The Broadway cast of 'The Humans' including Tony winners Reed Birney and Jayne Houdyshell (Photo:... [+]
Stephen Karam's new Broadway play, The Humans, has recouped its $3.8 million capitalization. Producers Scott Rudin and Barry Diller announced the news this morning, confirming our earlier predictions, which were based on the play's stellar box office since winning the 2016 Tony for Best Play. It's big news in the hit-or-miss biz, but the bigger story here is the cast, which is notably absent of Hollywood names.
Conventional wisdom on Broadway is that you need a movie star to sell a play. Unlike musicals, plays have no songs to hum, no big spectacle dance numbers to knock your socks off. Cats is just as enjoyable if you don't speak English (maybe even more so). Given that tourists make up two-thirds of Broadway audiences, producers feel the need to stuff plays with bankable faces in order to avoid alienating them. If you don't speak English, you'll still get to tell your friends you sat ten feet away from Hugh Jackman.
The Humans by contrast, has names familiar to New York theatergoers but not far beyond. Reed Birney and Jayne Houdyshell both won Tonys for their performances, but most viewers wouldn't recognize them on a silver screen.
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Instead of pandering to tourists, the show played to its strengths: excellent material from newcomer Karam, a strong ensemble cast who were hired for their talent, and some of the season's best reviews. The lack of Hollywood names, of course, also kept costs down. Without someone like Bruce Willis commanding a massive salary, profit flowed fast from the tiny Helen Hayes theater.
And stars don't guarantee a play's success. Last season alone saw Willis himself, Lupita Nyong'o, Matthew Broderick and Forest Whitaker fall short of sales expectations (Whitaker especially will have a tough time getting repeat work on Broadway - his Hughie closed ten weeks early). Bankability is not as easy to predict as producers wish. The upshot is that plays tend to be cheaper, mitigating some of the risk. Compare The Humans's $3.8 million price tag to, say, Shuffle Along's $12 million.
Rudin is no stranger to stars, though. He brings multiple shows to Broadway per season, ditto films to Hollywood, and works the overlap constantly, making good use of his EGOT status. This season's offerings include Hello, Dolly! with Bette Midler and The Front Page with Nathan Lane. But he is also known for keeping a wide variety of projects on the burner, including risky Off Broadway properties like Annie Baker's The Flick.
The Humans got its start Off Broadway at the nonprofit Roundabout in 2015, but Rudin reportedly picked up the rights before performances had even begun, moving it quickly to Broadway on the strength of its dreamy reviews. In addition to Tonys for Karam, Birney and Houdyshell, it garnered one for designer David Zinn, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
The show is slated to run until January 15th, after which new musical Come From Away will take over the Shoenfeld theater. However, Rudin and Diller are keeping options open. The Humans could potentially transfer to another Broadway theater, or move back Off Broadway, where it can ride its success to more profit with a smaller overhead.
One assumes (hopes?) the cast will stay star-free.
