2005 top Broadway Plays & Broadway Shows

2005 was a healthy year for Broadway, both in terms of gross revenues and in terms of attendance.  Broadway ticket prices went up, too, exceeding $100 for regular orchestra seats for top shows in many cases.  That didn't keep audiences away, though, and they didn't just go to musicals either--attendance at plays rose quite a bit. 

The hottest tickets were for "Wicked" and "Monty Python's Spamalot".  Spamalot was a Tony Award winner, and its popularity with audiences proves that British humor and Broadway musical box office success aren't mutually exclusive.  Wicked, a musical by Stephen Schwartz billed as the untold story of the witches of Oz, continues to be a steady draw.     

"Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," "The Light of the Piazza," and "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" are the other Tony nominees for the year, and all continue to do well at the box office. Plays like "The Pillowman," "Doubt," and "Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays" also did a healthy amount of business in 2005.  In addition to the new plays and musicals, there are a number of shows on Broadway that have shown considerable staying power. 

These include "The Lion King," "Mamma Mia," "The Producers," "Phantom of the Opera," "Hairspray," and "Chicago." The most popular musicals continue to demonstrate the importance of recycling material from other media. Perhaps it's no coincidence that a hefty proportion of the big sellers were inspired by movies, and that "Mamma Mia" is based on the Swedish group Abba's song catalog.