News and notes from around the interweb:
- It’s too expensive to travel to New York, and that’s killing Broadway shows. And this is largely a policy choice.
This article was interesting but misses a key factor: NYC banned construction of new hotels, largely banned Airbnb, and filled up tens of thousands of hotel rooms with illegal immigrants instead of tourists. Policy choices to make hotel rooms scarce are bad for theater. https://t.co/K64i3j039T
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) September 23, 2025
- The American Airlines employee/family ‘AA20’ 20% discount now extends to cash and miles upgrades.
- Border patrol arresting Uber drivers at Chicago O’Hare
- Works for anyone with an ex- named Logan, too.
- What’s grosser than gross?
- American Airlines hiring Hebrew speakers, maybe they’ll finally return to Tel Aviv after two years…
AA flight attendant openings, languages:
Greek, Italian, Dutch, Hungarian, Czech and Hebrew.
jobs.aa.com/go/Flight-At…
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) October 16, 2025 at 4:46 PM
NYC, and Broadway, are doing just fine; though, there may be a strike soon, because the shows workers do need healthcare. Rest assured, the good shows are still packed. Recently saw Waiting for Godot with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter; let’s just say, it was an… excellent adventure.
Oh please. That article came out in the middle of Broadway negotiating with the union. Broadway is not dying. Every show is packed and ticket prices are through the roof. Related story, congestion pricing did not kill Broadway either.
Knowing Ryanair they probably will send that person an annual licensing bill for using their name.
Are you guys kidding? It’s dying. New shows are closing within months of opening. The article cited fact.
Just because wicked and lion king are doing well means little for the overall health of Broadway.
It is currently cheaper to fly RT from Europe to NYC, than it is for 1 night in a hotel there. The average night for a hotel is now around $500 in the off-season. Insanity.
apparently the “but the flight is full so they must be making money” argument applies to theater as well.
just wait until the mayoral frontrunner reallocates even more wealth. It’s no wonder Florida’s economy is growing so much. and every state up and down the east coast. and even a few further inland
It’s only going to get worse when that woke Hamas Marxist becomes mayor.
@Tim first of all, the mayor of NYC has no ability to raise income taxes
second, Broadway attendance is driven by tourists, which would not be affected by NYC income taxes
third, reallocating wealth mean there are _more_ people that could go to the theatre.
@ Beachfan — Just because it is on FoxNews doesn’t make it a fact! More likely, the opposite.
If Broadway has any attendance problems it is from greed. The prices are absurd. Even after paying to cross the ocean in a lie flat and a room at the Park Hyatt, it is cheaper to see a show in West End.
Ok – facts! Last season was the highest grossing revenue in Broadway history and the second best for attendance (91.2% of all seats filled – airlines would be happy with that load factor, yes?). Not every show is going to be a hit (and if you put equity dollars behind Boop! the musical, you deserve to lose money). Plenty of shows open and close within the first year – that’s typical. Also typical – businesses often complain about profits when they are in negotiations with their workers about compensation.
I’m certainly not thrilled about the mayoral election and some recent trends in the city, but folks have been predicting the death of NYC forever, and… surprise, it’s still here! NYC tourism numbers are far from falling off a cliff. Pre-pandemic record was 66.6m and got 64.5m last year, second highest ever. May or may not be flat to slightly positive in 2025 but we will see, and policy decisions at the federal level impacting international tourists coming to the US have a lot more to do with it than anything a NYC mayor can control. And we’ve got the world cup coming in 2026 (26 matches plus the final), so, uh, there will be just a bit of international tourism next year in the region.
Lots of comments and people making statements claiming those are facts but without proof.
So, just a basis chart showing the current status of all Broadway shows. The average attendance percentage for last week shows a figure of 94.15%, which isn’t dying. As far as the number of shows which closed/failed without giving a historical perspective of that figure over, let’s say, the past 30 years is meaningless. An argument could perhaps be made that producers were mounting shows that people just didn’t want to see.
https://www.broadwayworld.com/grosses.cfm
Broadway theatre seats are so cramped that they make low cost airline coach seems spacious.
There’s always a bunch of people who imagine NYC isn’t the hell hole it is. Maybe after the voters commit the city to the path to hell after they elect the Madmani, we’ll see tourists do the smart thing and go elsewhere.
Newsweek cited a survey of New Yorkers that “found that 34 percent were actively considering leaving the city. A further 32 percent said they were open to the idea of moving away, but not currently actively considering it.”
It’s the shows. They are not good. Prices are expensive. Too much bridge and tunnel crowd. Want to see quality theater, at reasonable prices, in a more enjoyable setting? London.
Trans people and the Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime show have also negatively impacted Broadway
lol no.
Motels in Queens and Long Island being leased as short-term housing for migrants is not keeping tourists away from Broadway.
It’s the $300 tickets for jukebox musicals based on 80s sitcoms and random dead celebrities that is killing Broadway.
Just because Josh Barro tweeted it, doesn’t make it true and worth reporting as news. Dude is a right-wing nepo baby from Los Angeles. He has no credibility.
@Peter
Ryanair did share this on their social media with the added comment: “no, you can’t have free flights”
@IsaacM – ha, let them off with a warning 😉
From “the paper of record”.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/theater/broadway-musicals-finances.html
@This comes to mind — Trust Newsweek at your own peril. They seem to tell both sides whatever they want to hear. Clickbait, practically. (Kinda like VFTW sometimes, but, at least we like Gary here.)
