NEW YORK – There were smiles at many Broadway box offices last week as a big financial bounce followed the Tony Awards, with the biggest winners being “Pippin,” “Matilda the Musical” and “Motown the Musical.”
Data from The Broadway League on Monday shows exposure and statuettes on the June 9 telecast helped many shows have their most profitable weeks ever and break some individual theater records.
“Kinky Boots,” crowned with the best musical Tony scored $62,775 more than the previous week to land at an eye-popping $1,474,349. “Motown the Musical” had its best week ever with $1,441,448 and set a new box office record at The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
The hit-studded show, which didn’t win a Tony but got valuable screen time with a great Michael Jackson medley, has grossed more than $1 million every week since previews began March 11.
The circus-themed revival of “Pippin” made more than $1 million for the first time after winning four awards, including best revival, best direction, best leading actress and best featured actress in a musical. It went from $931,349 in the week before the Tonys to $1,009,392 last week.
“Matilda the Musical,” which lost the best musical Tony to “Kinky Boots,” broke the house record at the Shubert Theatre en route to earning $1,184,104 during its eight performances.
Virtually every show increased its box-office take, except for “Macbeth” and “Anne” and the existing Tony winners “Once,” “The Book of Mormon” and “Jersey Boys,” though their losses were small. “Wicked” pulled in a tremendous $1,849,045 while “The Book of Mormon” made $1,721,966 and “The Lion King” won the overall crown with $1,951,428.
As for plays, standing-room-only “Lucky Guy” with Tom Hanks made $6,000 more to earn $1,367,394 and best play winner “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” got a $101,25 boost to end at $654,304 – or 85 percent of its potential.
The Tony telecast itself earned a 20 percent bump this year. Neil Patrick Harris as host helped the latest show’s viewership jump to 7.24 million people, its largest audience in four years, despite another “Mad Men” episode and an NBA finals game.
