday’s Tony Awards fast approaching, three big contenders were sell-outs for the week ending May 31: Death of a Salesman, Ragtime and The Rocky Horror Show (grossing, respectively, $1,815,063, $1,321,199 and $1,111,880.) (Hamilton and Just In Time also were sell-outs.)
Nominees with attendance in the 90% or more capacity Becky Shaw ($494,075), Cats: The Jellicle Ball ($907,429), Fallen Angels ($661,226), Giant ($1,150,819), Joe Turner’s Come and Gone ($966,962) and The Lost Boys ($1,259,753). Proof, shut out from the nominations, was at 94% of capacity at the Booth, with a gross of $752,965.
Nominees with attendance below the 90% mark were Chess (88%, $1,012,984); Schmigadoon! (86%, $858,147); Titanique (82%, $791,394); The Balusters (79%, $326,322); and Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) (76%, $595,537). The Fear of 13, with nominations for lighting and sound design, was at 72% and $550,743.
Some other notable numbers:
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, with the film franchise’s Tom Felton on vacation, dropped $116,990 from the previous week, landing at $1,041,377 and attendance at 88% of capacity. Felton returns to the role of Draco Malfoy tonight;
- The Book of Mormon returned to the O’Neill Theatre last week after being off since the big May 4 fire at the venue. The show was at 86% of capacity for its first seven return performances, grossing $649,547;
- Celebrity Autobiography took in a probably unsustainable $44,153 for seven performances (the Thursday evening performance was canceled). Only 26% of seats were occupied for the week at the Shubert;
- With Maya Rudolph in the title role of Oh, Mary!, the comedy had the highest ticket price of the week at $204.31. Gross for the nearly sold-out week was $1,452,044.
In all, the 40 Broadway productions grossed $37,314,104 for the week ending May 31, down about 8% from the previous week and about 17% from last year at this time. Attendance was 320,908, down 5% from the previous week and 4% year-to-year.
All figures courtesy of The Broadway League. For more box office information visit the League’s website.