B’WAY ROLL!
N.Y.ers seeing shows at highest clip since ’98
SHINING BRIGHT on Broadway: New Yorkers.
More locals attended a Broadway show in 2016-2017 than in any season since 1998-1999, according to the Broadway League’s 20th annual demographics report out Tuesday.
While out-of-towners accounted for 61% of the 13.3 million people who attended Broadway productions last season — 15% of them from other countries — Big Apple residents made up 22% of ticket buyers, up from 19.7% in the previous season.
The rest of the seats went to suburbanites. Total attendance reached 13.3 million people last year, a healthy 4% increase from 2015-16. The survey showed that women made up two-thirds of audiences.
“Last season brought people from all over the world to a Broadway show,” said Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League.
The ticket buyers, from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and covering a wide age range, showed different purchasing habits and theatergoing preferences, the industry trade group pointed out.
Though the average age of a theatergoer was 41.7, audiences got younger thanks to initiatives like Kids’ Night on Broadway. The number of audience members under 18 years old last season reached 1.65 million — the highest since the Broadway League’s analysis began two decades ago.
There were another 1.62 million theatergoers ages 18-24.
Findings are based on questionnaires handed out before shows throughout the last season. They reveal not just who is buying tickets to Broadway shows but how they are purchasing them.
Last season’s record-setting $1.45 billion box office was due in part to premium pricing at hits like “Hamilton,” “Hello, Dolly!” and “Dear Evan Hansen.”
While the average ticket price for a Broadway show last year was $109, it was even even higher at “Hello, Dolly!” and “Hamilton,” which commanded more than $800 per seat.
About half of the respondents said they bought their tickets online. And American theatergoers were more likely than others to use the internet to snag tickets, while tourists who live outside the U.S. were more likely to make the purchase in person.