Broadway Box Office Takes an Estimated $8.5 Million Hurricane Hit

Every Broadway show took a financial beating last week thanks to Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath, with the musical “Nice Work If You Can Get It” and the play “Grace” suffering most - each down 50 per cent at the box office from the week before, according to data released on Tuesday by the Broadway League.

All told, Broadway shows lost roughly $8.5 million in ticket sales due to cancelled performances, a calculation based on comparing box office grosses during Sandy and the equivalent period last year, according to a spokeswoman for the Broadway League, a trade association of theater owners and producers.

For the week ending Nov. 4, Broadway ticket sales were down $6.5 million from the previous week, for a gross of $13.6 million. Ttcket sales were also lost on Sunday Oct. 28 due to performance cancellations as Sandy approached.

The League spokeswoman noted that Broadway's losses due to cancellations were greater from Hurricane Irene, which took p lace during a weekend in a relatively busy summer season in 2011. Sixty-six performances were cancelled as a result of Irene, compared to 48 for Sandy.

All Broadway productions scrubbed at least one performance during the first half of last week, and attendance was relatively light once shows were back up, given the lack of public transportation and the ebb in tourists as the region began recovering from Sandy.

The largest week-to-week declines in the grosses were for “Nice Work” ($538,853), “Wicked” ($490,996) and “Evita” ($398,302), according to the Broadway League. The gross for “Grace,” which lost one performance last week, declined to $219,878 from $466,187, a difference of $246,309.

Even with the storm, one musical was sold out last week â€" the popular “Book of Mormon” â€" although its average paid admission, $173.96, was about $15 less than usual. Other shows with mostly full theaters last week were “Glengarry Glen Ross”  †œOnce,” “The Lion King,” and “Rock of Ages,” while the emptiest theaters last week were for “Grace,” “Cyrano de Bergerac,” and the musicals “Bring It On” and “Scandalous.”