The recent news that Motown The Musical was hightailing it out of town early gave the short-lived Broadway stint of the jukebox musical a spike at the box office. Collections jumped $103,216, leading to a total of $587,549. That constituted 51 percent of the gross and filled 71 percent of the seats. That was the biggest bounce of the week, aside from The Book of Mormon and The Lion King, which both put in nine performances last week, and reaped handsomely for doing so.
The end of the run of the solo comedy Fully Committed, starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson, inspired no such rush. The show, never a box-office bonanza, ended its stay with a take of $468,583, which was slightly down from the previous week, and amounted to just 59 percent of the potential gross.
The new revival of Cats had a week of comped critics performances, and subsequently dropped nearly $100,000 at the box office. Even so, it took in 72 percent of the possible take. The effect of the reviews, which came out on Monday, will be seen in the weeks to come.
Otherwise, it was a fairly unimpressive week for the middle of summer. Only Hamilton and The Book of Mormon sold out, and shows either saw a mild slide at the box office, or a mild gain. Regarding Hamilton, the musical seems to be making a habit of having its average ticket go for about $190, a notch above the price a ducat fetched a couple months ago. It now seems a certainty that the new replacement cast is not going to lead to cheaper tickets.
Shows that recently decided to call it a day seem to have made the right decision. Fun Home took in less than 50 percent of its gross, and Fiddler on the Roof, Finding Neverland and An American in Paris did the same. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, also set to close, collected just a bit of 50 percent.
Kinky Boots, the Tony winner, has not announced a closing date, but it has had a lean time of it this summer. This past week it filled 64 percent of its seats and earned 51 percent of the gross. That’s in keeping with the show’s performance throughout the summer, and about the same as the shows that have named a closing date.
