Broadway Grosses: Xanadu Skates into Town; Mary Poppins Flies High

Broadway box offices continued to slowly rise over the past week as awards season got into full swing. Xanadu, the new musical based on the cult hit 1980 movie and featuring a book by Tony nominee Douglas Carter Beane, started performances at the Helen Hayes Theatre, filling it to close to 87% of capacity. Long-running hits Hairspray and Beauty and the Beast enjoyed strong weeks, filling their theaters to 91% and 95%, respectively. Spring Awakening saw a big boost at the box office after earning 11 Tony nominations, filling the Eugene O'Neill Theatre to close to 95% and grossing more than $630,000. Mary Poppins also jumped above the 95% mark, earning $1,112,236 at the New Amsterdam Theatre, the only show from the current season to break the top five in gross.

In addition to the weekly grosses, the League of American Theatres and Producers released its end-of-season statistics for the 2006-2007 Broadway season, which began May 29, 2006, and ended May 27, 2007. Thirty-five new productions opened on Broadway during that period, including 12 new musicals, 11 new plays, five musical revivals and seven play revivals. Paid attendance to Broadway was 12,311,000, up 2.6% from last season 12,003,000. This is the second time that Broadway attendance has crossed the 12 million mark since the League began collecting data in 1957. Grosses increased 8.9%, from $861 million to $939 million, a new record. The number of playing weeks the sum total of all shows multiplied by the number of weeks each show played, considered one of the best indicators of activity totaled 1,509, the second highest on record, up from 1,501 in 2005-06. The record high was 1,544 weeks in the 2002-03 season. Domestic tourists accounted for more than 5 million tickets sold, with international visitors estimated at more than 1.3 million tickets.

Here is a look at who was on top and who was not for the week ending May 27:

FRONTRUNNERS By Gross
1. Wicked $1,404,241
2. Jersey Boys $1,196,730
3. The Lion King $1,186,608
4. Mary Poppins $1,112,236
5. The Color Purple $1,083,680

UNDERDOGS By Gross
5. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee $249,469
4. Talk Radio $232,704
3. Radio Golf $180,510
2. Journey's End $134,359
1. Xanadu $122,281*

FRONTRUNNERS By Capacity
1. Mamma Mia! 100.55%
2. Jersey Boys 100.53%
3. Wicked 100.00%
4. The Lion King 99.62%
5. The Color Purple 95.39%

UNDERDOGS By Capacity
5. The Pirate Queen 61.79%
4. Talk Radio 54.50%
3. Radio Golf 53.14%
2. Company 49.89%
1. Journey's End 36.04%

* Number based on 5 preview performances.
Data provided by the League of American Theatres and Producers.