Upon the Dec. 1 launch of its beta version, the Playbill Vault includes information on over 10,000 shows and 120,000 actors, creative teams and crew members who have worked or are currently working on Broadway, with content being added on a daily basis.
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You can learn a lot about how various Broadway shows are faring economically by looking at the Playbill Vault's table of weekly Broadway grosses. The shows playing to the lowest percentage of capacity (that is, selling the lowest percentage of their available tickets) are often the ones doing the most discounting—meaning those are the ones most likely to have good seat available on short notice, and the budget-conscious among us may have the best chance of finding them on TKTS and other discount sources. Which shows would you guess have the lowest and highest capacities this week? Look them up under "Grosses" in the Playbill Vault in the column marked "% Cap This Week."
Continue to page 2 for the answer.
ANSWER:
Broadway's highest-capacity shows the week ending Dec. 11, 2011, were Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway and The Book of Mormon, both selling more than 102 percent of their seats, meaning it was Standing Room Only at those theatres. Getting a ticket to those shows probably won't be easy this week. Buy now for the future.
The lowest-capacity shows were Follies and Chinglish, which sold less than 55 percent of their tickets. Getting a seat for those shows this week will likely be easier, even with the holiday!
