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Did George Clooney break Broadway? | The problem with the GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK box office record
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Mickey Jo
So here's the headline news. Good night and good Luck. The critically acclaimed new play by George Clooney and Grant Heslov breaks all time record as the highest grossing play on Broadway with a gross of $3,784,200. And in unrelated news, I did a little internal scream so violent that I may have ruptured one of my kidneys. Which is a shame because selling one of those may also have been the only way I would logistically be able to see this play before I combust right here in front of you. Let's talk about it. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to you if you're listening on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo. I'm a theatre critic here on social media as well as a pundit and a content creator and right now just a plain old baffled individual because despite all of the uproar about Othello tickets a few weeks ago, people are paying as much as $921. That's just $79 less than 1,000 to sit as far back as row M. It seems that, you know, the ceiling could could yet move higher. And not content to let that be the most overpriced play on Broadway, Goodnight and Good Luck have put out a press release declaring that they have now broken the all time record as the highest grossing play on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre. There is lots to unpack here, both mathematically, financially and morally. But needless to say, we're about to have a little conversation about Broadway ticket prices and how they have become so inflated and maybe broken the Broadway ecosystem a little bit, but also the presence of of Hollywood actors on Broadway alongside that very much as the justification for that. You better believe they would not be charging these kind of prices for these productions which by all accounts have received lukewarm critical reviews. If it weren't for the presence of a list Hollywood stars, many of them making their Broadway debuts. So the question today is whether you're an audience member hoping to walk up to a box office and buy an affordable ticket to see a piece of theatre or whether you are an actor with a theatrical background and plenty of experience looking to work in a leading role on Broadway. Have the likes of George Clooney broken the system? That is what we are going to be talking about now. As always, these are just going to be my opinions and I would love to know what you think. Let us know in the comments section down below. I did not have a chance to see Goodnight and Good Luck. While it was on Broadway, I was not there during its press. No, that's a lie. That's a lie. I'm thinking of Othello. I was there during its press performances. They just had no interest in letting me go to any of the press performances. Which is fine. That's their prerogative. I would have stood on the street for hours to try and get a ticket if they had had any performances on days that happens to be free. Because at the very least they do sell Rush tickets, unlike some other star led Broadway productions currently running. But we're going to get to all of that. My point is, if you did see Goodnight and Good Luck, I would love to know what you thought of it. Is it worth the wildly high prices to see George Clooney on Broadway? And if there is a hot topic you would like to hear me discuss next, let me know about that in the comments section as well. To stay up to date with all of my Broadway and international theatre coverage, make sure you're subscribed right here on YouTube with the notifications turned on so you don't miss any videos or following me on podcast platforms. Let's talk about George Clooney on Broadway. So here is the thing. It's reached a point now where I get irrationally angry, if you hadn't noticed, when I get these press releases declaring a show's financial success. And it's one thing if it's tailored to a particular demographic. When Romeo and Juliet not too long ago, the production with Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler declared something like that, they had brought record number numbers of young audience members to Broadway. That I thought was fantastic. That is something to be celebrated. Breaking a box office record in terms of grosses doesn't feel like something to be celebrated because guess what? Shows have been selling out at various different theatres on Broadway for decades. The theatre's capacities don't change much year on year. Like the seats, maybe like little shifts in things. But for the most part these theatres have had the same capacities. Decades. Some Broadway historian is going to appear in the comments and be like, actually they introduced two new rows of seating or they took out the rows at the Broadway when Gatsby went in. Fine. My point is, and I really want you to all hear this, if you are setting a Broadway box office record for your grosses, all it means is that you are charging more for the same tickets that sold out with a previous production. You don't think that Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster sold out the Music man when that was at The Winter Garden. You don't think that Cats ever sold out, that Mamma Mia. Ever sold out for eight consecutive performances? Good night and good good luck. Is not that much more desirable that it's getting more people in the building? No, it's the same number of people in the building. They're just all paying more because ticket prices are going up. Part of that is the economy and inflation and the recession and everything else that's happening globally and particularly in America, who are having just a lovely financial time of it right now for reasons that, you know, who could possibly say or could possibly have seen this coming? But also because a lot of the inflation is coming from inside the house. Because these tickets are getting more and more expensive for these limited run plays with these huge stars, seemingly because they can