Nineteen shows have opened since the Tony deadline last June (including five new plays and five new musicals) and that whir you hear on Broadway is the sound of lucre. Setting aside the three productions — “Therese Raquin,” “Fool for Love,” “Old Times” — at the non-profit theaters, more than half of the remaining sixteen commercial ventures show signs of recouping. Given that only 20-25 percent of shows go into profit, that is almost unprecedented this early in the season. “Act of God,” powered by the box-office appeal of Jim Parsons, recouped quickly over the summer. The opening of the musical “Hamilton,” which has become a juggernaut with a reported $50-million plus advance, followed this. The Lin-Manuel Miranda hip-hop musical about the founding father has reaped an avalanche of coverage, from op-ed pieces to an effusive “60 Minutes” segment and has had the added advantage of two presidential visits. The $12.5 million production is on track for the fastest recoupment in history, having returned 25% to investors just five weeks after its opening last August. (“Book of Mormon” announced its swift recoupment after eight months.)The investors are also smiling at “On Your Feet!” the musical about pop superstar Gloria Estefan and her husband Emilio, which has been grossing well over $1 million per week since it opened. Expectations are that it will tap the profitable vein previously mined by “Beautiful,” the Carole King Musical, and “Jersey Boys,” about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Earlier in the season, “Amazing Grace,” about the composer of that iconic hymn, failed at the box-office, and “Allegiance,” about the World War II internment of Japanese-Americans, has been struggling. But the big question is whether “School of Rock,” which opened to respectful notices, will finally end the long commercial dry spell of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Adapted from the 2003 Jack Black movie about a slacker who molds a prep school class into a rock band, “School of Rock” started slow but has since picked up speed, recently joining the $1 million/week club. If it can maintain grosses close to that over the winter months, then it could join the ranks of shows like “Matilda” as a steady seller for the tween market. Musical revivals generally hold out less of a profit margin for investors since there are many hands in the till and the runs tend to be short. An anomaly is “Chicago,” which last year became the second-longest running show in Broadway history, surpassing “Cats.” “Dames at Sea,” the affectionate spoof of ‘30s musicals, has been listing since it opened and announced a closing on January 3. And, despite glowing reviews, the Deaf West Theatre revival of “Spring Awakening” will close out its limited engagement on January 24 having done poorly at the box-office. This superb production of the 2008 Best Musical Tony Winner will have a limited national tour however. The two most thrilling revivals — both of which have received rave notices — are “The Color Purple” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” They have been respectively re-imagined by two acclaimed masters of the form: directors John Doyle and Bartlett Sher. Doyle, who won the 2006 Tony for the revival of “Sweeney Todd,” took a scalpel to “The Color Purple,” which was considered bloated in its original 2005 form. Doyle first mounted his shortened version at the intimate Menier Chocolate Factory in London, where it was rapturously greeted. It was a no-brainer for producers Oprah Winfrey and Scott Sanders to transfer “The Color Purple” to Broadway, with Cynthia Erivo reprising her star-making role as Celie, the abused waif, and adding pop star Jennifer Hudson as sassy Shug, the nightclub singer who comes to her rescue. Danielle Brooks in an equally impressive debut plays the hard-charging Sofia. Sher, whose “The King and I” won last year’s Best Revival Tony, has scored again with the beloved classic “Fiddler on the Roof,” starring Danny Burstein as the woebegone milkman, Tevye. While the emotional power of the piece continues to be the struggle that occurs when romantic love runs counter to the cohesive nature of tradition and community, the director has taken pains to draw parallels between life in a Russian shtetl at the turn of the last century and the modern-day predicament of a persecuted people seeking safety for their families.Both shows are likely to end up in the hit column. What remains to be seen is how long they will be around with their respective messages of endurance and hope.
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