Latest in MJ

MJ, the Broadway musical about Michael Jackson and featuring his many hits, has recouped its initial investment, producers announced today. The $22.5 million production began previews at the Neil Simon Theatre in December 2021 and opened February 1, 2022. To date, the Tony-winning musical has played…

Broadway cast albums have made a clean sweep of this year’s Grammy nominations for Best Musical Theater Album, the first time in at least several years that the competition hasn’t included music from the West End, Off Broadway, social media and live TV performances. This year’s nominees are cast…

MJ, the hit Broadway musical about Michael Jackson and featuring many of his most popular songs, will open in London in March 2024, producers announced today. The announcement comes as the musical continued its record-breaking run at Broadway’s Neil Simon Theatre: MJ set a new house record – its…

Broadway gave Billy Crystal a fine send-off last week, with the star’s Mr. Saturday Night musical grossing more than $1 million during its final week of performances. That number – $1,014,614, to be precise – is a big jump over the show’s weekly box office takes in recent months. About 98% of seats at the Nederlander…

Most of the 21 Broadway productions on the boards last week showed some signs of summer doldrums, with 17 shows reporting drops in box office over the previous week. Still, with The Music Man back on the roster after a week’s hiatus, the overall total box office take of $23,513,592 was up about 6%. Total attendance…

Following its sold-out Off Broadway Encores! run this past spring, the revival of Into The Woods continued drawing audiences in the first performances of its Broadway transfer, filling 94% of seats at the St. James Theatre and grossing a big $1,380,760. The revival of the James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim classic…

Original cast members of the 2006 Broadway production of Spring Awakening will reunite for a special performance during this Sunday’s Tony Awards events, producers said today. Also performing Sunday will be the casts of A Strange Loop, Company, Girl From the North Country, MJ, Mr. Saturday Night, Music Man, Paradise Sq…

UPDATED with full list of nominees: Tony Awards nominations were announced Monday morning, and Strange Loop, Michael R. Jackson’s autobiographical musical starring Jaquel Spivey, took the most nominations with 11, while MJ, the Michael Jackson musical, and Paradise Square each earned 10. Company took nine, The Lehman T…

Broadway box office continued its climb back from the early-winter Omicron surge, with 19 productions grossing a total $18,939,840 for the week ending Feb. 13, a 12% jump over the previous week’s take. Total attendance for the shows was up 9% to 165,971, a decent 87% of total seating capacity. Average ticket price was…

Broadway box office showed some improvement last week, with business for the 19 productions rising 12% from the previous week to a total $16,909,848. Paid attendance was up a commensurate 9% to 152,557, indicating that about 81% of available seats were filled during the week ending Feb. 6. That’s a noticeable…

Has any Broadway production in recent (or even not so recent) memory arrived with as much emotional baggage – or carried it as lightly – as the visually and sonically ravishing MJ? The Michael Jackson musical, as unlikely as such a prospect might have seemed a year ago, now appears poised to take Manhattan with the…

In what might be the harshest of the Covid Broadway cancellations, MJ, the new Michael Jackson musical, will not return to Broadway’s Neil Simon Theatre until Monday, Dec. 27, an announcement that wipes out the show’s opportunity for the lucrative pre-Christmas and Christmas Day box office. In a tweeted statement…