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For the first unofficial week of fall, Broadway slid in number of shows, from 25 to 24, and in overall box-office performance, from $22,905,606 to $19,843,322.

With Hedwig and the Angry Inch no longer doing nearly the business it did with Neil Patrick Harris in the title role, the big box-office newsmaker these days is the revival of Terrence McNally's It's Only a Play. The producers must be feeling pretty good about their luck in casting the dynamic duo of Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. For its third week, the show brought in monies in excess of its box-office potential. The average ticket price was down from last week, at $137.46, but still impressive, the third highest on Broadway and the highest for any play.

As for the other shows still in previews, You Can't Take It With You was running before 80%-full auditoriums, and This Is Our Youth drew folks into 85% of its seats at the Cort. The latter took in only half of its box-office potential.

The aforementioned Hedwig, meanwhile, had its worst week yet, playing to 70% capacity and collecting only 60% of its possible revenue. Michael C. Hall was announced this week as a replacement for current Hedwig Andrew Rannells. He arrives Oct. 16. A television star with a name arguably as big as Harris' and one with Broadway cred, he may have better luck than Rannells has had in attracting theatregoers. Numbers were rather low in general this week, with few shows playing to capacity and many attractions commanding crowds only in the 80-89% capacity range. These included Rock of Ages, Pippin, Motown, Matilda the Musical, Mamma Mia!, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Jersey Boys, Chicago and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. The latter suffered a fairly dramatic fall from its usual heights, down $165,533 from last week.

Cinderella, which announced it would close up shop at the end of the year, played to houses that were less than half full, at 46%: the smallest crowds on Broadway.