The astonishing recognition given to "She Loves Me" this week - nine Tony nominations - should provide an interesting test of the financial power of the Tonys.
The show, which opened last June at the Roundabout Theater, took a five-week hiatus last summer, then reopened in a commercial run at the Brooks Atkinson in September and has been limping along for months, some weeks covering its expenses - about $180,000 - but most weeks not."There were a couple of real losing weeks, but mostly it loses trickles of money," said Nicholas G. Scandalios, assistant to James M. Nederlander, chairman of the Nederlander Organization, which moved the show from the Roundabout last fall.
The show entered the week with about a $700,000 advance sale - the equivalent of less than two weeks of full houses - and it still has not earned back the $1.5 million it took to move it. But on Tuesday, the day after the nominations were announced, phone sales jumped from the daily average of $7,500 to more than twice that.
"It's not earth shattering," Scandalios said, and it's too early to tell if even that upswing will continue, but it is hopeful; the advertising campaign to take advantage of the nominations is just now kicking in.
"You have no idea how happy we are," Scandalios said.
- Bruce Weber