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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Broadway Sees Highest Grossing Season on Record
Broadway's 2024-2025 season grossed $1.89 billion across all productions, marking the highest season on record and a recovery from the pandemic. The gross totals are up 23 percent from last season, and, significantly, the numbers also come in above Broadway's 2018-2019 season, which had held the record for $1.83 billion in gross revenue and had been the benchmark against which Broadway was measuring its post-pandemic recovery. Broadway first overtook the 2018-2019 season grosses in early May. More from The Hollywood Reporter Lea Michele, Aaron Tveit, Nicholas Christopher to Lead Broadway Revival of 'Chess' James Corden, Neil Patrick Harris and Bobby Cannavale to Star on Broadway This Fall Broadway Box Office: 'Redwood' Ends Run With Momentum, Clooney Stays on Top In the prior two seasons, Broadway grossed $1.54 billion and $1.58 billion respectively. The 2019-2020 and 2021-2022 seasons were both shortened due to the pandemic. The 2024-2025 season began May 20, 2024 and ended May 25, 2025. Attendance for the 2024-2025 season came in at 14.66 million, below the 14.77 million from the 2018-2019 season, suggesting that increased ticket prices played a part in the higher grosses this past season. Average ticket prices were up 3 percent from last season and up 4 percent from the 2018-2019 season. While Broadway League president Jason Laks celebrated the grosses achievement, he also underlined the trend. 'As we look to next season, we have to be sober about the challenges Broadway faces. We can't be satisfied with 2019's definition of success anymore. With rising costs hitting every facet of production, it is becoming harder and harder to bring live theatre to the stage. Shows today have an ever-shorter window to get on their feet. The investment that fuels Broadway is something we can't ever take for granted,' Laks said in a statement. Among the high earners this season, Good Night, and Good Luck yet again broke its own record for highest weekly gross for a play on Broadway, bringing in $4.2 million last week and playing to more than 100 percent capacity at the Winter Garden Theater. The average ticket price for the play was $337.59. The play is currently scheduled to end its run June 8. The next highest earners last week were Othello, starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, with $3.3 million and the highest average ticket price of $398, and Glengarry Glen Ross, starring Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk and Bill Burr, which earned $2.7 million across a nine-performance week. Wicked and The Lion King rounded out the top five, with $2.3 million and $2 million respectively. Overall, Broadway grosses were up 7 percent over the prior week, as the industry races toward the June 9 Tony Awards ceremony and as many shows, including several best musical nominees Death Becomes Her (up $229,324) Maybe Happy Ending (up $87,044), Dead Outlaw (up $62,530) and more saw boosts in their grosses over the prior week. Call Me Izzy, a one-woman show starring Jean Smart, also joined the boards last week, playing two previews at Studio 54 and playing to 94 percent capacity. Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
New York Post
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
How Nicole Scherzinger, Audra McDonald, Darren Criss and Jonathan Groff are battling for Tony Awards
The weather was rainy in New York last week. And on Broadway, when it rained, it poured. There was a torrent of activity in the race to the Tonys on June 8 — a lot of campaigning, some award shake-ups and the Broadway League's Spring Road Conference. That's when hundreds of out-of-town presenters, known as 'the road,' descend on Manhattan to party, I mean, work! 6 Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen star in 'Maybe Happy Ending' on Broadway. FilmMagic The annual convention's main purpose is to encourage regional markets to book tours of new musicals. One lyin' presenter told me, 'We want ALL these shows to come to us!' Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the conference's dirtier use is to sway the 100-or-so road voters to pick them at the Tonys next month. There are only about 800 voters in total, so Florida, Ohio and Illinois make a dent. A big hit, I'm told, was the 'Death Becomes Her' soiree at Sony Hall. The comedy's stars Megan Hilty, Jennifer Simard and Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child all showed up and schmoozed. The much funnier stage version of the movie starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn was also very popular with the visitors. 'Death' has emerged as the more traditional, crowd-pleasing alternative to the Best Musical frontrunner, robot rom-com 'Maybe Happy Ending,' which stars Darren Criss and Helen J. Chen as smitten androids. 6 Jennifer Simard and 'Death Becomes Her' co-star Megan Hilty both showed at their show's road conference bash, FilmMagic That special show's fete was at the Edison Rooftop. Revelers posed with breakout star HwaBoon, a prop houseplant. Team 'Maybe Happy Ending' team will likely soon be posing with a Tony. Not entirely giving up, fellow nominees — the corpse-icals — got in on the action, too. 'Operation Mincemeat' threw a bash at La Grande Boucherie, and little 'Dead Outlaw' went low-key with just a talkback. Scrappier is the fight for Best Play. 'Oh, Mary!,' Cole Escola's Mary Todd Lincoln farce that's printing money at the Lyceum, held a post-show chat with famous funnyman Tony Kushner. Smart. The 'Angels in America' writer's stamp of approval lends a bit of prestige to Broadway's filthiest 80 minutes. 6 Cole Escola is the frontrunner for Best Actor in a Play, and 'Oh, Mary!' could also take home Best Play. REUTERS Incredible Escola has been the obvious pick for Best Actor for months, but now the play itself is gaining momentum. At the New York Drama Critics Circle Awards at 54 Below, where I stood proudly in the back, Escola received a special citation and thanked the critics (what an idea!) for seriously evaluating 'Oh, Mary!' with the same respect we would a dark drama. The production's winning message: A great play is a great play. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' excellent 'Purpose' could still take it in the end. And 'John Proctor is the Villain' held fun 'silent discos' in Shubert Alley every night last week. However, the odds are with Mary Todd. 6 Sarah Snook will likely win Best Actress in a Play. Getty Images Sarah Snook from 'Succession' is winning Best Actress in a Play for 'The Picture of Dorian Gray,' but producers of the now-closed 'The Roommate' clearly must still think their star Mia Farrow has a shot. The show about an unlikely friendship between an Iowan and a Brooklynite, which starred Patti LuPone alongside Farrow, threw a secret cannabis-infused party. Some Actor in a Musical antics: Tom Francis spontaneously reenacted his 'Sunset Boulevard' walk at the piano bar Marie's Crisis in the Village Monday; Jonathan Groff snapped selfies at the 'Just in Time' bash at Lavan in Chelsea and Darren Criss, also a producer of 'Happy Ending,' hopped all over town. 6 Nicole Scherzinger got her Sardi's portrait unveiled this week, and won the Drama League's Distinguished Performance Award. Photo Image Press via ZUMA / But the biggest battle remains Best Actress in a Musical: Nicole Scherzinger in 'Sunset Boulevard' vs. Audra McDonald in 'Gypsy.' A delectable twist came on Friday when McDonald announced the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance: 'Nicole Scherzinger,' she said. McDonald wasn't eligible, but the Pussycat Doll still beat out 50 other nominees. It's a boost. Scherzinger also charmed the crowd at Sardi's Thursday at her caricature unveiling. 'Don't make me sing,' she said to laughs. 6 Audra McDonald is in a tight race with Nicole Scherzinger for Best Actress in a Musical. Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock McDonald and her 'Gypsy' director George C. Wolfe partook in a Q&A during the conference. And a couple days earlier, the six-time winner got a glowing writeup from former New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley dissecting her performance of the song 'Rose's Turn.' A person suggested to me that it could help tip the scales to Audra. But the only issue the Times is able to decide anymore is: Should I make Chicken Piccata or Chicken Parmesan? Norma Desmond is currently ahead of Mama Rose.
