Hugh Jackman has proved to be box-office gold as the adamantium clad Wolverine in the X-Men series, and is continuing to bring his magic back to broadway.
according to reports from Variety, Jackman made it rain at the Broadway box office last week, as the initial performances of his topliner The River yielded the kind of numbers that’d be encouraging for a sizeable musical, much less an intimate three-character play in one of Broadway’s smallest theaters.
The River pulled in $348,102 for three previews, a stellar total for a production playing at Circle in the Square, which seats less than 700. The show played to standing-room crowds and posted an average price paid per ticket of $161 — a feat even more notable given the fact that at each performance, 40 tickets sold for $35 and another 80 went for $95.
Elsewhere on the boards, the revival of fan-favorite musical Side Show ($349,563 for six previews) played its first frame to middling sales. The first time around the well-received 1997 musical played a disappointingly brief run; legiters will be watching now to see if the show (in a newly revised version) can bring in crowds with the help of a cult following, a glamour-centric marketing plan and a production helmed by Bill Condon.
