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Broadway kept the same number of shows this week — 33 — but saw a decent climb in overall box office, from $28,102,518 to $29,304,272, a jump of more than a million. Long-standing shows like The Lion King, The Phantom of the Opera and Wicked all saw box-office increases of more than $100,000, as did the new musical Something Rotten!. Matilda the Musical did almost as well, with an incline of $94,534.
Of those, only The Lion King sold out its week. It was joined by Beautiful: The Carole King Musical — the first capacity week for that popular show in a while — Fun Home, which continued its streak as a popular attraction, An American in Paris, Fish in the Dark, The Audience, The Book of Mormon and The King and I. Skylight just missed the mark.
Fish in the Dark pulled in the most impressive box office, taking 117% of its potential. The Audience was next, with 110% of its gross. Those two numbers were better showings than The Book of Mormon (104%), as has been the case often for a few weeks now. Something Rotten! was also an over-achiever in this respect. Its take was 103% of the gross. An Act of God, the new comedy starring Jim Parsons, saw a dip at the box office owing to the fact that it hosted several critics performances. Houses were at 82%, and box office was 72% of the possible.
The revival of On the Town continued to do a little better than it had been the rest of the season. Attendance was at 76% of the capacity, though box-office collections were still a slim 36%. Wolf Hall seems to be benefitting little from its several Tony nominations. Its box office slid $134,050 last week to $600,295. Only 58% of the seats were full.
But the poorest performance on Broadway — rather surprisingly, given the talent involved — is The Visit, the Kander and Ebb musical starring Chita Rivera and Roger Rees. It garnered 26% of its potential box office, playing to houses 67% full, and its average ticket prices was an economical $42.05.