charge that much and still sell out. And press releases like this indicate that it's working. When we see these ludicrous prices and we think, oh my gosh, no one in their right mind is going to pay that guess what? They do. And they are. And people either have that much money to throw at a Broadway experience or people are able to justify it for themselves. People don't necessarily go and see as many pieces of theatre as some other people do. And so they're annual theatre going budget might be less even than some people who go and see a show every week or go and see multiple shows a week. But the question, and this is going to remain a question that's unanswered without a full financial interrogation of this show and this production is are the ticket prices high because they need to be both, because there is a limited time in which to recoup, because this is a limited run play, it's only doing however many weeks of performances. I'm sure they're going to tell me in this press release here, I can't actually find it, but it's written on the side of the building how many weeks the player is going to be on Broadway. It's a limited run. Unlike ongoing musicals that hope to run for a year plus two years, have the chance to recoup and are then gonna tour and have the chance to recoup with that tour. These plays have to try and make all of their money back while they're doing these limited runs. And that money, that budget, that initial capitalization is increasingly becoming more and more because it's getting more and more expensive to stage any on Broadway. Which presumably is impacted by New York City theatre rental prices. But also a factor of it has to be, however much is being paid to George Clooney, which I don't believe we're privy to. But I do defend the rights of commercial producers to be commercial producers and to have ventures like these that are set to earn them a lot of money and make their investors very happy. We have to make investors happy. We have to keep people wanting to invest in the theater. It has to be seen to be successful and financially viable, discredit any of that. But it's really hard to understand how much of these ticket prices are justifiable. Now, before I completely throw myself off of this little philosophical mountain that I've built here, let's talk about where these numbers have actually come from. So the details given in the press release are these. The critically acclaimed production that is a matter of opinion that we will talk about in just a moment, broke the record for eight performances with a gross of 3.8 million. Essentially just under for the first full week of performances following the play's triumphant and star studded opening night, which is the first opportunity to see it at its full maximum grossing potential. Because during previews, especially during late previews, many people are comped in to see the show. They have press performances with the critics that they do consider worthy to go and see the show. I'm not bitter, I promise, where they let them come in with a complimentary ticket, often with a plus one for the actual opening night itself. You have potentially even a full audience of comped tickets. So it's not going to be reflective of the play's real finances once it's open. Now that it's open, that's how much money they are making. Does it mean that they're charging more than Othello a little further down Broadway at the Barrymore Theatre? Well, not necessarily, because Othello made headlines and I made a video about it not too long ago for charging $921 for individual seats that theatre to see that production. And it set its own box office record, one that has been surpassed by Goodnight and Good Luck, which would make it seem as though Goodnight and Good Luck must be selling more expensive tickets. However, the key difference here is the capacity of the two theatres. And the Winter Garden Theatre where George Clooney is performing in Goodnight and Good Luck can accommodate just under 500 more audience members with a capacity of around 1500 than the Barrymore, which has a capacity of just over a thousand. So even with the tickets being slightly less they to make more money, it's why a play has gone into the Winter Garden, because they know that they can sell it because they have George Clooney. You wouldn't ordinarily see plays see new plays on Broadway. Certainly going into a space like the Winter Garden, it would normally be reserved for big tourist friendly blockbuster musicals. Back to the Future was its most recent tenant before this. The Music man, previously with Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster. Again star led that actually kicked out Beetlejuice because the theatre owners realized that they could stand to make more money with a higher grossing show in past Cats, like I mentioned and Mamma Mia. Mamma Mia. Which I believe has been announced to be returning to the Winter Garden Theatre after Goodnight and Good Luck in one of the more stark tonal shifts for any Broadway house in recent history. But that doesn't mean that tickets to Goodnight and Good Luck have been inexpensive. The best way to do this, rather than looking at last minute availability, might be for us to go and look at the actual published Broadway grosses and see what the average ticket price to the show has been for the first few weeks of its life alongside those from Othello. So let's go do some financial compare contrast. And I thought when I dropped out of my maths degree that I wasn't going to do anything with finance. Look at me now. Oh, oh, oh, Othello. Here we go. So in Othello's highest week ever, they grossed a pitiful $3.1 million. Honestly, jump change compared to Clooney with all time grosses of just over 20 million based on 25 regular performances and 30 previews. I guess those audiences just really love Shakespeare and it definitely couldn't be for any other reason whatsoever. So Othello's published top ticket price here is said to be $897. This in contrast to the $921 that we were hearing about. Although it's there's not that much in it when you're up at $8.97 versus $9.21. Is anyone