\n<\/p>\n
Both developments are, in part, Hollywood related.<\/p>\n
Three plays featuring film, television and comedy stars \u2014 \u201cGood Night, and Good Luck,\u201d starring Clooney; \u201cOthello,\u201d starring Washington and Gyllenhaal; and \u201cGlengarry Glen Ross,\u201d starring Kieran Culkin, Bill Burr and Bob Odenkirk \u2014 are accounting for more than 20 percent of Broadway\u2019s weekly box office this spring, even though they make up just 7 percent of the shows.<\/p>\n
They are doing that without a ton of critical support, and none of them was nominated for best play or best play revival. But each has just become profitable \u2014 a rare feat on Broadway. \u201cGlengarry Glen Ross\u201d has recouped its capitalization costs of up to $7.5 million; \u201cOthello,\u201d up to $9 million; and \u201cGood Night, and Good Luck,\u201d $9.5 million.<\/p>\n
One-fifth of Broadway grosses are now going to just three plays: \u201cGood Night, and Good Luck,\u201d \u201cOthello\u201d and \u201cGlengarry Glen Ross\u201d (which features Kieran Culkin, above).<\/p>\n
\u201cGood Night, and Good Luck,\u201d a stage adaptation of a 2005 film about the confrontation between the television journalist Edward R. Murrow and the anti-Communist senator Joseph McCarthy, had already been racking up eye-popping numbers<\/a>, thanks to the popularity of Clooney and the timeliness of its theme about the importance of an independent press. During the week that ended May 4, it took in $4 million \u2014 a record high for a play, and more than twice what \u201cThe Lion King\u201d took in that week.<\/p>\n \u201cOthello\u201d is also having an amazing run. The revival is in a much smaller theater (1,043 seats, compared with 1,537 for \u201cGood Night, and Good Luck\u201d), where high demand for limited supply has driven ticket prices up; many seats are priced at $921<\/a>, and the play had an average ticket price of $387 last week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n