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Merrily We Roll Along, the new Broadway revival of the Sondheim classic musical starring Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez, broke the six-performance house record at the Hudson Theatre with a $1.3 million gross in its first week of previews.
Filling every seat in the venue, the revival carried an eye-popping average ticket price of $225.07, besting the $166.11 of the usual frontrunner Hamilton by a wide margin for the week ending September 24.
Merrily, the Off Broadway transfer from New York Theatre Workshop, grossed, to be exact, $1,304,508 for its first six Broadway previews, breaking the previous six-performance week record of $1.18 million set by David Byrne’s American Utopia. Merrily opens on October 10.
Directed by Maria Friedman, Merrily We Roll Along features music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, a book by George Furth, and is based on the original play by George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart. Spanning three decades in the entertainment business, Merrily charts the turbulent relationship between composer Franklin Shepard (Groff) and his two lifelong friends, writer Mary (Mendez) and lyricist/playwright Charley (Radcliffe).
While Merrily was the week’s only absolute sell-out (Hamilton was at 99%), other strong performers included usual suspect Sweeney Todd, Moulin Rouge!, Aladdin, The Lion King and MJ.
Among the slate of recent arrivals, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, the non-prof Manhattan Theatre Club production at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, filled 96% of seats at the venue, with a modest average ticket price of $42 tallying up to a $180,008 gross for seven performances. Opening night is Oct. 3.
Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through The Cotton Patch, the Ossie David play revival starring Leslie Odom, Jr., filled 71% of seats at the Music Box, grossing $259,603 with a $45.54 average ticket. The play opens Sept. 27, and reviews should make an impact.
Melissa Etheridge: My Window, the music & memories show co-written and performed by the “Come To My Window” rocker, filled 89% of seats at Circle in the Square, grossing $199,743 for five preview performances. Opening night is Sept. 28.
Gutenberg! The Musical!, starring Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells, took in $687,392 for seven previews at the James Earl Jones, with attendance at 89% of capacity and a healthy average ticket of $104.02. Opening night is Oct. 12.
In all, the 26 Broadway productions took in $22,442,339 for the week ending Sept. 24, a 3.7% increase over the previous week (but down about 15% compared to last year at this time). Attendance for the week was 198,785, about even with the previous week. Average ticket price was $112.90.
Season to date, Broadway has grossed $520,296,686 with total attendance of 4,278,199 at 88% of capacity.
All figures courtesy of The Broadway League. For complete box office listings, visit the League’s website.
