CHAPTER 10:
Producing and InvestingBroadway is in the midst, financially and artistically (with a caveat or two), of a new golden age. Every theater is booked, with up to five backup shows hoping to come in when a venue frees up. It’s possible that some musical houses — such as the Gershwin, where the 16-year-old “Wicked” could outlive its producers — may never be on the market again. And of course, "Phantom of the Opera" has been running for over 30 years with "Chicago" and "Lion King" and "Book of Mormon" still running strong.
NY TIMES: This past season, attendance was up 9.5 percent. And overall grosses rose even faster — up 10.3 percent, leading to the sixth record-breaking year in a row. Those are significant developments for an art form ever-worried about its cultural relevance, and they are especially striking during a season dominated by an unexpected bounty of ambitious plays.In all, 14,768,254 patrons saw Broadway shows last season, for a total box office gross of $1.8 billion, according to figures released Tuesday by the Broadway League ... Both totals — measured between May 28, 2018 and May 26, 2019 — are records for an industry that was thought to be dying in the 1970s but has forcefully rebounded.
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