It’s currently playing host to stars including Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone and Jake Gyllenhaal, and now statistics from trade association the Broadway League confirm that the Great White Way is drawing the crowds too.
Over the course of 2014, 13.13 million people attended Broadway shows, up 13% on 2013, with box office takings totalling $1.362bn, up 14% on the year before.
The Broadway League’s executive director, Charlotte St Martin, said that the increase “demonstrat[es] that our producers are giving audiences a variety of plays and musicals to please many tastes … In addition to long-running favorites, audiences are enthusiastic about the new shows too.”
Variety reports that New Year week was Broadway’s most lucrative week ever, with $42.8m taken at the box office and 37 shows running at 94% of theatres’ total capacity – or, in other words, 346,913 bums on Broadway’s plush velvet seats.
The long-running musical Wicked took $2,740,642, the highest-grossing eight-performance week in Broadway history. Other money-spinners included The Lion King ($2,514,994), The Book of Mormon ($2,224,280) and The Elephant Man, which stars Bradley Cooper ($1,069,102).
Even more troubled shows, including Side Show, a musical about conjoined twins which is closing prematurely, and The Last Ship, which saw its composer Sting taking a lead role from Jimmy Nail after poor ticket sales, saw their highest-selling weeks to date.
