Fighting Omicron, Broadway Has Slowest Week In A Decade

Broadway received another round of bad news this week, as sales plummeted and attendance dropped to a frightening low-water mark.

Overall grosses were down 30% from the holiday week prior, to an icy $18.25 million. But the real cause for alarm was the attendance: only 62% of all available seats were filled. That’s the lowest since the pandemic started, yes, but it’s also the lowest for any single week in the last decade, including ones that cancelled shows for blizzards and hurricanes.

All this despite a relatively full slate of shows and discounts galore. 27 productions were open last week, compared to 29 in 2020, and almost all of them had low double-digit pricepoints available. Not to mention that Broadway overall has some of the most stringent vaccination, testing, and masking protocols anywhere, along with upgraded ventilation systems and other safety measures. From a certain point of view, there’s never been a better time to catch a show.

Clearly, many buyers don’t see it that way. Fears of Omicron, cancelled flights, and general anxiety are overriding the allure of affordable live entertainment. And it’s bad news for the synergistic businesses that thrive off those consumers, too. Pre-pandemic, Broadway buyers accounted for almost $15 billion in secondary spending at bars, hotels, restaurants, and the like. That’s a massive hole in the city’s economy, not to mention a threat to the 96,000 related jobs.

Even with the steep drop, however, grosses weren’t hit as hard as overall attendance, indicating some hit shows are still pulling hefty prices. But they remained far from where pundits hoped they’d be. Accounting for inflation and number of performances played, the industry collectively grossed only 65.5% as much as it “should have” compared to the same week in 2020.

One painful, telling example: sales are so slow at the musical Girl From the North Country that balcony seats are no longer available for purchase, period. It’s a noble attempt to concentrate buyers on the lower levels, and generate the sense of a bustling house for the actors. Even so, for tomorrow’s evening curtain, only one quarter of the seats in the mezzanine and orchestra together have been sold, as of this writing.

January is historically the worst month for business on the Great White Way. Tourists have departed, and many locals are hibernating or traveling elsewhere. But usually they’re preceded by a lucrative holiday period. Not so in 2021. Christmas was disastrous, as Omicron surged through companies and knocked out cast members faster than understudies could prep to replace them. Even national treasure Hugh Jackman wasn’t spared. While the shows that remained open sold relatively well, the industry overall only brought in $14 million that week, compared to past years’ hauls of $50 million and up.

New Years was better, with sales rebounding as many shows resumed performances. And that week claimed the highest average ticket price since reopening, at $146 a pop, indicating serious demand for at least some offerings.

But January is looming colder and more brutal than ever. Eight shows have now closed permanently, and others are taking drastic measures to stay afloat. To staunch hemorrhaging, the new musical Mrs. Doubtfire has gone on a “hiatus” until March, freezing salaries and going dark in the hopes that sales perk back up later. Without the pause, the show’s producers estimate it would lose $300,000 weekly, and close permanently.

Not all is so dire. Tickets for such marquee hits as The Music Man and Six remain hot. But Broadway as an institution has never seen numbers like this before. Doubtfire is unlikely to be the last show to announce a hiatus, and more permanent closures are all but inevitable.

If you know anyone working in the industry right now, hug them, if you can. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.