It hasn’t been an easy summer on Broadway.
While Times Square is filled with thousands of people milling around taking pictures with Elmo, the theater district has struggled. Tourism is way down, particularly from Canada. International visitors may worry about being deported to Sudan, or threatened by ICE. Not fun.
Last week’s box office continued the overall decline to just $29.7 million. That’s $2 million less than the same week a year ago, and $2 million less than just last week.
Some shows are booming, while others are floundering.
One of the latter is “The Book of Mormon.” The irreverent South Park musical dropped by $160,000 from the previous week to an all time low of $724,726. That’s a stunning fall off for a show without stars.
“Book of Mormon” has been on the boards for well over a decade. The musical opened in March 2011, so fatigue set in a long time ago. Is the end near? If it is, they can’t say they didn’t have an amazing run.
As usual, the most empty theater prize goes to “Chicago,” the musical, now in its 400th year. They’re waiting for Mira Sorvino to come in and gin things up. She can do it!
