January 28, 2010
The closing of Broadway shows Finian’s Rainbow, Ragtime, Shrek The Musical, Bye Bye Birdie and Burn the Floor eliminated 97 musician positions from the Broadway industry this month, leaving 269 positions still secure.
| Show | Closing Date | # of Musicians |
|---|---|---|
| Burn the Floor | 1/10/2010 | 4 |
| Bye Bye Birdie | 1/24/2010 | 16 |
| Finian’s Rainbow | 1/17/2010 | 24 |
| Ragtime | 1/10/2010 | 29 |
| Shrek the Musical | 1/3/2010 | 24 |
| Total | 97 jobs |
According to a recent report in Variety Magazine, cumulative attendance is down 3.6% for Broadway shows this season. Yet, despite lowering attendance and a sputtering economy, Broadway has managed to take in slightly more box office money this season than last season – $692.2 million versus $689.6 million in 2009.
The number of musician positions available on Broadway is a slight increase from the same time last year. 23 shows closed between September 2008 and January of 2009, shedding 150 musician jobs over the 3 month period and leaving only 257 positions still working, primarily with long-running musicals like Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera and Jersey Boys.
Ticket sales for the revival of A Little Night Music show house capacities at 99.2% with a box office take of $928,670 for the week. Nevertheless, other shows have felt the post-holiday box office slide, most notably West Side Story, which finished the week $200,000 short of it’s usual numbers.
The Broadway musician industry will undoubtably be helped by several big openings this spring. Broadway newbies The Addams Family and American Idiot both have highly anticipated openings in March, and the revivals of both Promises, Promises and La Cage Aux Folles should soak up some missing musician jobs in April.
The 2004 revival of La Cage boasted a 24-piece orchestra, but there’s no word yet on whether this season’s rebirth will see the same sized roster.
Are You a Music Director?
Don’t miss the NYC Music Director Meet-Up on February 8th, 2010 at 8pm at the Trattoria Dopo Teatro in New York, NY. See this link for details and please RSVP on Facebook.
David J. Hahn
David J. Hahn is a Broadway conductor and keyboard player. He co-founded MusicianWages.com with Cameron Mizell in 2008. Visit his new project, Songwriter.fm and sign up for his songwriting newsletter.
[...] # of Musician Jobs on Broadway – When the recession hit last fall I counted all of the available musician chairs on Broadway. I wonder how that number has changed in a year? Update: article posted 1/28/2010 [...]