Mark Ballas and Whitney Leavitt in 'Chicago.' Emilio Madrid Chicago reached close to $1.5 million last week, its highest recorded total, according to the production, as Dancing with the Stars’ and The Traitors’ Mark Ballas joined the show as Billy Flynn, opposite Whitney Leavitt.
Leavitt, who was partnered with Ballas on Dancing With the Stars and starred on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, had already been a box big office contributor for the show. But with Ballas, the average ticket price jumped up to $171, and capacity increased to 100 percent at the Ambassador Theatre.
That ticket price puts it in the same league as Proof, which is currently in previews at the Booth Theatre starring Ayo Edebiri and Don Cheadle, and carried a $180 average ticket price, with close to 100 percent capacity and $968,774 brought in across its first seven previews. And it’s comparable to Giant, starring John Lithgow, which opened March 23 at the Music Box Theatre, and had a $175 average ticket price, bringing in $1.2 million across seven shows last week.
Only Every Brilliant Thing, the one-man show starring Daniel Radcliffe, with a $195 average ticket price, and Hamilton with an average ticket price of $219 and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child with Tom Felton $208 surpassed that grouping.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was the highest grossing show last week with $2.7 million, followed by Hamilton with $2.3 million and Wicked with $1.9 million. Moulin Rouge! cracked the top five, bringing in $1.7 million with Megan Thee Stallion back in the cast.
The industry saw four openings last week with Becky Shaw, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Death of a Salesman and Titanique, leading to heavily comped press tickets in the leadup as well as fully comped opening nights. Nine more shows are in previews, with openings all on or before April 26.
Among the shows in previews, Beaches, the New Musical, continues to struggle at the box office, dropping to 67 percent capacity last week, from 74 percent, but upping its total slightly, to $545,770 across eight performances as the average ticket price went up $10.
The Lost Boys, another new musical, has attracted more of an audience, playing to 93 percent capacity at the Palace Theatre, and bringing in $886,708 across seven preview performances.
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