Broadway Grosses: Box Office Steady as Spring Season Shifts Into Gear

Grosses were generally up across Broadway last week, with a mix of this season's musicals The Little Mermaid, Grease, South Pacific and long-running tuners Hairspray, The Phantom of the Opera and perennial winners Jersey Boys, Wicked and Mamma Mia! doing capacity business. Among plays, Patrick Stewart's Macbeth continues strong at the Lyceum Theatre, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof recovered from the movie-related absence of star Terrence Howard to climb back above 83% of capacity from 69% the previous week at the Broadhurst. Passing Strange, which just began a TV ad campaign, saw an almost $80,000 increase in grosses from the previous week, and In the Heights raised its box office take by almost $120,000 from the week before. Meanwhile, Glory Days began previews at Circle in the Square and August: Osage County took the week off to move from the Imperial to the Music Box Theatre.

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

FRONTRUNNERS By Gross
1. Wicked $1,468,682
2. The Lion King $1,297,216
3. Jersey Boys $1,155,960
4. The Little Mermaid $1,115,988
5. Mamma Mia $956,420

UNDERDOGS By Gross
5. Les Liaisons Dangereuses $244,170*
4. Xanadu $226,491
3. Thurgood $208,855*
2. Top Girls $181,049*
2. Glory Days $51,094*

FRONTRUNNERS By Capacity
1. Jersey Boys 100.78%
2. Wicked 100%
3. The Phantom of the Opera 99.90%
4. Mamma Mia! 99.56%
5. The Little Mermaid 98.83%

UNDERDOGS By Capacity
5. Boeing-Boeing 69.51%*
4. The Country Girl 68.59%*
3. Thurgood 66.15%*
2. Passing Strange 61.41%
1. Glory Days 42.87%*

*Number based on eight preview performances.
Data provided by The Broadway League.