Plenty of Broadway cheer for Christmas as 18 shows break $1M

Fans of Broadway gave theater producers reasons to smile this Christmas, with 18 of the current 37 shows breaking the $1 million mark for the week, led by "Hamilton," the new Andrew Lloyd Webber production "School of Rock -- The Musical" and Disney's "Aladdin" and "The Lion King."

The Broadway League said Monday that the shows on the Great White Way pulled in $36,271,797 for the very mild weather week ending Sunday, much better than the previous week's $29,484,797 but more than $4 million less -- and with 19,000 fewer people attending overall -- than the same week last year, when 36 shows attracted $40,993,950 and 318,721 ticket buyers.

"Aladdin" grossed $2,095,363 for eight performances, a new house record at the New Amsterdam Theatre. That haul surpassed even its nine-performance record of $2,078,163 set this summer.

"The Lion King" broke the eight-performance-week house record at the Minskoff Theatre with $2,587,925. (The touring version of the show, currently in Chicago, set the Cadillac Palace house record with a gross of $1,810,167.)

"School of Rock - The Musical" pulled in $1,506,236 for the week, setting a new house record for an eight-show week at the Winter Garden Theatre, beating the old record there held by "Mamma Mia!" set in 2009.

Numbers for the first week of January -- traditionally one of the slowest times on Broadway -- will look far worse when a flood of shows close, including "Hand to God," `'Sylvia," `'Dames at Sea" and "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder."

Some other shows that enjoyed Christmas week include "Wicked" with $2,400,920, "The Book of Mormon" at $1,891,356, "The King and I" with $1,094,022, and the new offerings "Hamilton" at $1,844,837, "On Your Feet!" with $1,239,109, "Something Rotten!" at $1,005,546 and the revival of "Fiddler on the Roof" at $1,339,255.

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