Anyone saying they want to leave NYC because a guy is seeking to offer childcare, buses, and affordable housing is an odd flex. Maybe they don’t actually live (or work) here to begin with. Lotta folks live on Long Island, NJ, or Westchester County, and pretend they are from NYC (they wish), but they don’t get a vote.
As to these policies, yeah, that’s a big promise, and if he can’t deliver, it’ll be a failure. (Recall on Real Time with Bill Maher, August 8, conservative columnist George Will expressed a desire to see Mamdani, a self-described “democratic socialist,” win the New York City mayoral race, because it would be an experiment in showing that these policies might not work.) I agree. Try it. Let’s see what happens.
I’m surprised. I’d expect a lot more loosers living in NYC to try to defend the anus of America.
@This comes to mind — Don’t speak so poorly of Mississippi on here…
I’ll say it again, good riddance to musicals; just like Superhero films… we’ve had enough. Great dramas, comedies, and the classics are far more interesting. Tom Hanks has a show this fall. Oedipus with Mark Strong (recently in Dune, among many other films) is coming this winter.
@Mike P — Oh, so now they’re the ‘paper of record,’ huh? You and your thirst for a ‘source!’
I live in Manhattan and attend theater dozens of times a year. Times Square is packed, theaters are packed, subways are packed, the city is vibrant and yet everybody keeps saying this place is a hellhole and dying. Go figure.
I’m of an advanced age and have lived here for 30 years. You couldn’t pay me to leave this place. I love it. Some commenters will call me crazy, but we all are entitled to our own likes and preferences.
Not my term, you fool.
https://tovisorga.com/york/why-is-the-new-york-times-called-the-paper-of-record/
Gary spreading propaganda
NYC has turned into a crime ridden hell hole which is why I no longer travel there. Fix this core issue and perhaps people will return to the city and attend the theater. I can see Wicked and the Lion king in my city.
“Anyone saying they want to leave NYC because a guy is seeking to offer childcare, buses, and affordable housing is an odd flex. ”
Who is paying for it?? There is your answer.
@Mike P — Well-aware of the term, and that the New York Times has been the ‘paper of record’ for a while. I find it ironic that you, an anarcho-libertarian would dare ever even cite to it, because, you know, something like it goes against your entire motif. So, how is the whole ‘sovereign citizen’ thing working out for you these days, anyway?
@nycityny — Same here, brother, sister, or other. It is the best city on Earth.
@747always — Sure feels like that. These negative articles (less so at VFTW, more so in-general) to coincide with our upcoming mayoral election.
@Travelgirl — Oof. For a girl who likes to travel, that’s fairly ignorant or a willful blindness for reality. Not to mention, if you think Wicked and Lion King are all that is ‘Broadway’ then, yikes, you have a quite bland ‘taste’ in shows… You know, nevermind, you do you. Enjoy that Mufasa. All are welcome. Don’t ‘yuck someone’s yum,’ they say.
The comment about undocumented immigrants having an impact is hilarious. At its peak, 18% of NYC hotel rooms, mostly in Queens, not in Manhattan, were being used for undocumented immigrants. People flying in to nyc to see broadway shows for the most part do not stay in hotel rooms in Queens. Also, some percentage of shows always closed after a short run. Thats show business. Some musicals/plays/movies/series just dont click with audiences. Not sure why this was a mew thing for some folks to discover.
Oh, please kill off jukebox musicals! They’re killing Broadway and ruining the touring show circuit across the country.
Does anyone other than me think Broadway profit is down due to a drop in disposable income among all but the upper class (not including upper-middle), combined with Broadway ticket prices increasing along with the cost of getting to/from Broadway? The cost of Broadway tickets and getting in/out of Manhattan is simply not in the budget for today’s middle and upper-middle class within 50 miles (or whatever is left of it), like it was a generation ago. There’s also a lot more in terms of entertainment options in the suburbs that are more affordable than Broadway for what Broadway needs to charge per ticket to make a profit than there used to be. Cost of living in the city is at least four times what it was a generation ago adjusted for inflation. There’s not enough people willing/able to pay four times what Broadway cost a generation ago adjusted for inflation to support all the jobs that make Broadway run. Not to mention most of the theaters need significant capital improvements or complete replacement due to age (also costs money).
Theatrical performing arts are hurting all over the country. Pre COVID I went to something every night. Now maybe one a week can be found in Seattle.
The unintended consequences of the lockdowns.
If Broadway is truly failing, it’s because there are not enough elites willing to overpay to see these shows. I’m skeptical: the elite seem to still be spending like drunken sailors (see, eg, demand for business class tickets across the Atlantic) and I would think attending theater would fall into the same demographic.
As far as New York itself goes, as a non-New Yorker who has spent considerable time in Manhattan the past year, I would say the city is doing better than most out-of-towners believe. It’s admittedly hard to understand, given that the quality of life seems pretty poor (especially when you consider how much it costs to live there), but a certain group of people enjoy living there. It’s certainly worth seeing for yourself, and it’s certainly the most interesting city in America. And I generally feel safe walking around the city. The thing I like least is how much the city now reeks of skunk-like weed, especially in its otherwise enjoyable parks.
> It’s no wonder Florida’s economy is growing so much.
While technically true, actually living here sucks. Insurance for a small home (1500 sq ft) is $8k a year. Car insurance is $1400 a year. Median household income is $72k.