Strong bow for 'Follies'

Bernadette Peters starred within the Kennedy Center manufacture of Follies as well as stars within the Rialto version.A week ago the brand new Broadway revival of "Follies" demonstrated it may draw crowds -- or at best one crowd, anyway. The Primary Stem transfer from the Kennedy Center's manufacture of "Follies" ($131,604) filled the 1,550-chair Marquis Theater to 97% capacity in the first and just preview performance a week ago. That's promising although not everything surprising: Rabid fans of Stephen Sondheim's musicals (which you will find plenty in Gotham) might be likely to come out in groups to trap the very first perf from the new revival. The actual test is based on the approaching days. Overall Broadway sales softened slightly a week ago, using the overall cume sliding about $600,000 to $20.six million for twenty-four shows about the boards. Most individual productions ended up a little, though couple of fell drastically. Greatest drop came at "Priscilla Full of Desert" ($649,231), which slid some $75,000 and saw average attendance are available in at under 60%. The Broadway return of "Hair" ($369,876) ongoing to struggle for attention, playing to houses at 50% of capacity. The number of shows to buck the week's downward trend were largely last-season's in-demand spring hits, including "It of Mormon" ($1,278,787, another house record), "How to achieve Business Without Really Trying" ($1,254,128), "War Equine" ($992,380) and "Anything Goes" ($874,887). Overall attendance slowed down by about 9,000 to 218,158, sliding only slightly to 86% of overall capacity versus. 87% the last frame. (Total convenience of a few days was reduced by the lack of "Rain," which shuttered the last sesh.) Still, the Rialto's large hits could not complain. Six musicals drawn in additional than $a million each a week ago, with "The Phantom from the Opera" ($999,773) falling just lacking the objective. Some legiters have started to theorize this summer's sales are starting to resemble receipts from recent Thanksgiving days -- no across-the-board spike in tourist-fueled sales but a far more focused rise which brings the actual bounty to some more compact part of the Primary Stem's heftiest hits. It's certainly correct that theatergoers are prepared to spend out for large-title shows they would like to see: Overall average ticket cost for that week would be a robust $94.26, a figure knocked up through the sky-high $146 average at "Mormon." Contact Gordon Cox at gordon.cox@variety.com