The starry Broadway revival of Edward Albee’s “A Delicate Balance” smashed the box-office record at the Golden Theater last week in the play’s first set of preview performances, an achievement that shows rarely accomplish so early in a run. According to ticket sale data released on Monday, “A Delicate Balance” – which stars Glenn Close and John Lithgow as a well-off couple whose home becomes overrun by fear – grossed $884,596 for eight sold-out performances; the Golden’s previous record of $732,896 was set by “Driving Miss Daisy” in December 2010.
Another new revival, of the 1944 musical “On the Town,” had its strongest sales yet in its first full week since opening on Oct. 16 to glowing reviews from critics. The show grossed $837,948, or 20 percent more than the previous week. The musical was selling a sizable share of tickets at a discount, though: It is running in the largest Broadway house, the Lyric, and even with the strong reviews, only 80 percent of seats were filled. Its average ticket price was $69.90, one of the lowest on Broadway last week. The producers of “On the Town” have begun a robust marketing campaign built on the reviews and are optimistic that full-price ticket sales will increase in the coming weeks, especially around the holidays.
The revival of the musical “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” had solid ticket sales with its latest star, Michael C. Hall, as the show grossed $600,961 for seven performances, or 81 percent of the maximum possible amount.
Among plays, the Nathan Lane-led comedy “It’s Only a Play” set a new box-office record at the Schoenfeld Theater (where it held the previous record), grossing $1,376,686. The new play “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” which received strong reviews, grossed a very healthy $871,328 (or 91 percent of the maximum possible amount). The revival of “Love Letters,” a two-character drama featuring rotating pairs of stars, currently Carol Burnett and Brian Dennehy, continued to struggle at the box office, with a gross of $313,629 (or about 35 percent of the maximum amount).
Over all Broadway musicals and plays grossed $25.9 million last week, compared to $23.2 million for the same week last season. Attendance was 255,078 for 32 shows, compared to 231,769 for 30 shows a year ago.