really quibbling over those $50 or is it all insane? It's all insane. The average ticket price started out at $361 down to $338, staying there down to 303. That was pro opening, where it was affected by opening night and press performances, etc. Back up to 378, up to 382 and then kind of stabilizing at $375 in the most recently published grosses, always hitting above 99% capacity. Hitting 100% capacity for its first month on Broadway. If we go to Goodnight and Good Luck then how does that compare with a number like 375? Well, Goodnight and Good Luck has nearly grossed $16 million overall based on 13 regular performances and 22 previews. With the show having only recently opened. Its most recent week is its highest ever with the $3.78 million that we mentioned before. But let's look at those average ticket prices. So it started at over 100% capacity with just over $300 as an average ticket price. It stayed there, went down to 298, went down to 250 again. That will be week of opening, press performances, opening night, and has risen back up to an average ticket price of 303dol with top price tickets actually sitting now at 825 prior to opening. So back in previews they were 775 again. Does the $50 matter that much when you're around the 800 mark? I honestly don't know that it does because it's all pretty egregious. And fair enough, it's not quite as eye wateringly expensive as Othello, but it really nearly is. And it's for that reason that I can't get on board with these celebrations from producers, from investors, from the pr, whoever it is who is putting this out and insisting on these press releases that I think are really tone deaf right now. And you know, Othello got a backlash, so I'm amazed that they decided to share this at all. Even though it does represent a great financial achievement for the producers. All it means is that you're charging more than anyone has ever charged people to be in that theater previously. Is Good Nightingale, Good Luck, the best show that has ever played the Winter Garden? Is it the best show on Broadway right now? Is it the best play in Broadway history, The most in demand, the hardest to get tickets to? Or is it just one with really expensive tickets that happens to be in a very high capacity venue because you were smart when you programmed it, when you produced it and you knew that you could make money there. In contrast, you have something like oh Mary that has become a huge hit based on word of mouth and based on becoming this buzzy thing and has really empowered its star and writer Cola Scol to be a little bit more well known as a household name, but certainly wasn't a big A list Hollywood celebrity going into it. And they've had like starry replacement casting in Betty Gilpin and Titus Burgess, but neither of them of the stature of your Denzel Washington's, your Jake Gyllenhaal's. Your George Clooneys. So even though tickets for Omari at times have proven really hard to get, you still root for a play like that because it's based on great word of mouth and people just wanting to go and see this great show. So here is the next question. Are the inflated ticket prices for Othello hello and Good night and Good luck simply in line with people wanting to see those big Hollywood stars on stage, or are they indicative of quality? I didn't get the chance to see either show, so we're going to go to a roundup of the reviews for each of them. I'm reading from the website. Did they like it here? This is not a full review roundup. I just want to at a glance get a sense of what the critical consensus was. And according to this site, Othello managed only two overtly positive reviews, with 15 that they characterized as mixed and three that were negative mixed. In the New York Times, Jesse Green wrote, in short, as I felt the production's blunt force more and more, I grasped its aura and aims less and less. And that may in fact be because its aims are those we've already discussed and the $20 million that it's already made. Brittany Samuel in Broadway News wrote, the depth is all there, but this production simply does not live up to its performers. Johnny Oleksinski in the New York Post, who was famously disinvited from the show after talking about their inflated ticket prices, he attempt to advocate for Broadway fans, as you know, as we all should, he wrote, I get the sense that the viewers are searching for something, anything, to grasp onto this long, chilly ride. They maxed out their credit cards to sit through and they choose laughter, laughs in lieu of gasps or tears. Adam Feldman for timeout simply said the production is not a must see. And Frank Scheck in New York Stage Review wrote this Othello is fine, and when you've spent hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of dollars for one ticket, that's not what you want to here. Like, sue me if I would like to see exciting performers on stage in a show that also happens to be of good theatrical quality. For balance, let's go now to the reviews for Good Night and Good Luck, which I'll remind you the press release just described as critically acclaimed and in fairness, they are a little better than Othello's. But with so many great plays having opened on Broadway this season, I don't think this makes even the top five the top eight of the most critically acclaimed Broadway plays. They got eight positive reviews, nine mixed reviews and four negative reviews. Jesse Green liked it, though in the New York Times, according to did they like it? So did Britney Samuel. For Broadway News, David Gordon not so much. In Theatremania, he called it an empty reassembly of the screenplay upon which it is based. Frank Rizzo liked it in Variety, said it was as intense and laser focused as the penetrating gaze coming from its star and co writer George Clooney. Sarah Holdren, mixed for Vulture, always writes a terrific review, does Sarah. It's quite a beginning, but then that curtain rises. And as lovingly detailed as Pask's newsroom set is, Cromer has to enliven a still highly cinematic script in a wide open theatrical space. The result is that Goodnight almost immediately starts