Give Our Regards to Broadway

Thu., May. 31, 2001 12:00 PM PDT by Emily Farache

Thank heavens for Bialystock and Bloom!

The Producers has helped produce the Great White Way's biggest box office ever--a record $665 million for the 2000-01 season.

That's up 10.4 percent from last year's previous record and marks the 10th year in a row Broadway has set a new record. The double-digit growth is welcome news: Despite an increase in receipts over the last decade, the increase has been diminishing, from 11 percent to 5 percent to just 2.5 percent last year.

Attendance, which was also up, helped spur along the box-office record. There were nearly 12 million theatergoers this season, up 5 percent from last year. Another factor in the record receipts: rising ticket prices. Again thanks in part to The Producers, which had most seats going for $100, the average paid admission jumped from $52.96 to $56.

"Hooray!" exclaimed League of American Theatres and Producers President Jed Bernstein to Playbill Online. "What's really gratifying is the attendance increase. That's really the acid test. Grosses will go up as ticket price goes up. But the attendance means more bodies are coming. And when you compare those numbers to six or seven years ago, it's not too shabby."

Theater occupancy, meanwhile, held steady at 75.2 percent.

The only bad news was the number of new shows bowing. Only 28 productions opened their curtains on Broadway this year, down 33 percent from last year. But from the beginning of the season, theaters were nearly all booked and stayed that way, with much less turnover than usual. The number of weeks the new shows played rose slightly to 1,485 from 1,452.

The season started off with Contact, Copenhagen and The Music Man holding strong. When Cats and Miss Saigon announced their doors were closing, performances were quickly sold out.

Things cooled off in the winter as Seussical and Jane Eyre struggled and, when Cats closed, the Winter Garden sat empty. (The ABBA-based Mamma Mia! will open there in the fall.)

The March and April openers either didn't fare well at the box office, like Follies and Bells Are Ringing, or closed abruptly, like The Gathering, Judgment at Nuremberg and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

The revival of 42nd Street, which opened May 2, is moving toward a $1 million gross, and The Full Monty is still strong, but the real story of the year is Mel Brooks' hit musical, The Producers, which kicked The Lion King off its box-office throne.

The show, which is up for a record 15 nominations at the Tony Awards Sunday, has sold more than $20 million worth of tickets and is booked through the end of the year.