Friday, March 29, 2024

Broadway: Kinky Boots Paying Off, Beatles Blues, Old Jews Turn 500

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It’s the mid summer blahs on Broadway, but not for musicals. They are all booming, even “Spider Man” as it hunts for a new lead. (Reeve Carney is finally exiting in September, maybe to do the Jeff Buckley film.) Winning the Tony Award turned “Kinky Boots” into gold. I’m told the show will have made back 65% of its investment by September. That’s quite a feat.

“Kinky Boots” will be in the black by early next year. “Matilda,” “Motown,” and “Pippin” are all doing great. But the dreadful Beatles reenactment thing called “Let it Be” is playing only to 52% capacity houses. That’s including discounts! Even foreign tourists can see how bad it is!  …

Meantime one show that’s paid off handsomely off Broadway is “Old Jews Telling Jokes.” They just celebrated their 500th performance. Nearly every celebrity in town has wandered into the Westside Theater to hear the funniest material on Broadway including Woody Allen, Bette Midler, Max Weinberg, Joan Rivers, Kathie Gifford and Hoda Kotb, Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue– the list goes on and on. Even Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones stopped in. He may start doing warm ups for Stones shows. (Just kidding!)

Marilyn Sokol, one of the stars of OJTJ , says that her neighbor (Marty Danoff) has been telling everyone both in and outside of their building to see the show.  “I brought my mother-in-law,” he said, “and she put me back in the will.”   

Bah-dum-dum!

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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