Strong Opening Weeks Fill Seats For ‘Kimberly Akimbo’, Mike Birbiglia – Broadway Box Office

A busy week on Broadway saw three official openings (including the Take Me Out return) and three additions to the line-up of previewing productions, with grosses for the 34-show roster jumping by 8% (to $32,314,920) over the previous week.

Attendance for the week ending Nov. 13 was up 11% to 272,232.

Starting with the openers, all critically well-received: Kimberly Akimbo at the Booth took in $491,165 and filled 94% of seats; Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man & the Pool played to 92% of capacity at the non-prof Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont, grossing $290,305 for seven performances; and Take Me Out took $457,404, filling 56% of seats at the Schoenfeld. (Note: opening night weeks include press and other comps).

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New to the roster were a trio of productions that began previews:

• A Christmas Carol, starring Jefferson Mays – as all the characters – began previews at the Nederlander ahead of a Nov. 21 opening, grossing $165,804 for seven performances, with attendance at 93%. Look for receipts to grow with the holiday season;
• Ain’t No Mo’ began previews at the Belasco (opening night is Dec. 1), grossing $87,354 for five performances, at 64% of capacity;
• Ohio State Murders, the Adrienne Kennedy play starring Audra McDonald, began previews at the recently renamed James Earl Jones Theatre (opening Dec. 8), grossing $145,011 for its first three performances, and at 58% of capacity.

Some notable performers last week:

• Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt continued its strong run for its best week yet at the Longacre, grossing a big $1,176,995 for its fifth consecutive week above the $1M mark;
• MJ broke another house record at the Neil Simon, grossing $1,815,353;
• Almost Famous, despite mixed reviews, seemed to be building steam at the Jacobs, grossing a solid $815,750 with 83% of seats filled;
• Some Like It Hot filled 92% of seats in previews at the Shubert, with a modest $66.90 average ticket price keeping receipts at $622,409.

Cancelations impacted some productions, with A Strange Loop losing one performance due to a non-Covid illness and grossing $514,415, 85% of capacity at the Lyceum; KPOP missing two performances and grossing $134,348 at Circle in the Square with a $37 average ticket price; and Funny Girl slipping at bit (to a still strong $1,640,222) with the absence (due to a back injury) of Lea Michele for one performance. The musical revival, with Julie Benko filling in for that performance, remained at a big 97% of capacity at the August Wilson.

Also of note, The Lion King was down by $223,347 to $1,537,809, but only because Sunday’s performance of the ever-powerful musical was comped and donated to the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly the Actors Fund) to mark the production’s 25th anniversary.

Season to date, Broadway has grossed $702,099,259, with total attendance of 5,548,683 at about 87% of capacity.

The 34 productions reporting figures on Broadway last week were & Juliet, 1776, A Christmas Carol, Ain’t No Mo’, Aladdin, Almost Famous, A Beautiful Noise, Beetlejuice, The Book of Mormon, Chicago, Death of a Salesman, Funny Girl, Hadestown, Hamilton, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Into the Woods, Kimberly Akimbo, KPOP, Leopoldstadt, The Lion King, Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man & the Pool, The Music Man, MJ, Moulin Rouge!, Ohio State Murders, The Phantom of the Opera, The Piano Lesson, Six, A Strange Loop, Some Like It Hot, Take Me Out, Topdog/Underdog, Walking With Ghosts and Wicked.

All figures courtesy of The Broadway League.

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