Tuesday, June 22, 2010

From the Scottish Play to Everyday Rapture: The First Decade of the 21st Century

With the 2009 - 2010 season completely behind us, Broadway has now completed its first decade on the 21st Century, beginning with the 2000-2001 season, right up through the season just past.  (For the record, I am one of those folks that considered January 1, 2001 to be the first day of the new millennium.)  No matter where you started your millennium, the 2000-2001  season is definitely the first one COMPLETELY in the 2000's, which should appease everyone.

If you follow this blog at all you know that I am a big one for statistics, so here are a few before I start naming my favorite shows, blah blah blah.

On Broadway, between the start of 2000-2001 season and the end of the 2009 2010 season:
  • 375 shows opened*
  • The first was a revival of Macbeth, starring Kelsey Grammer, opening on June 15, 2000.  It played 8 previews and 13 performances.
  • The last was Everyday Rapture, starring Sheri Renee Scott, opening April 29, 2010.  It is still running.


Of those 375 shows, there were:
  • 35 "Specials" (shows considered under the Special Event Tony Category)
  • 105 Plays
  • 105 Play Revivals
  • 86 Musicals
  • 44 Musical Revivals

  • 2 shows closed on opening night: The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, and Glory Days.
  • 1 show began previews, but never opened: Bobbi Boland.
  • The longest running show of the decade is Mamma Mia!, which opened on October 18, 2001, and continues to run today.

  • The 2000-2001 Season had the fewest openings: 28
  • The 2008-2009 Season had the most openings: 43
  • The 2005-2006 Season had the most new musicals: 12
  • The 2003-2004 Season had the most new plays: 14
  • The 2000-2001 Season had the fewest new musicals: 6
  • The 2000-2001 and 2002-2003 Seasons had the fewest new plays: 8


* - The number of shows does NOT include special benefit performances which played on Broadway and no shows that were intentionally one night only.  The initial runs of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Irving Berlin's White Christmas and John Leguizamo's Sexaholix counted as an original musical or play the first time it ran.  The return engagements of each counted as revivals.  The three parts of The Coast of Utopia count as one play, and the three parts of The Norman Conquests count as one play revival.  Because it played performances on Broadway, I counted Bobbi Boland, and because it never even previewed, I did not count Broadway Bound.

The above information is based on figures given at http://www.ibdb.com/.

Of those, I was fortunate enough to see (on Broadway):
  • 34 plays or play revivals
  • 75 musicals or musical revivals
  • 1 special

Future blogs of this series will include
  • Best Plays and Revivals
  • Best Musicals
  • Best Musical Revivals
  • Best Flops
  • Best Guilty Pleasures
  • Best Performances
  • Male Theatre Artist of the Decade
  • Female Theatre Artist of the Decade
and the Worst of the Decade

How many of each, I'm still determining, and depending on how slow the summer is, I'm not sure how many blogs it'll be.  No matter what, I am looking forward to hearing from you, as I am sure we will agree on some, and disagree on others!


Comments?  Leave one here or email me at jkstheatrescene@yahoo.com.
Jeff

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