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.” Â
Bah-dum-dum!