New York Times
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
George Clooney and Denzel Washington Power Broadway to Prepandemic Heights
Broadway's box office has finally surpassed its prepandemic peak, fueled by three starry dramas and one green witch. The Broadway League, a trade organization representing producers and theater owners, released data on Tuesday showing that grosses for the current theater season, which ends later this month, have now reached $1.801 billion. That's higher than the $1.793 billion grossed at the same point in the record-setting 2018-2019 season, which was the last full season before the coronavirus pandemic shut down Broadway in March 2020. There are caveats. This season is not quite over. The numbers are not adjusted for inflation. Attendance is still down about 3 percent from its prepandemic peak. And, because the costs of producing shows on Broadway have skyrocketed, the financial failure rate is up and profitability is down. Still, the box-office news is encouraging to the industry. 'This is a really important benchmark,' Jason Laks, the League's president, said in an interview. 'We're creating jobs, and artists' work is being seen.' 'It shows that people are responding to our productions,' he added. 'But our goal is not to make it 2019 again. Our goal is to keep growing, to bring more diverse audiences, and to keep our industry thriving and sustainable. We're really looking for sustainable growth.' Broadway, which looms large as an economic engine and an artistic apex, was hit hard by the pandemic. Its 41 theaters were closed for about a year and a half, and cost inflation, hybrid work, and disruptions to tourism and to entertainment habits have made rebounding a challenge. The season about to end has been a strong one. There have been 76 productions onstage, including 42 that were eligible for Tony Awards because they opened since last May. Screen stars flocked to Broadway — George Clooney, Robert Downey Jr., Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal among them. And, for the first time in years, over the course of the season there have been shows in every Broadway house; 40 shows are now running. Broadway's offerings this season are particularly varied, running the gamut from the out-there (two musicals about corpses, 'Dead Outlaw' and 'Operation Mincemeat') to the big-brand (Netflix is producing a special-effects-rich prequel to 'Stranger Things'). But two distinct economic factors have fueled this season's grosses. While Broadway has historically been powered by musicals, which tend to be of greatest appeal to the tourists who make up the bulk of the audience, plays have claimed the leading role this season. And though 'Wicked' opened more than two decades ago, there has been an upsurge of interest in the ever-popular musical. Both developments are, in part, Hollywood related. Three plays featuring film, television and comedy stars — 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' starring Clooney; 'Othello,' starring Washington and Gyllenhaal; and 'Glengarry Glen Ross,' starring Kieran Culkin, Bill Burr and Bob Odenkirk — are accounting for more than 20 percent of Broadway's weekly box office this spring, even though they make up just 7 percent of the shows. They are doing that without a ton of critical support, and none of them was nominated for best play or best play revival. But each has just become profitable — a rare feat on Broadway. 'Glengarry Glen Ross' has recouped its capitalization costs of up to $7.5 million; 'Othello,' up to $9 million; and 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' $9.5 million. 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' a stage adaptation of a 2005 film about the confrontation between the television journalist Edward R. Murrow and the anti-Communist senator Joseph McCarthy, had already been racking up eye-popping numbers, thanks to the popularity of Clooney and the timeliness of its theme about the importance of an independent press. During the week that ended May 4, it took in $4 million — a record high for a play, and more than twice what 'The Lion King' took in that week. 'Othello' is also having an amazing run. The revival is in a much smaller theater (1,043 seats, compared with 1,537 for 'Good Night, and Good Luck'), where high demand for limited supply has driven ticket prices up; many seats are priced at $921, and the play had an average ticket price of $387 last week. 'Glengarry Glen Ross' is grossing more than $2 million a week thanks to the popularity of the title and the appeal of its three stars. But those three shows are not the only triumphs in this season of plays. 'Oh, Mary!', an original comedy with a little-known star, was the first show of the season to become profitable, and is still thriving. A revival of 'Romeo + Juliet,' starring Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler, had a profitable run last winter, as did 'All In: Comedy About Love,' which featured well-known actors reading humorous stories by Simon Rich. And both Sarah Snook's tour-de-force one-woman version of 'The Picture of Dorian Gray,' which is now running, and last fall's 'McNeal,' which starred Downey, flourished at the box office, playing to consistently sold-out houses. Another standout of the season has been 'Wicked.' The musical, an imaginary back story for the Wicked Witch of the West, is one of three — 'Wicked,' 'The Lion King' and 'Hamilton' — that have dominated the Broadway box office in recent years. But 'Wicked,' which plays at the largest Broadway house, has soared this season, thanks to the popularity, and the huge marketing budget, for its two-part film adaptation; the first film was released last November, and the second is scheduled for next November. The 'Wicked' stage musical was, easily, the top-grossing show on Broadway this season, and over Christmas week, with nine performances, it set a record, taking in about $5 million. The industry still faces serious challenges. Although the average ticket price on Broadway this season has been $129, and about one-third of shows had an average below $100, the best seats at the hottest shows remain quite expensive. Suburbanites have been slow to return, and Trump administration policies on immigration and tariffs are now threatening international tourism, which makes up about one-fifth of the Broadway audience. Most troubling: Capitalization costs have risen so much that almost every new musical to open since the pandemic has lost money; none has broken through like 'Hamilton,' 'The Book of Mormon' and earlier megahits. Among this season's 14 new musicals, four ('A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical,' 'Tammy Faye,' 'Swept Away' and 'Redwood') have already closed or announced closings. 'There are still some really strong concerns and challenges we have about our business that I don't want to be overshadowed with these gross numbers,' Laks said. 'Rising costs are still affecting every facet of production. You still have increased capitalization costs and weekly running costs, and productions have a shorter window than ever to get on their feet, find an audience and determine their future.'
