Broadway belabored by fall

The only method to conquer Broadway's annual publish-Labor Day slump, it appears, is to possess a little belief. Belief in "It of Mormon," anyway: Per week when nearly every single show about the Primary Stem saw sales drop, "Mormon" ($1,293,582) rose -- and handled to top perennial smash "Wicked" ($1,253,990) along the way and almost nick "The Lion King" ($1,299,169). The "Mormon" task is particularly impressive considering the fact that its theater seats no more than 1,075 versus. 1,800 at "Wicked" and 1,675 at "The Lion King." Otherwise, it had been a difficult week throughout, with major 35mm slides published for the most part from the shows about the boards. "Lion King," "Wicked" and "Spider-Guy: Switch Off the Dark" ($1,197,278), for example, all saw week-to-week sales visit about 20%. The yearly downturn is due to the passing at work Day, the state demarcation from the finish from the summer time travel several weeks. But this season the results were amplified through the customer attention forwarded to the town activities organized round the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Productions with two shows skedded throughout that Sunday (instead of just one for the most part shows about the Rialto) were likely go to the toughest, as was the situation with, for example, "Mary Poppins" ($492,889), lower an astonishing 35%. Plus, using the concurrent startup from the school year, numerous productions with family appeal -- including "Poppins" and Daniel Radcliffe topliner "How to achieve Business Without Really Trying" (lower by almost $300,000 to $757,240) -- also required a few of the toughest hits from the frame. A few of the better quality more recent choices from last season ended up, but less so: Both "War Equine" ($943,131) and "Anything Goes" ($732,228) downticked only a little, especially in comparison towards the relaxation from the Street. Buzz-challenged "Sister Act" ($463,035), however, performed to average auds of under 50% of capacity. Meanwhile, tuner "Follies" ($743,353), which opened up Monday evening, organized pretty much because of the sesh's overall trend and also the fact the musical covered a string of comp-heavy press performances over the past weekend. One show, "Hair" ($368,039), left posting exactly the same low sales because it had drenched throughout its return operate on the Rialto, as the week's only new offering, Frank Langella starrer "Guy and Boy" ($98,634) in the Roundabout, got on a sluggish start. Overall Broadway cume fell $4.a million to $14.3 million for 21 shows about the boards, with attendance falling to 165,000. Within the silver lining department: That B.O. figure really marked a noticable difference within the week ending Sept. 12, 2010, when 23 shows drawn inside a total of $13.4 million. Contact Gordon Cox at gordon.cox@variety.com