It’s that time already, can you believe it?  Seems like just yesterday we were BBQing in our backyards and taking Summer Fridays.

And now look . . .

The temp has dropped, it gets dark at 4:30, and the Radio City Christmas Show is kicking again.  You know what that means?

We’ve reached the end of the 2nd Quarter of our Broadway Fiscal Year.

Week #26 of the Broadway season ended on Sunday, so let’s check and see how we’re doing!

Total gross sales for Quarter #2 were $242,217,564, which is UP (!) 5.9% over last year’s Q2 posting of $227,836,554.

All I have to say to this bit of news is thank you Mr. Jackman, Mr. Craig and Mr. Law (and the retiring company of God of Carnage, don’t forget).

So, we’re winning the second furlong, but where does this put us for the entire horse race of a season?

As you’ll remember from our Q1 analysis, our gross was down 3.2% and attendance was down a gi-normous 9.6%.  Thanks to our strong Q2, we’ve picked up ground.

The season gross tally thus far is $500,376.907, or up a marginal .4%.

Unfortunately, the disturbing spread in our gross and our attendance remains.

Last season we had put 6,125,872 butts in the seats.  This year, we’ve only put 5,806,155.

How will we do in Q3?

Unfortunately, I’m predicting some more slippage.  We will lose some ground over the next 13 weeks.  Those giant super power plays disappear soon, and I don’t see any other million-dollar shows on the horizon, do you?  And the shows killing with the critics (Ragtime, Finian’s) haven’t yet exploded at the BO.  (Sign of the economic times, or are the critics losing power even faster than we thought).

We need a big fat musical hit.

Will it be this?