San Francisco Chronicle
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Bay Area play, local artists get Tony Award nominations
Berkeley's not just on Broadway — it's now the toast of Broadway. 'Eureka Day,' about a mumps outbreak caused by undervaccination at an elite Berkeley private school, received a Tony Award nomination for best revival of a play. Written by Oakland playwright Jonathan Spector, it marks the first time in recent memory that a play about the Bay Area, written by a current Bay Area resident, has received a nod from the nation's highest honors for commercial theater, which are overseen by the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League. 'Eureka Day' premiered at Berkeley's Aurora Theatre in 2018, under the direction of Josh Costello. 'I feel amazing. It's surreal,' Spector told the Chronicle just after 6 a.m. Thursday, May 1, when the nominations were announced by actors Sarah Paulson and Wendell Pierce on the Tony Awards' YouTube Channel. 'I never could have imagined when this play started its life seven years ago at Aurora that this little Berkeley play made with Berkeley people would one day be on Broadway and have a Tony nomination,' Spector continued. 'It was not on my bingo card.' Spector isn't the only artist with Bay Area ties among this year's nominees. San Francisco-born Darren Criss and Hayward native James Monroe Iglehart both received nods for the best performance by a leading actor in a musical award. Criss got recognized for 'Maybe Happy Ending,' in which he plays a robot seeking connection, while Iglehart was nominated for 'A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical,' in which he played the title role. San Francisco's own Francis Jue also took home an acting nod, for best performance by an actor in a featured role in a play, for his work in 'Yellow Face.' Additionally, 'Dead Outlaw,' with a book by Berkeley native Itamar Moses, got seven nominations, including best musical, best book of a musical and best original score. (Moses has won previously, for 'The Band's Visit.') 'Eureka Day' begins with an executive committee meeting among parents and a headmaster, with dialogue that nails the Bay Area's particular breed of progressive affluence: a stay-at-home dad in an open marriage and a babysitter he met at Burning Man; the mom who, embarrassed of her privilege, calls her kid's private school 'more of a community school.' There's lots of concern about 'holding space' and 'feeling seen' — all as the group debates something as trifling as adding an option to a drop-down menu on the school's admission application. But soon the mumps outbreak splinters people accustomed to agreeing politically and governing by consensus. It all detonates in an uproarious scene in which the executive committee tries to livestream a meeting about the surge of the viral infection to all the school's parents, only to get outtalked and overrun by increasingly beastly commenters (whose individual posts ping in real time, displayed via projection). For all its comedy, the show also achieves the trickiest of balances: It doesn't render vaccine skeptics as cardboard cut-outs, but it doesn't validate their points of view either. Rather, it reveals how on certain polarized issues, political common ground, and the idea we can somehow eke it out through productive debate, are mirages. The show's Tony nod comes as outbreaks of measles — declared eradicated in the U.S. in 2000 — have popped up in Texas, Indiana, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio and Oklahoma this year, all while Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to disseminate mixed messages about vaccines, drawing ire from health officials for an uncoordinated response. In the livestream scene of 'Eureka Day,' Spector said, 'There's a comment that I was really on the fence about cutting, because I felt like it was too extreme, where somebody says, 'These vaccines are all made from the cells of dead fetuses.' And then RFK Jr. said that yesterday about the measles vaccine in a press conference.' He added, 'It's maybe the monkey's paw of playwright gifts to have an eye towards things — but only bad things coming true.' The Tony nod isn't the only time 'Eureka Day' has been part of national news this year. In February, the show was part of the spate of cancellations at the Kennedy Center following Trump's self-appointment as chair of the flagship Washington, D.C., performing arts organization. 