to diffuse. Greg Evans for Deadline says something very interesting. He says it certainly doesn't lack point of view or conviction, but neither of those things can do much with an overly familiar story, a lack of subtlety and an odd tone of understatement that extends to everything from the writing to Clooney's performance. The actor seems to be fighting against the natural charisma that has played such an important role in energizing his film and TV performances. And I would read to you what Robert Hoffler has written for the Rap, but I've read three of most recent Broadway reviews and it's a miracle I still have eyes. In any case, we can say with confidence that neither of these are the most critically celebrated, the most creatively rewarding, the most lauded productions on Broadway right now. It's going to be so interesting to see what happens with the Tony nominations that are coming out at the very beginning of next month to see to what extent these plays and these A list performers are recognized. Is Denzel Washington going to get a Tony nomination? Is George Clooney going to get one as a performer or as a writer? These are the questions that I am wondering as these plays continue to make more and more and more and more money. And listen, it's not just them because Succession stars Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin, now also of course an Academy Award winner, are both in starry led plays as well, with Sarah reprising her Olivier Award winning performance in the Picture of Dorian Gray, which you know, know has some critical celebration and award winning success behind it at least over at the Music Box Theatre and Kieran leading an apparently necessary revival of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross along with Bill Bear and Bob Odenkirk at the Palace Theatre, again, not a venue where you would typically see big play productions, but they know that they can sell it. And we could talk about the grosses for these ones as well. These also have high, high ticket prices because of the stars involved. But I think the more shameful thing here, and this has been highlighted by others, and this is how I've come to find out about it, is the lack of an affordable ticketing program from Glengarry Glen ross. They offer 45 standing room only tickets, but no lottery program, no rush program, nothing for young people, nothing for students even. Goodnight and Good luck has a 49 in person rush and digital lottery. So if you really want to go and you don't want to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars with an average ticket price of just over 300, like we said, and go see Goodnight and Good Luck, at least you can stand on the street for hours. The weather's getting nicer, it's not that bad. And you can hope to bag yourself a $49 ticket or you can win one in the digital lottery the night before and feel like you've won the real lottery. Othello, meanwhile, has added a $49 digital rush along with a $49 digital lottery and a $49 student rush, many of these having been announced after a little bit of backlash to their high ticket prices. And Dorian Gray has the same $49 in person rush and a $49 digital lottery. What's so great about Glengarry Glen Ross that they can't offer either of those things? Not that I'm advocating for more young people hearing the words of David Mamet honestly, but it does just feel needlessly inaccessible and elitist, which are adjectives that I do my best to try and defend the theater industry from. Because, you know, it's not cheap to put these things together. And I understand what is driving ticket prices up. And so much of this is out of the hands of producers, but not all of it. Bringing us back to my reluctance and honestly, my ability to celebrate these box office record announcements. And we've pretty much just spoken about ticket prices at this point, but hand in hand with this is celebrity casting on Broadway and the implication of that the price of tickets is just one implication, but the other is what seems to be less and less space for actors that don't have this Hollywood background. And it isn't always hugely beneficial. As George Clooney acknowledges in his own Playbill bio, this is his Broadway debut, so who knows what's gonna happen? He is not a veteran of the stage. And we have seen celebrities on stage before. We see this in musical theatre. It's not just in plays. We see this in London, it's not just in New York. But it does seem like it's happening more and more and more and more and more. I recently shared my thoughts about the revival of the Last Five Years starring Nick Jonas. And a lot of people were so shocked in that comment section saying, why did they even produce this with him if he is as miscast as I suggested? And the answer is, is money. Because if they put someone just hugely talented and not nearly as known into it, then that wouldn't be driving ticket sales in the same way that a Nick Jonas does. A lot of people are going to see the show simply for him because he has a big fan base. And that is something that producers have to think about when considering the financial viability of these shows. It can't just be about making the best show possible, not in a Broadway ecosystem, as sad as that is. And that's only going to be made worse by more and more celebrity casting because you might be able to compete with a couple of star led plays, but with so many star led shows simultaneously on Broadway, it makes it really hard to be an underdog. And there are plenty of underdogs vying for Oxygen right now on Broadway. There are those that have some credibility behind them with award wins like Operation Mincemeat transferred from the UK with the Olivier Award, like Dead Outlaw, which was very successful off Broadway. Same with Buena Vista Social Club. But shows that don't have that behind them, like Real Women Have Curves, which I'm hearing Love Lovely, lovely buzz about from its previews, but is really not selling well. Like Boop, which is not star led but is birthing a real genuine star in Jasmine. Amy Rogers also not selling particularly well. It is