(Michael Paulson’s article appeared in The New York Times, 9/22; Robyn Hurder in “Smash,” one of several new musicals last Broadway season that lost their investments.Credit…Richard Termine for The New York Times.)
With the cost of staging song-and-dance spectacles skyrocketing and audiences drawn to older hits, none of the musicals that opened last season have made a profit. Fewer are planned this season.
Musical theater, long the bread-and-butter of Broadway, is struggling.
None of the 18 commercial musicals that opened on Broadway last season have made a profit yet. Some still could, but several have been spectacular flameouts. The new musicals “Tammy Faye,” “Boop!” and “Smash” each cost at least $20 million to bring to the stage, and each was gone less than four months after opening. All three lost their entire investments.
Lavish revivals of much-loved classics are also fizzling. On Sunday, a revival of “Cabaret,” budgeted for up to $26 million and featuring a costly conversion of a Broadway theater into a nightclub-like setting, threw in the towel at a total loss. A $19.5 million revival of “Gypsy” that starred Audra McDonald and earned strong reviews closed last month without recouping its investment. Even a buzzy production of “Sunset Boulevard,” which won this year’s Tony for best musical revival, failed to make back the $15 million it cost to mount.
New musicals are particularly endangered. Since the coronavirus pandemic, 46 new musicals have opened on Broadway, costing about $800 million to bring to the stage, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Only three have become profitable so far. Strong reviews, word of mouth and in some cases Tonys have not been enough. And this fall’s new musical offerings are sparse: There are just two, one of which has only two people in its cast.
“Broadway is not a business anymore,” Andrew Lloyd Webber, the storied composer behind “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Cats,” “Evita” and “Sunset Boulevard,” said in an interview. “The statistics are terrible. I am very worried. I look at the economics of this, and I just don’t see how it can sustain.”
Producers attribute the high failure rate to a number of factors. The costs of bringing song-and-dance spectacles to Broadway have skyrocketed in recent years, while ticket prices for musicals have remained relatively flat. Attendance still lags slightly below prepandemic levels. Jason Laks, the president of the Broadway League, estimates that only about 10 percent of musicals are now profitable, around half of the historical average.
Broadway’s long-running juggernauts remain popular, and many theatergoers seek them out over newer offerings. “Wicked” has benefited from the publicity generated by its film adaptation. “Hamilton” just welcomed back Leslie Odom Jr., who won a Tony for originating the role of Aaron Burr, and is booming. A top ticket price of $1,200 at the start of his run is rising to $1,500 at the end, which appears to be a new high for Broadway. Disney’s “The Lion King” and “Aladdin” are still strong, and a return of the musical “Mamma Mia!” is packing in Abba fans.
But theater executives are deeply worried about the prospects for new productions and new works, which they see as vital for maintaining a healthy theater ecosystem.
“People work for years on these musicals, and they finally make their way to Broadway, but shows that are even selling a million dollars in tickets a week can’t survive, and it’s absolutely heartbreaking,” said Tom Kirdahy, a Tony-winning Broadway producer (“Hadestown,” “The Inheritance”). “It means people are out of work, dreams are dashed, and I worry that it will have a chilling effect on the creation of new musicals.”
Only three new musicals have recouped their investments since the pandemic. Two are jukebox musicals: “MJ,” which features the music of Michael Jackson, and “& Juliet,” which features the songs of the Swedish hitmaker Max Martin. The third, “Six,” reimagines the ill-fated wives of King Henry VIII as pop stars.)
