Broadway Prepares For Burst Of Shows
On Broadway, the next two months are packed with new productions — 18 are scheduled to open in March and April — while the industry is still struggling to adapt to the more challenging realities of a postpandemic theater era.
There will be a dizzying array of options for theater buffs. In early April, about 38 shows should be running.
The density of openings — 11 plays and musicals over nine days in late April, just before the deadline to qualify for the Tony Awards — has producers and investors worried whether those shows will find enough ticket buyers to survive.
“On the one hand, how incredible that our industry perseveres, and that there is so much new work on Broadway,” said Rachel Sussman, one of the lead producers of “Suffs,” a musical opening in April.
“On the other hand,” she added, “we’re still recovering from the pandemic, and audiences are not back in full force, so there is industrywide anxiety about whether we have the audience to sustain all of these shows. It’s one of those things that only time will tell.”
And, one may wonder, which new show is for me?
Looking for a favorite pop sound? Alicia Keys is offering “Hell’s Kitchen,” Huey Lewis has “The Heart of Rock and Roll,” and the Who is represented with a revival of that band’s rock classic, “Tommy.” There is even a fictional behind-the-music play, “Stereophonic,” that blends songs from an Arcade Fire alum with echoes of Fleetwood Mac.
Love literature? Try musical adaptations of “The Great Gatsby,” “The Notebook,” “The Outsiders” and “Water for Elephants.”
There will be celebrities aplenty — Steve Carell in “Uncle Vanya,” Jessica Lange and Jim Parsons in “Mother Play,” Rachel McAdams in “Mary Jane,” Eddie Redmayne in “Cabaret,” Liev Schreiber and Amy Ryan in “Doubt,” and Jeremy Strong in “An Enemy of the People.”
History buffs might consider “Suffs,” which explores the battle over allowing women to vote in the United States. Those interested in more recent events might like “Patriots,” an eerily timely play about the untimely death of a critic of Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president.
And for those who want old-fashioned musical theater fun, “The Wiz” is a new version of the 1975 musical reimagining “The Wizard of Oz,” visiting New York after a U.S. tour.
(These new shows are in addition to ones already open.)
It may seem, with so many openings, that Broadway must be back, but not really.
There are reasons for cheer. The large number of openings is a reminder that, contrary to some of the most pessimistic predictions during the pandemic, many shows are in the works and investors are willing and able to finance them.
But total attendance thus far this season is 16 percent below where it was at the same point in 2020, and total box office grosses are down 15 percent.
The postpandemic Broadway audience is younger and more diverse than it had been before the pandemic, and that is a positive development for an industry that is concerned about its audience demographics. But one reason for the shift is that, even as tourism rebounds, many suburban theatergoers have not returned.
Broadway has long been a brutal business, in which far more shows fail than succeed, and this season has been difficult, especially for new musicals. Four of the six new musicals to open thus far have already closed as financial flops, including “Once Upon a One More Time,” “Here Lies Love,” “Harmony” and “How to Dance in Ohio.”
Conversely, the season has been decent for plays and musical revivals — among the success stories so far are “Merrily We Roll Along,” which is a big hit; “Gutenberg! The Musical!,” which recouped its costs just before ending its run; and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s play “Appropriate,” which has been selling so well at a nonprofit Broadway house that a group of commercial producers is planning to move it to a for-profit house and extend its run.