Broadway's Oh, Mary! got a $40,000 increase at the box office and a complete sell out for the final performances of Tituss Burgess, who played his last performance in the hit Cole Escola comedy as Mary Todd Lincoln April 6 at the Lyceum Theatre. Burgess is succeeded tonight by Escola, returning for an encore run alongside fellow original cast members Conrad Ricamora and James Scully. Given the buzz this show has had since its 2024 world premiere Off-Broadway, we may see its box office soar even higher with its original cast back on the boards.
But Oh, Mary! was one of only a handful of shows to see much meaningful change compared to the week prior. Broadway seems to have fallen into a rhythm, with the A-list star-driven Othello and Good Night, and Good Luck consistently topping the charts with stratospheric ticket prices and accompanying overall grosses. Luckily, that rhythm seems to be lucrative across the board. The 39 currently running shows brought in a cumulative $42.36 million last week. That high number is actually just about 3% less than the week prior, but that's no great surprise. With the April 27 Tony eligibility cut-off creeping ever forward, lots of shows are comping much of their houses for press and award nominators. That business has remained brisk along with ticket prices鈥攖heatregoers paid an average of $131.17 last week for the 322,960 tickets they bought鈥攊s pretty remarkable, and a harbinger of a strong summer ahead.
Even with 39 shows currently giving performances (bringing us dangerously close to actually having all 41 Broadway theatres operational, a rarity), more than 90% of seats were full last week. Along with Oh, Mary!, sellouts last week included Good Night, and Good Luck; The Outsiders; John Proctor is the Villain; The Picture of Dorian Gray; Glengarry Glen Ross; Just in Time; Wicked; and Pirates! The Penzance Musical鈥攖hat's nearly a quarter of everything currently playing Broadway.
Also heartening to see is how well our newest shows are doing. Of the top 10, four are brand new for this season: Othello; Good Night, and Good Luck; Glengarry Glen Ross; and The Picture of Dorian Gray, surprisingly all non-musical plays but unsurprisingly all led by above-the-title stars. We knew going into this spring that Broadway had adopted a very specific trend this year, but suffice it to say, it's turned out to be a very successful one.
Also making the top five this week were usual suspects Wicked, The Lion King, and Hamilton. Both Othello and Good Night, and Good Luck handily passed the $3 million mark last week, the latter in its opening (and therefore heavily comped) week. Thanks, stars!
Take a look at the full report here.
The $1 Million Club (shows that earned $1 million or more at the box office):
- Othello ($3.18 million)
- Good Night, And Good Luck ($3.14 million)
- Wicked ($2.48 million)
- The Lion King
- Hamilton
- Glengarry Glen Ross
- The Outsiders
- Aladdin
- The Picture of Dorian Gray
- MJ The Musical
- Oh, Mary
- Gypsy
- Death Becomes Her
- The Great Gatsby
- Moulin Rouge! The Musical
- Cabaret
- Sunset Boulevard
(17 of 39 currently running productions)
The 90s Club (shows that played to 90% or higher of their seats filled over the entire week):
- Good Night, And Good Luck (101.72%)
- The Outsiders (101.57%)
- John Proctor is the Villain (100.6%)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (100.59%)
- Glengarry Glen Ross (100.59%)
- Just in Time (100.26%)
- Wicked (100%)
- Pirates! The Penzance Musical (100%)
- Oh, Mary! (100%)
- Othello
- Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends
- Hadestown
- Hamilton
- Operation Mincemeat
- The Last Five Years
- Maybe Happy Ending
- The Lion King
- Stranger Things: The First Shadow
- & Juliet
- Aladdin
- BOOP! The Musical
- The Great Gatsby
- Death Becomes Her
- Buena Vista Social Club
- Purpose
- The Book of Mormon
(26 of 39 currently running productions)
