Many Broadway shows see box office jumps after Tonys exposure

NEW YORK (AP) — New Broadway musicals “Kimberly Akimbo,” “Shucked,” “Some Like It Hot” and “& Juliet” — as well as the play “Leopoldstadt” — all saw nice bumps at their box offices after the Tony Award telecast.

Data from The Broadway League released Tuesday shows many of the musicals and plays featured on the June 11 awards show benefited financially from getting valuable exposure in front of millions.

The top Tony winner, “Kimberly Akimbo,” about a teen who ages four times faster than the average human, won five awards including best new musical and grossed $695,405 over eight performances following the telecast, an increase of $169,229 over the previous week.

Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt,” which explores Jewish identity with an intergenerational story, won the best new play Tony and did even better: It earned $273,804 more than the week previously, ending up with $924,033 in the week after the Tonys.

The Hollywood writers’ strike left the storied awards show without a script but the Writers Guild of America allowed the show to go on without a picket line.

“& Juliet,” which reimagines “Romeo and Juliet” and adds some of the biggest pop hits of the past few decades, took in $205,694 more over the previous week, ending with a very healthy $1,339,854 after a rousing telecast performance and zero Tonys. while ”Shucked,” a surprise lightweight musical comedy celebrating corn and featuring newly minted Tony winner Alex Newell, earned $162,233 more than the previous week, finishing with a respectable $862,188.

“Some Like It Hot,” a musical adaptation of the cross-dressing comedy film, only saw a modest $103,039 increase despite J. Harrison Ghee’s historic win, and “New York, New York,” a love letter to Manhattan inspired by the 1977 film directed by Martin Scorsese, took in $141,105 over the previous week to a final $995,844 gross.

“Prima Facie,” which stars best actress winner Jodi Comer saw a bump of $161,576 to help it cross the $1 million threshold. Producers earlier Tuesday announced that the show had recouped its $4.1 million capitalization costs after 10 weeks and the show had set an eight-performance per week house record for the Golden Theatre with $1,107,829.

The telecast featured performances from all the nominated musicals and Will Swenson — starring on Broadway in a Neil Diamond musical — led the audience in a vigorous rendition of “Sweet Caroline.” Lea Michele of “Glee” and now “Funny Girl” fame also performed a soaring version of “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” The data was mixed on the last two entries: The Neil Diamond musical actually saw its take drop by almost $91,000 despite the exposure, while Michele’s show earned $1 million over the pre-Tony week, when Michele was absent.

Not all the numbers pointed to a telecast bump. “Parade,” a doomed musical love story set against the real backdrop of a murder and lynching in Georgia in pre-World War I, got a $108,734 increase to end last week with $1,168,463 after earning best revival of a musical and a Tony for director Michael Arden. But “Peter Pan Goes Wrong,” a farce that wasn’t featured at the awards show, go the same increase — $109,853.

The good news for many shows was tempered by some sad, including the imminent closing notices for two shows — “Life of Pi,” about a shipwrecked teenager who spends hundreds of days afloat in the Pacific in the company of a Bengal tiger, and “Fat Ham” — James Ijames’ adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” set at a Black family’s barbecue in the modern South.

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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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