hard for them to compete with Audra McDonald down the street. And that is a theater star. It's not a Hollywood star, but it's still a big name Nicole Scherzinger in Sunset Boulevard. It's not the most stratospheric household name name in the US but it's still big name casting. And the absence of that in a Broadway show is becoming the rarity rather than the norm. And like I said, the West End is not immune to this. We've seen a lot of stars on stage over here. I mean, look at how many screen stars were just nominated at the Olivier Awards. You had Adrien Brody and you had John Lithgow. Cate Blanchett has Just finished doing a show in London. And while none of the productions that we have mentioned, other than Sunset, have been the work of Jamie Lloyd, you kind of do have to identify him as being very involved in the way that this is all heading, because he does seem to work exclusively with big screen actors, Hollywood stars bringing them to the stage, like with Tom Holland, Sigourney Weaver, Jessica Chastain, emilia Clarke, James McAvoy, Tom Hiddleston, Hayley Atwell and Keanu Reeves, and Alex Winter later this year on Broadway in Waiting For Godot, which presumably is also going to have quite expensive tickets. All of this is really very disenfranchising for a theatre fan and for a theatre pundit. I cannot imagine how it would feel to be an actor character trying to exist in this climate. And perhaps I am being dramatic and perhaps it isn't actually quite as different in this moment than it's been for the past few years, but it does feel like we're in a particularly bleak place where Broadway especially is hugely beholden to celebrity casting and wildly inflated ticket prices. And I don't know how we're going to get away from that. I have to acknowledge the work that a lot of these other producers do. One of the production companies attached to Good Night and Good Luck, a production company called Seaview, who were also on Romeo and Juliet, who are also on a great many really brilliant and deserving creative, led and artistically rewarding and acclaimed shows, it is worth pointing out, recently reopened the Tony Kaiser Theatre, previously operated by Second Stage Theatre Company as the Seaview Studio. And it is worth acknowledging that for a lot of these producers, the really lucrative projects allow them to fund the smaller, more artistically rewarding ones. And you don't get a lot of these new shows without the big money earners. At the same time, Studio Seaview is set to welcome John Krasinski in a show from the 23rd of May. I think tickets are going to be just as challenging to get for that one. There was recently a project announced by Hugh Jackman and the producer Sonja Friedman, who is everywhere and has a brilliant eye for exciting theatre and whose work is represented consistently every year now, it seems, at the Oliviers and the Tony Awards. She will always find those great shows and jump on board and propel them to new heights. She's a real force in the industry. She's teaming up with Hugh Jackman in order to combat high ticket prices and produce more frugal work in smaller spaces. That's still going to be celebrity led with the promise that tickets are going to be affordable, but, you know, because it's celebrity car casting in a tiny space without much scenery, it sounds like it's just going to be readings, basically. Those tickets are still going to go astonishingly quickly. So it's not that many people who will get the chance to see these potentially very threadbare productions. I just feel like when moments like this happen with George Clooney Broadway debut and, you know, it is to a certain extent a passion project adapting something he's already done on screen and arriving on Broadway. I mean, it's interesting as a performer and as a writer. There's much to be celebrated there. And I like that people are taking to the stage and I like that people are, you know, doing that. I just wish that it would be to the benefit of the industry and not to the benefit of a handful of producers and investors. I wish it were actually about the art. I wish it were actually provoking more exciting conversation than people coming out of Goodnight and good luck saying, yeah, it's fine. I wish it were championing new, exciting young playwrights, like with Sadie Sink appearing in Kimberly Bellflower's John Proctor as the villain. That's a great example of this. Robert Downey Jr. Doing McNeil, which many people reg regarded as the worst play of the Broadway season. Maybe the worst show of the Broadway season is not a great example of this. And when all in happened earlier this year with a rotating cast of celebrity names, again just reading material on stage in a production that's set to return with a sequel called all out, that kind of also has to be seen as a mark of how the industry is doing right now and an indication of the troubled financial position that we still find ourselves in. Everything has become. Become far too expensive on Broadway, and there has to be a better solution than simply finding more Hollywood stars to throw at the problem so you can charge extraordinary ticket prices. So congrats to you, good night, and good luck for your $3.78 million grosses. That is extraordinary. And it is also, in my humble opinion, a sign of the apocalypse. As always, though, those have just been my thoughts. I would love to know what you think before I make myself completely hoarse. Compare and contrast with my voice at the beginning of this video. I've gotten so passionate about this that is actually beginning to go. Let us know what you think in the comment section down below, especially if you've seen the play. That would be a very refreshing perspective because I haven't. And as always, make sure you're subscribed make sure you're following me wherever you may find me on social media. For more thoughts about the theatre industry very soon, I hope that everyone is staying safe, not bankrupting yourself on disappointing theatre and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theater. Oh, my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.