Astonishing Success Of ‘Oh, Mary!’ And ‘The Outsiders’ Swells Broadway Box Office

Oh, Mary!, a sleeper hit if ever there was one, and The Outsiders, a musical so popular that more than 200 people bought tickets last week knowing they wouldn’t get an actual seat, are continuing what can only be described as blazing hot summers.

Consider Oh, Mary!, writer/actor Cole Escola’s campy, hysterically funny period play (flawlessly directed by Sam Pinkleton) about an alcoholic, off-the-rails Mary Todd Lincoln (that would be Escola), her doomed, sneaky gay president husband (Conrad Ricamora) and an amorous acting teacher (James Scully). It was a hit last year Off Broadway, but that certainly doesn’t always translate to Broadway success.

But this time, it did. Oh, Mary! has been selling out for weeks, and has been pulling in more than $1 million a week since July 21. Last week (the week ending August 4) Oh, Mary!, a smallish play with a cast of five and a set that, while attractive and functional, isn’t exactly elaborate (well, until it is), grossed $1,048,173. That’s more than big Broadway musicals like & Juliet, Chicago, Hadestown, Six, Suffs, The Notebook and Water For Elephants, almost equal to Back to the Future and Moulin Rouge. Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, ensconced at a wildly custom-renovated August Wilson Theatre and perhaps the most anticipated musical of the 2024 spring season, took in $1,508,933, just $460,760 more than Oh, Mary!, a not-insubstantial sum by any means, but one that still puts the crazy First Lady within shouting distance of those crazy Weimar nightclubbers.

Ticket price? Oh, Mary! had an average ticket of $146.39. That’s more than the average buyer shelled out to be dazzled by big Broadway musicals like & Juliet, Aladdin, Back to the Future, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Hell’s Kitchen, M.J., Moulin Rouge, Six, Suffs, The Book of Mormon, The Great Gatsby, The Wiz, Water For Elephants and Wicked.

In short, Oh, Mary! is a full-fledged, indisputable phenomenon, as beguiling to bean counters as laughing seat sitters. It’s a marvel.

And then there’s The Outsiders, a musical based on S.E. Hinton’s 1967 young adult novel that came to New York last March pretty cocky from a popular engagement at San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse and plenty of pre-arrival press. Even after seeing it at Broadway’s Bernard Jacobs Theatre before opening night, I wasn’t convinced the winning cast and well-performed show could pull together enough disparate audiences to become a hit. Do kids still read Hinton? Would Boomers who did buy tickets all these years later? Would the ’80s kids lovestruck by the pretty-boy cast of the 1983 film rush to New York to see the faces of strangers?

Well, if they didn’t, somebody did. The Outsiders is regularly selling out and setting house records at the Jacobs, and it’s not just selling available seats. With attendance last week at 102.5% of capacity, my math suggests that more than 200 ticket buyers were just fine standing in the back to get a glance at star Brody Grant and his castmates. The musical grossed $1,488,298 last week.

The success of those two productions reflects a generally bountiful summer for Broadway. For the week ending August 4, the 26 shows took in a combined $30,523,164, about 2% better than last year at this time. Total attendance of 239,326 held steady with last week but was up 4% year-by-year. In all, 95% of available Broadway seats were filled last week.

Besides Oh, Mary! and The Outsiders, shows that sold out, or came very close, last week were Hadestown; Hamilton (99%); Hell’s Kitchen; Moulin Rouge! (98%); Once Upon a Mattress, the charming Encores! transfer that opens at the Hudson on August 12; Stereophonic; The Book of Mormon (98%); The Lion King (99%); and Wicked (98%).

Also of note, Job, Max Wolf Friedlich’s thriller at the Helen Hayes Theater, opened July 30, taking in a modest $267,283 for the week, a figure surely impacted by press previews and opening night comps. Whether the strong reviews can draw heat will come clear in the next few weeks.

Season to date, Broadway, in the 11th week of the 2024-25 season, has grossed $369,174,509, up 6% over last year at this time, with total attendance of 2,922,096 up about 3%.

All figures courtesy of The Broadway League. For complete box office listings, visit the League’s website.