Broadway is seeing fewer theatergoers from New York City's suburbs, largely due to “safety concerns” in Manhattan, a study has found.
The Great White Way sold 12.3 million tickets for the 2022-2023 season, according to data released by the Broadway League last month. That's a 17% decrease from 2018-2019, the last full season before Broadway was shut down due to the pandemic.
Last season, just 14% of all tickets, or 1.7 million tickets, were sold in New York's subway suburbs, the lowest number in the 23 years the Broadway League has tracked such data.
The Broadway League declined to comment on the drop.
“We generally do not speculate on this number,” Spokesperson Scala Jaxo said in an email.
Although tourism to the Big Apple is picking up, there is a problem with perception of the city among residents 55 and older in New York's metro areas, said Damian Bazzadona, president of the Situation Group.
Half of suburbanites who haven't returned to Broadway cited “safety concerns” as the main reason for not seeing a show, according to a survey by a marketing and advertising firm. A whopping 41% of suburbanites said they “travel to Manhattan for fun less often than they did in 2019.”
Overall crime in the 5th Ward was down 5% through Dec. 24 compared to the same period last year, according to NYPD data. Homicides are down 11% from a year ago, and shootings are down 24%.
Despite this, assaults increased by 6% and auto thefts increased by 15%.
In a Situation Group survey of about 1,700 Broadway ticket buyers nationwide, only 30% of suburbanites blamed the decline in shows on work-from-home issues.
“Our data is [reasons] It’s much broader than just an unwillingness to work in cities,” Bazzadona told the Post.
The Situation Group's research also found that 50% of suburbanites who have stopped attending theater say there are fewer shows they want to see.
Broadway League President Charlotte St. Martin said in a statement last month that the latest season represented the most diverse audience ever with “29% of attendees identifying as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color). It was the highest.” .
“This is likely due to a combination of advocacy as well as more shows written and starring people of color,” St. Martin added.
The Broadway League reported that the average age of Broadway theatergoers was 40.4 years old, the youngest in 20 seasons.
Yet many new shows lack the staying power of classics like “Wicked,” which ran for 20 years, or “Chicago,” which ran for 27 years. Of the dozen or so shows that have closed in the past year, several were only open for a few weeks or months, including “Bad Cinderella,” “Camelot,” “KPOP” and “Ain't No Mo.” did.
“There are a lot of well-reviewed shows; [they] It just doesn’t resonate with the suburban market for some reason,” Bazzadonna said.
Thirty-five percent of participants were New Yorkers, and 22% lived in the city. An additional 47.5% of theatergoers came from other parts of the United States, the federation said.
“Some new shows may not be in tune with audience tastes,” said David Wasserman, an investment banker at Salomon Partners who advises traditional Broadway production companies. Ta.
“From what I've observed, the shows are packed and the ticket prices are high, especially the legacy shows, and people are paying that,” Wasserman said.
Mary, an avid theater fan who lives in Westchester, complains that most of her friends who no longer go to shows complain that ticket prices are “through the roof,” while her parents' generation (those over 60) people) said they were concerned about safety issues. she told the Post.
“I know a lot of people who don't go to shows anymore,” she said.
