BROADWAY Box office is up, yet figures don't meet projection

'On a business front, things are OK,' said Jed Bernstein, league president.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Still feeling the effects of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and an uncertain economy, Broadway saw fewer people going to the theater in 2003, although the box office was up.
The projected total gross for 2003 was expected to reach $730 million, a 3.2 percent climb from $707 million in 2002 and $664 million the year before, according to preliminary figures released Monday by the League of American Theatres and Producers.
No doubt that figure was helped by the $100 top ticket price for many musicals and the $80 -- or more -- price for the best seats at most plays.
Yet the number of theatergoers seeing a Broadway show was expected to drop to 11.2 million, down from 11.4 million in 2002 and off from a record 12.1 million in 2000.
"If you were grading the year, I think you would give it a solid 'B,'" said Jed Bernstein, league president. "Attendance is off a little bit, whether you look at it on a 12-month basis or on a season-to-date basis. It's off by about 4 percent.
"I think that's largely because we had [only] a few number of shows opening over the summer and in September and October and a larger number opening toward the end of October and into November," he said. "So we haven't been able to appreciate the full impact of all that yet."
Business front
Despite the quick closings of such productions as "Oldest Confederate Widow Tells All," "Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks" and "Bobbi Boland" (which never got past previews), others have prospered, including "The Boy From Oz," "Wicked" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."
"On a business front, things are OK," Bernstein said. "Theaters are reasonably full. There are the usual schedule of January closings, although not more so than normal."
And after the first of the year, there will be at least three anticipated musicals -- revivals of "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Assassins," as well as the London hit "Bombay Dreams."
"I still think for the 2003-04 season, which will end in June, we'll be looking at virtually the same attendance statistics as last year, which was about 11.4 million," Bernstein said. "I think it will be very close, and grosses will be up a little bit, too."