Broadway highest-grossing season in history at $1.36bn

Reuters/New YorkBroadway enjoyed its highest-grossing season in history with $1.36bn in 2014-2015 and audience attendance topping 13.1mn, the Broadway League said on Tuesday. Attendance at shows rose 7.3% from the previous year’s 12.2mn and grosses were up 7.6% from $1.26bn, according to the league, which represents theatre owners, operators, producers, presenters and general managers. “It’s been an extraordinary season on Broadway, and I’m thrilled that we have broken all records,” Broadway League President Charlotte St. Martin said in a statement. “We’ve been saying for several years now that there is something for everyone on Broadway; to have audience growth of over 13% in two years clearly proves our point.” Thirty-seven productions, including 10 new musicals and five revivals, as well as 11 new plays and nine revivals and two specials opened during the latest season. “An American in Paris,” a romance based on the Oscar-winning film, and the lesbian coming-out story “Fun Home” led the Tony nominations, US theater’s highest honours, which will be presented at Radio City Music Hall in New York on June 7. Both musicals earned 12 nominations each, followed by “Something Rotten!,” a bawdy parody of Broadway musicals set in 1590s Tudor England, with 10 nods. Tony winner and nominee Kristin Chenoweth and actor Alan Cumming will host the 69th annual Tony Awards. CBS television will broadcast the live two-hour show.