*

In its final week on Broadway, the revival of A.R. Gurney’s two-person play Love Letters went against Broadway tradition and actually lost attendance and box office during its last performances. (Typically there's a nice bump, provided by latecomers who want to see the show before it goes.) 735 fewer theatregoers went to see the show, leading to a $135,173 drop at the box office. Houses were at 58% capacity, and the till showed 35% of possible gross.

Honeymoon in Vegas, and Jason Robert Brown musical based on the movie comedy of the same name, and starring Tony Danza, gained no ground in its effort to find a sizable audience during previews. Attendance slid by 1,129 ticket buyers, and collections were down $14,303 from last week. The musical opens at the Nederlander Jan. 15, 2015.

Overall attendance and box office across Broadway stayed largely the same from last week, with numbers moving only slightly downwards. The 36 playing shows took in $30,085,952 and attendance was 273,383 overall. The capacity shows were the usual suspects: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, The Elephant Man, The River and The Book of Mormon. It’s Only a Play, which is usually a member of that club, fell slightly short, playing to houses that were just under 99% full.

Sting’s arrival in the cast of his own musical The Last Ship had the happy effect on the box office that was anticipated. Numbers zoomed $325,987, making for a total take of $817,897, an increase of roughly 60%. Attendance climbed by 1,941 persons, and the Neil Simon played to 77% capacity crowds. Not quite full houses, but certainly an improvement. Wicked didn’t play to capacity, and brought in $68,881 less at the box office than last week. Nonetheless, its box-office take was a healthy 104%, meaning some holiday-minded ticketbuyers out there are seizing on those premium seats. The same goes for Mormon, which does well week in and week out. It collected an impressive 125% of its possible gross.

Other shows drawing excess at the ticket window included Aladdin (106%), Beautiful (105%) and It’s Only a Play (106%).

Side Show, which announced this past week that it would throw in the towel, found 62% of its seats full and a grand total of 40% of its box-office potential in the cash register.

Once, which will close its run early in the coming year, played to decent-sized crowds at the Jacobs. Houses were 78% filled and box-office gross stood at 65%. Cinderella, also nearing the end, had similar numbers: 75% capacity and 70% gross.