Lea Michele in Funny Girl breaks box office record
Broadway’s Funny Girl with Lea Michele in the classic role has broken a box office record, according to Variety.
Lea Michele in the casting redo of the Broadway revival of Funny Girl has turned the production’s fortunes around, according to showbiz bible, Variety. The once-struggling musical revival has been selling strong and broke the all-time box office record at the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway.
The revival collected more than $2 million over eight performances during the week ending on Dec. 18, the highest gross at the August Wilson Theatre and for the production. The previous production to hold that record was the stage version of Mean Girls, with $1.994 million in 2018.
Funny Girl‘s success is welcome news for a town still struggling to come back from the pandemic and draw crowds to plays and musicals. Musicals such as Almost Famous and KPOP have had much lower ticket sales and will close early.
The teaser for Michele’s turn as Fanny Brice happily foreshadowed her success with dramatic black-and-white footage showing Michele rehearsing with various cast members, along with audio of her singing “I’m the Greatest Star.”
“Hello, gorgeous,” text in the teaser said in white and red. “Hello, Lea.”
Michele commenced her role on Sept. 6 having stepped into the shoes of departing lead Beanie Feldstein. After contracting Covid-19, Michele took a hiatus and returned on Sept. 19.
According to Variety, since the news broke ticket sales went through the roof with some seats fetching as much as $2500.
“On Tuesday, Sept. 6, the night that Michele officially steps into the role, tickets on SeatGeek are selling for $570 on the low end (the site classifies this as an “amazing deal”) to $2,250 (the site classifies this as a “moderate price”). The most expensive tickets are currently running at $2,500 — not including the $500 in fees. (SeatGeek calls this an “okay deal”). It’s now the No. 1 trending event on the ticket platform’s website. Few shows today outside of “Hamilton,” which sold tickets above $1,100 in its heyday, have experienced this kind of surge.”
