- Share this article on Facebook
- Share this article on Twitter
- Share this article on Flipboard
- Share this article on Email
- Show additional share options
- Share this article on Linkedin
- Share this article on Pinit
- Share this article on Reddit
- Share this article on Tumblr
- Share this article on Whatsapp
- Share this article on Print
- Share this article on Comment
NEW YORK — Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the busiest periods on the Broadway calendar, but the holiday week was an especially bountiful one for Pippin, with grosses pushing the Tony-winning musical revival into profit.
On Monday, lead producers Barry and Fran Weissler and Howard and Janet Kagan announced that the hit production, which was first seen at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., had recouped its $8.5 million capitalization costs as of Sunday, Dec. 1.
PHOTOS: Broadway Musicals That Have Sung Their Way to the Big Screen
The circus-themed take on Stephen Schwartz‘s and Roger O. Hirson‘s musical won four Tony Awards — for best musical revival, director Diane Paulus, featured actress Andrea Martin and lead actress Patina Miller for her gender-flipping interpretation of the Leading Player, a role made famous by Ben Vereen.
The original 1972 production of Pippin, directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse, ran for almost five years.
The revival opened April 25 this year at the Music Box Theatre to rave reviews and has been playing consistently to capacity or near-capacity houses since then. The show broke the Music Box house record for a single performance on Friday with gross sales of $151,977. Total grosses for the Broadway revival to date are approaching $33 million.
A national tour of Pippin will kick off in September 2014 at the Buell Theatre in Denver, Colo., with productions also planned for London, Australia and Amsterdam in 2015.
Other productions that broke house records over Thanksgiving week include Kinky Boots; Motown: The Musical; Betrayal, with Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz; Twelfth Night/Richard III, the Shakespeare’s Globe double starring Mark Rylance; and The Lion King, which this weekend surpassed Les Miserables to become the fourth longest-running Broadway show of all time.
Overall grosses for the 32 productions playing on Broadway last week totaled $31.5 million, setting a new high for Thanksgiving week.
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day