‘Buena Vista Social Club’ And ‘Operation Mincemeat’ Sell Out Preview Performances; ‘Gypsy’ Slips With Audra Absent – Broadway Box Office

Broadway seemed to be shedding a bit of winter weight last week as the industry gears up for a busy March and busier April. With two fewer shows on the roster during the week ending February 23 – gone were heavy hitters Romeo + Juliet and All In: Comedy About Love – total grosses of $27,930,129 were off 13.23% from the previous week.

Total attendance for the 26 productions was 231,705, off about 5% from the previous week. The discrepancy between the grosses and attendance percentage drops reflects a lower average ticket price last week – $120.54 – than the $132.29 of the previous week which included the tourist-friendly Presidents Day Weekend.

Two recent arrivals are off to promising starts. Buena Vista Social Club began previews at the Schoenfeld, selling out all three performances for a $447,171 take. The musical opens on March 19.

Another previewing show is Operation Mincemeat, selling out its seven performances at the Golden for a $666,648 gross. Opening night is March 20.

In its final week, A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical saw an increase of $137,943 in ticket sales, with last-chancers contributing to the total take of $677,797.

Some other noteworthy numbers: Oh, Mary! was down $43,164 to $731,908, with attendance at the Lyceum at 87% of capacity. Producers of the show announced today that creator Cole Escola and others in the original cast will return to the show in April. Expect those attendance figures to jump.

Also of note, Redwood, the new musical starring Idina Menzel, was down a not-huge $34,168 to $954,628, but attendance of 89% of the Nederlander’s capacity went in the wrong direction – the previous week’s figure was 97%.

With Audra McDonald out for five performances of Gypsy last week due to a death in the family, the musical took a $599,058 dive to $877,294, filling 58% of seats at the Majestic (compared to 85% the previous week).

Sell-outs for the week were & Juliet (99.5%), Buena Vista Social Club, Hamilton, Operation Mincemeat, The Outsiders and Wicked, while shows with attendance of 90% capacity or more were Aladdin, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, Death Becomes Her, English, Hadestown, Maybe Happy Ending, MJ, Six, The Book of Mormon and The Great Gatsby.

Top earner of the week was, once again, Wicked, with a $2,561,492 gross. Runner up was The Lion King, with $1,946,530.

Season to date, Broadway, in the 40th week of the 2024-25 season, has grossed $1,352,245,368, up about 18% over last year at this time, with total attendance of 10,604,685 up 17%.

All figures courtesy of The Broadway League. For complete box office visit the League’s website.