“They say there is a recession.”

Last night I was speaking with a big Broadway General Manager. We were talking about the economy and the arts and how it was affecting area theatres. I asked how the economy was affecting him. “They say there is a recession, but we don’t see it.”

He told the story of how he has a new show he wants to bring into Broadway in the fall and he was looking into theaters and the owners said that the fall will be a busy time and theatres are pretty full then. He went on to say the economy has not hurt them much if at all.

I remembered reading the Broadway grosses earlier in the day and I was a little shocked by the numbers. Keeping in mind we had the Tonys and the Obama visit that boosted the numbers a little, but last week 8 shows were over 100% capacity. Amazing. 29% of the shows open are over 100%. Look at the rest of the numbers, the same percent (8 shows or 29%) are under 80% capacity. Not one show this week is under 50% and even then only one is under 60% capacity.

The other thing to keep in mind is after the Tonys we lost a couple of shows. But all in all I would love to be open on Broadway now. The summer is supposed to be a bad time for Broadway. I just don’t see it. Not this year.