'I … struggled with whether having work there in these circumstances would be an act of resistance or an act of complicity. There's compelling arguments both ways,' Spector told the Chronicle in March. As time has passed, he added on the morning of the Tony nomination, his feelings have shifted more and more to relief. In any event, the show has a slew of other productions currently running or planned across the country — Boston, Denver, Houston, Pittsburgh and Sacramento — and the globe, including in Nottingham, England; Sydney and Vienna. Past Tony Award winners with connections to the Bay Area include Menlo Park native Will Brill (for 'Stereophonic,' which tours to BroadwaySF's Curran Theatre in the fall); San Francisco native Lena Hall (for 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch'); and Pickle Family Circus co-founder Bill Irwin (for 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'); Irwin also starred in 'Eureka Day' on Broadway, alongside Jessica Hecht, whose performance earned her a Tony nomination for best performance by an actress in a featured role in a play. Spector's other notable local world premieres include 'This Much I Know' at Aurora Theatre and 'Best Available' at Shotgun Players. His 'Birthright,' about American Jews on a Birthright trip to Israel, premiered in April at Miami New Drama in Florida.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
George Clooney appears unbothered playing softball amid reports his wife could be barred from future US visits
George Clooney enjoyed a beloved American pastime in his own backyard after reports surfaced that his family's status in the states may be in jeopardy. Clooney, 63, attempted to go incognito, and wore gray shorts and a navy blue polo shirt to play softball in Central Park. The "Good Night, and Good Luck" star appeared to be completely at ease on the diamond despite news that his wife Amal, a British human rights lawyer, may have difficulty entering the United States again due to her work with the International Criminal Court and new sanctions in an executive order signed by President Donald Trump. George And Amal Clooney's Globe-trotting Lifestyle Potentially In Jeopardy Under Trump Sanctions Clooney smiled and laughed with his team as he fielded balls before stepping up to the plate during a co-ed game with the Broadway League. Amal, 47, reportedly gave legal advice in a war crimes case against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over the war in Gaza, according to the Financial Times. Read On The Fox News App George Clooney Shares Why Wife Amal Skipped Star-studded Premiere Of His Broadway Show Trump's executive order claims the court "engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel. The ICC has, without a legitimate basis, asserted jurisdiction over and opened preliminary investigations concerning personnel of the United States and certain of its allies, including Israel, and has further abused its power by issuing baseless arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant. "The United States will impose tangible and significant consequences on those responsible for the ICC's transgressions, some of which may include the blocking of property and assets, as well as the suspension of entry into the United States of ICC officials, employees, and agents, as well as their immediate family members." Amal, born in Lebanon and raised in Britain, practices law in both England and the United States and has lived all over the world. Click Here To Sign Up For The Entertainment Newsletter Clooney proposed to Amal in April 2014, and the couple married five months later in Venice, Italy. Three years later, in 2017, the Clooneys welcomed twins Alexander and Ella. The couple have homes all around the world, including Italy, England and a French property roughly 30 minutes away from Château Miraval, an operating winery owned by George's buddy, Brad Pitt. While gearing up for his Broadway debut, the former "ER" star revealed his family was back living in the states. Like What You're Reading? Click Here For More Entertainment News "They're in New York. We've been here the whole time," he told Access Hollywood. "You know, the normal things that children do, which is, apparently, you have to educate them, which I was shocked by. They're in school." During an appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," he noted that his children were adjusting well to city life, and that they "love New York." "How can you not like the city? It's New York City!" Clooney said. "Amal went to NYU, so she's been here many times."Original article source: George Clooney appears unbothered playing softball amid reports his wife could be barred from future US visits
