Mamma Mia!

Broadway at the NBA All-Star Game at Madison Square Garden

by Paul Mroczka

NBA ALL STAR GAME Mamma Mia

NBA ALL STAR GAME Mamma Mia

Mamma Mia cast members perform at the NBA All-Star Game.

Broadway comes to Madison Square Garden as the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets host the NBA All-Star game this year. There’s a lot of glitz and glamour associated with the exhibition contest, which offers basketball fanes three days of sports and entertainment.

The All-Star Break

The NBA All-Star break tips off tomorrow with two games: the Sprint NBA All-Star Celebrity Game at 7 pm and the BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge at 9 pm. On Saturday there are four big competitions. The action starts at 8:30 am as the State Farm All-Star Saturday Night gets into gear. The first event offers Degree Shooting Stars, while the second is the Taco Bell Skills Challenge. The final two events are considered to be the biggest of the night with the Foot Locker Three-Point Contest (3rd Event) and Sprite Slam Dunk (4th Event) being presented.

Broadway Entertainment

The All-Star Game takes center court at 8:30 Sunday night. Performing during the telecast, which may be seen on TNT, will be the casts of Chicago, Jersey Boys and Mamma Mia! Other entertainers include Queen Latifah and Tamia singing the U.S. and Canadian anthems, and Christina Aguilera and the Rockettes. Ariana Grande will perform at half-time.

Full Service Entertainment

If you get the chance to see the NBA All-Star Game, you see some great basketball action as well as some wonderful all-star entertainment from The Great White Way just down the street. Enjoy the shows!

Broadway Grosses Unpredictable During January

by Paul Mroczka

Honeymoon in Vegas Box Office

Honeymoon in Vegas Box Office

Honeymoon in Vegas, which received great reviews, got a bump in ticket sales.

The ‘dead months” for Broadway begin in January with the start of the calendar year and stretch into early March. It’s a time that can be tough on Broadway ticket sales, as people are often low on cash due to holiday spending. Also, the unpredictable and unkind weather, short days and cold nights, and a general letdown after all of the hustle and bustle that defines the time from Thanksgiving through to New Year’s, contribute to uneven ticket sales.

Mid-January Box Office Figures

Mamma Mia! Broadway musical

Mamma Mia! saw a decreased os more than 10%.

The box office numbers as reported by Playbill.com for the week ending January 18, 2015, reveal an overall uptick from those for the week ending January 11th. Most plays and musicals showed an increase in ticket sales for the week running from the 12th to the 18th. Where as for the week ending January 11th every show, except Aladdin and The Book of Mormon, saw a decline from the week prior, which included New Year’s.

Shows that experienced a decline in sales for the week ending January 18th were Cabaret (-1.4%), Chicago (-5.8%), It’s Only a Play (-5.0%), Jersey Boys (-6.3%), Les Misérables (-5.9%), The Lion King (-1.0%), and The Phantom of the Opera (-8.8%). Mamma Mia! posted the only double-digit dovetail, with sales down 12.8%,

Shows Trending Upward

Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance on Broadway

John Lithgow and Glenn Close star in Albee’s A Delicate Balance.

Of the 29 shows presently running on Broadway, 21 either showed no decline or enjoyed an increase in sales. That means 74% of the shows experienced either improved or stable tickets sales.

The show that saw the biggest increase was the revival of Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize winning drama A Delicate Balance. There was a 10.1% increase in sales, as the John Golden Theatre reached 83.4% capacity. Two other revivals rebounded nicely, as On the Town notched an increase of 7.7%, going from 58.1% to 65.8%, and You Can’t Take It With You received a 7.2% bump, as it went from 61.3% capacity to 68.5%.

Honeymoon in Vegas

The new musical Honeymoon in Vegas, which garnered wonderful reviews during the week, went from 78.5% to 81.5% capacity. It will be interesting to see if what appears to be the first big hit of 2015 continues to see increased ticket sales during what can be the harshest time of the year for Broadway theatres. Broadway producers will be anxiously eyeing advanced sales for the coming months, as well as daily and weekly grosses.