SPELLING BEE to close on October 11th; Paloma Diamond to Join Cast

Usally happens. Rent is crazy there. It’s like Stage 42 nothing lasts.

Nettik said: "Is there something going on with NWS that almost everything is closing in the next few months and nothing is being announced?"

I think the harsh truth is there's still not a sustainable Commercial Off-Broadway business model for musicals.

SPELLING BEE and HEATHERS have 499 seats to fill each night. That's A LOT of seats! As far as I can tell, not a single Off-Broadway musical in a 499-seater has recouped post-Covid. That's a 15-show sample size between 3 auditoriums (NWS 1&3 and Stage 42) and should be enough data to tell producers that this isn't the way.

Producers were probably given false hope by the length of runs for LITTLE SHOP (which recouped in large part due to the Covid-era Save Our Stages money) and TITANIQUE (which reportedly had cooked books). And both those shows are in houses with under 299 seats –– so in the case of Little Shop, they've been able to maintain a high-ish average ticket price by demand for the stars and the IP and scarcity of seats.

Updated On: 8/3/26 at 12:20 PM

I was at spelling bee mid July and there were a lot of open seats. The digital rush has also been very easy for a while.

Sometimes trying the digital rush later in the day helps as well.

I've heard chatter that there's mold backstage in some of the theaters and that's why people had to keep going in and out of Heathers for health reasons. Not sure how reliable that is but it seems like it would help to do a deep clean/renovation if they're going to have a mostly empty house.

chrishuyen said: "Sometimes trying the digital rush later in the day helps as well.

I've heard chatter that there's mold backstage in some of the theaters and that's why people had to keep going in and out of Heathers for health reasons. Not sure how reliable that is but it seems like it would help to do a deep clean/renovation if they're going to have a mostly empty house."

The quarters are also CRAMPED and that wreaks havoc when you have a show with 10+ members. I remember my friends in TEETH saying that there were only 2-3 dressing rooms for all of them and so when one person got sick, it was a massive issue

A mold infestation would be quite something. If there's truth to that I trust Equity and all the related parties are taking quick action...

Cramped backstage quarters can be a killer for morale especially when the house isn't full and cast is making $1500 a week.

I was in NWS recently and was shocked at the crowd control in the lobbies. HEATHERS hadn't opened the house til about 15 min to curtain so the lobby was kind of a fiasco, which bled into the experience for SPELLING BEE attendees.

LITTLE SHOP is a major success story and as far as I know it’s the only commercially-produced off-bway musical to recoup since 2019. But it opened in 2019 and got $10 million from SVOG during covid, despite only costing $2.2 million (and I bet at least half of that money was kept in the bank). It’s also managed to maintain relatively high ticket prices regardless of who is in it.

I have a hunch its rent situation is a lot better than some other commercial Off-Bway shows, considering it’s an indie landlord, there’s no elevator, and it opened pre pandemic.

https://www.broadwayjournal.com/p/behind-the-big-profits-at-little-shop-exclusive

Updated On: 8/4/26 at 08:54 AM