BROADWAY IS BOSS

Packed houses on Great White Way

They’re Broadway’s lucky seven.

These shows are not only bucking the odds — most Broadway musicals fail — they are wildly successful, with packed houses of theatergoers paying top dollar, sometimes as much as $500 a seat.

“I think it is very exciting,” says Ken Davenport, a longtime Broadway producer of such shows as “Godspell” and “Kinky Boots.”

The top seven today are “The Book of Mormon,” “Dear Evan Hansen,” “The Lion King,” “Frozen,” “Hamilton,” “Springsteen on Broadway” and “Waitress.”

Those musicals are so popular that they are playing to standing-room-only crowds.

Theater lovers flocking to the lucky seven are paying much more than the average $120 ticket price, according to the most recent Broadway League numbers.

As a result, “Hamilton” continues to have attendance of between 101 percent and 108 percent. And “Springsteen on Broadway” is booking 100 percent houses despite an average ticket price of $505.

Charlotte St. Martin, presi- dent of the Broadway League, said people pay the high price for Springsteen “because it is remarkable to see this man tell his story with music in such a small theater. You walk out of there transformed.” Davenport sees a trend. “Some of the biggest shows right now are new, original musicals. They are not usually based on a movie,” he said.

He argued the trend of unique material began a few years ago with the full houses of the hip-hop play “Hamilton.” It continued, he said, with “Dear Evan Hansen,” a show about a young man with anxiety problems.

Davenport said that previously, most producers “would have never imagined that these kinds of shows would be grossing millions of dollars a week.” The seven successes show that Broadway audiences are becoming more willing to take chances with new musicals, according to Davenport.

“There’s no question that the audience does love a new show,” St. Martin added. “They love their revivals, too, but revivals, for the most part, don’t make it to 100 percent and stay at 100 percent on a consistent basis.”

Davenport said the lucky seven are succeeding because audiences are more open to new things.

“It’s like going into a restaurant time after time but suddenly trying a new dish and saying, ‘ Oh my God. I really like that,’” Davenport said.

However, Todd and Jeff Brabec, music historians and Broadway observers, only partly agree. They said original isn’t necessarily great, adding that borrowing from other media can also work.

“A great show needs to have a great book, and that doesn’t necessarily mean original material,” Jeff Brabec said. He noted that “Hamilton” was based on the bestselling biography by Ron Chernow and that “The Lion King” and “Frozen” had Hollywood roots.

Nevertheless, Davenport has been so impressed with the successes of original musicals that he is now preparing a new one for Broadway this summer. It is entitled “Gettin’ the Band Back Together” and is about a newly unemployed banker who goes back to living with his parents and decides to reunite his old band.

But there is no debate over the main reason some musi- cals sizzle — they attract tourists.

“Most people who visit New York want to go to Broadway and see musicals,” said Zan Hall, the playwright behind the WWII drama “W.A.S.P.”

The Broadway League says that 67 percent of those attending plays are tourists from out of town or out of the country.

Still, whichever formula succeeds, the lucky seven today are defying the odds. Industry experts say four out of five Broadway musicals fail.

“A Broadway play,” said Todd Brabec, “is a great way to lose money.”

And there is spillover to other productions. The Great White Way’s theaters now have an average attendance of 88 percent.

That’s about 8 percent better than 20 years ago, according to the Broadway League.

The league’s numbers for the week ending March 11 show that the average gross per show was $1.28 million, compared with $1.1 million last year.

“Broadway has been on a roll for at least 10 years,” said St. Martin.