On its single preview, On the Town did well for a show with no major names attached to it, running to 94% capacity—not too shabby given the Lyric seats 1,874. Box-office take, however, was only 49% of the potential.
Kenneth Lonergan's play This Is Our Youth, which opened to good reviews last week, did not see the bump it might have expected. In fact, attendance went down, from 84% capacity to 67%. Nonetheless, despite the drop in attendance, it rose in box-office dollars by nearly $50,000.
The new staging of A.R. Gurney's Love Letters also won fairly decent notices when it opened at the Atkinson this week. Attendance was modest, standing at 63% capacity. Box office was even more modest: 21% of potential gross.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time continues to make theatregoers curious. Seats were 98% full at the English import at the Barrymore Theatre, which played only six previews last week. Box office was 71% of the possible.
The ever-robust numbers at It's Only a Play, with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, were 101% capacity and 115% of possible take at the box office. The average ticket price was $148.10. Only four other shows managed the full-capacity trick, and they were the usual suspects: A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, The Book of Mormon, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill and Beautiful.