Broadway Grosses Analysis: Jinkx Monsoon Brings Standing-Room-Only Crowds to Chicago | Playbill

Industry News Broadway Grosses Analysis: Jinkx Monsoon Brings Standing-Room-Only Crowds to Chicago

The long-running Kander and Ebb revival welcomed the two-time RuPaul's Drag Race winner last month.

Two-time RuPaul's Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon is bringing in crowds (she calls them "drag happy" crowds) at Broadway's Chicago, which played to standing room only last week. Monsoon joined the company as Matron "Mama" Morton last month, and the show's box office has seen a notable uptick with her onstage. The long-running Kander and Ebb revival filled 100.51% of seats at the Ambassador, making it the week's top performer in terms of capacity percentage. Combined with a respectable $797,240.18 at the box office, it looks like when you're good to Jinkx, Jinkx is good to Broadway.

Speaking of high capacities, Second Stage's Between Riverside and Crazy played to 94.15% full houses last week, the slightest of drops from 95.73% the week prior. With capacity sitting at 95.18% cumulatively across Broadway, this might not seem like a standout data point, but the Stephen Adly Guirgis play has been streaming to theatregoers' homes nationwide since January 31. Data from those streams, both revenue and audience counts, is not included in The Broadway League's weekly report, but the in-person audience data would seem to indicate that the live streams are supplanting in-person audiences rather than replacing or eliminating them, as has seemed to be a fear for some theatremakers as streaming performances continue their rise in popularity. The streams themselves have been popular enough that the theatre added four additional streaming performances in the production's final week on Broadway.

READ: Why Aren't More Shows on Broadway Being Live Streamed?

Much of Broadway stayed relatively stable last week, which isn't unexpected. Still firmly in the winter slump, Broadway is currently in a "between" state, while many high-profile productions are readying to start previews. The 21 currently running shows brought in a cumulative $23 million last week, down slightly from $23.5 million the previous week. That minimal drop is actually impressive; with the encore run of Take Me Out finishing up February 5, last week had one less show than the week prior.

The Phantom of the Opera continues to be the undisputed hot ticket on Broadway. Sales at the Majestic have been increasing since the long-running production announced it will close in April—the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical has consistently been in The $2 Million Club since the new year. With $2.4 million last week, the West End import was again the top-grossing show on the Main Stem, followed by Funny GirlHamiltonThe Lion King, and MJ The Musical.

Take a look at the full report here.

The $1 Million Club (Shows that earned $1 million or more at the box office):

(11 of 21 currently running productions)


The 90s Club
(Shows that played to 90% or higher of their seats filled over the entire week):

(17 of 21 currently running productions)

 
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