The devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to New York City goes beyond the tragic losses of lives and homes. Businesses big and small also had to deal with a variety of issues related to the hurricane’s damage, and one of New York’s biggest businesses, Broadway, was among them.
While all of New York’s Broadway theaters are located above the part of the city where the power went out, Broadway shows were canceled for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday October 29-31, for a total of 40 canceled performances. This amounted to a weekly gross of $13,578,724, much lower than the previous week’s $20,083,783. Among the hardest hit were Nice Work If You Can Get It (which lost $538,853) and Wicked (which lost $490,996). Even after the theaters reopened major transportation issues made it difficult to even get to the theaters and tourists, which are a major portion of ticket-buyers.
Also hit hard were off-Broadway theaters, many of which are located in the areas that went powerless and had to remain closed for far longer, such as The SoHo Rep and The Bank Street Theater (both of which also suffered some flooding).
Of course, it is expected that these setbacks are only temporary, as most theaters have full schedules this week and most of the major transportation issues have been sorted out and power has been restored to Manhattan. Hey, just in time for the plethora of Christmas shows to pull in the tourists!
