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 Even William Shakespeare joined the party, with his "Twelfth Night"
and "Richard III" playing in repertory led by Mark Rylance
shattering an 8-year-old record at the Belasco Theatre.
The Broadway League released data Monday that showed the 32 shows on
the Great White Way earned more than $31 million, with an average
paid admission of $120. So far, this season's haul stands at more
than $620 million, much better than the $576 million earned at this
time last season, although attendance still lags.
"Kinky Boots," which won the 2013 Tony Award for best musical,
grossed $1.9 million over eight performances during the week ending
Sunday, smashing the all-time house record at the Al Hirschfeld
Theatre. It beat out the crown held there in January 2012 by the
revival of "How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," which
had one more performance.
The circus-themed revival of "Pippin," which announced Monday that
it had recouped its $8.5 million investment, reported that it had
also beaten its own Music Box Theatre house record for a single
show, earning about $151,000 on Friday night.
"Motown the Musical," the story of Motown founder Berry Gordy and
featuring an astonishing Motown catalog, took in $1.5 million over
eight shows last week, the show's best week ever and a record for
the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
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 "The Lion King" shows no signs of losing its roar —
the show netted $2.3 million, setting a house record for an
eight-performance week at the Minskoff Theatre. The show,
celebrating its 16th year, passed "Les Miserables" on Saturday to
become the fourth longest-running show on Broadway.
The Rylance-led "Twelfth Night" and "Richard III"
grossed about $826,000, despite setting aside 2,000 seats a week for
students for $25. Its haul easily beat the theater's last box-office
ruler, "Julius Caesar," another Shakespeare classic starring Denzel
Washington that earned nearly $755,000.
A revival of Harold Pinter's "Betrayal" starring Rachel Weisz,
Daniel Craig and Rafe Spall did what it seems destined to do: break
another record at the Barrymore Theatre with a haul of $1.2 million.
Even "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," whose numbers have lately
slumped, gained more than $651,000 more than the previous week, and
brought in $1.4 million. Of course, "Wicked" remained the top week's
earner with a staggering $2.6 million over nine performances,
followed by "The Lion King" and in third spot "The Book of Mormon"
with $2.1 million.
[Associated
Press; MARK KENNEDY]
Copyright 2013 The Associated
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