Broadway Newcomers Draw Audiences: ‘The Outsiders’, ‘The Who’s Tommy’, ‘An Enemy Of The People’, ‘The Notebook’ Fill Seats

Greg Evans
·2 min read

Broadway’s first salvo of spring newcomers was more than holding its own last week, with recent arrivals drawing strong audiences.

Two shows had their opening nights during the week ending March 24, with An Enemy of the People, starring Jeremy Strong, Michael Imperioli and Victoria Pedretti, playing to standing room only crowds at Circle in the Square. Receipts were at a hefty $898,353, with attendance at 103% of seating capacity.

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Also opening was Water For Elephants, the new musical starring Grant Gustin at the Imperial, with receipts down $23,144 from the previous week, due in no small part to press and opening night comps. The show grossed $875,269. Attendance for the three previews and five regular performances was 86% of capacity.

The Who’s Tommy was in previews at the Nederlander, filling 93% of seats at the venue (the Wednesday matinee was canceled due to an illness in the company) and grossing $822,391. Opening night is this Thursday, March 28.

Also in previews was The Outsiders, the new musical adaptation of the S.E. Hinton novel and Francis Ford Coppola film. A virtual sell-out, with 99% of seats filled at the Jacobs, the show grossed $725,440 for seven previews. Opening night is April 11.

The Notebook musical, which opened March 14 at the Schoenfeld, was going strong, a virtual sell-out with attendance at 99.7% of capacity. The show grossed $895,030.

Beginning previews last week was Lempicka, the new musical directed by Hadestown director Rachel Chavkin about the great painter Tamara Lempicka and starring Eden Espinosa. The musical, coming into Broadway with only a modicum of name recognition, grossed $395,859 for six previews, filling 96% of seats at the Longacre.

The strong attendance for Lempicka was likely in no small part due to a modest average ticket price of $65.44 (average ticket price for all Broadway shows was $124.05). Producers are no doubt hoping low ticket prices keep people coming as strong word-of-mouth spreads. The approach proved beneficial for Shucked last season, keeping the little-known, quirky and well-reviewed musical going well past Tony night when star Alex Newell took a trophy.

Lempicka opens April 14.

In all, the 26 Broadway productions grossed a total $28,519,828 for the week ending March 24, up 2% from the previous week. Attendance was 229,911, about 93% of capacity and up 5% from the previous week.

Season to date, Broadway has grossed $1,248,081,547, with total attendance at 9,942,376 at 89% of capacity.

All figures courtesy of The Broadway League. For complete box office listings, visit the League’s website.

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