While Broadway shows are attracting a more racially diverse audience and tourism from outside the U.S. is fairly strong, the New York theater industry has been slow to recover from Covid-19: Admissions totaling 12.3 million for the 2022-23 were nearly 17% lower than the record-breaking pre-pandemic levels of the 2018-19 season.
The good news: Broadway audiences were more diverse than ever last season, with 29% of attendees identifying themselves as Black, Indigenous or People of Color. The figure compares with 26% in the 2018-19 season.
The numbers are included in the Broadway League‘s latest annual demographics report, released today.
A comprehensive analysis of the theatergoers who attended Broadway shows during the 2022-23 season, the report covers the first complete season since Broadway reopened in September 2021 following the 18-month industry-wide pandemic shutdown. The League’s 23rd annual report is its first since the 2018-19 season.
“While we are not yet back to pre-Covid attendance levels, audiences are returning,” said Broadway League president Charlotte St. Martin in a statement.
St. Martin attributed the higher percentage of BIPOC theater attendees to “a combination of outreach efforts as well as more shows being written and/or starring people of color.”
During the 2022-23 Broadway season, high-profile productions written by authors of color or featuring casts primarily or significantly of color included Ain’t No Mo’, Between Riverside and Crazy, Fat Ham, Death of a Salesman, Ohio State Murders, The Piano Lesson and Topdog/Underdog.
Other key findings of the League report:
- Approximately 35% of attendances were by people from the New York City metropolitan area (21.7% from New York City and 13.6% from the surrounding suburbs);
- Another 47.5% were by theater goers from the United States (but outside New York City and its suburbs);
- Seventeen percent of theater goers (or 2.1 million admissions) were from other countries. This was comparable with pre-COVID seasons;
- Sixty-five percent of the audiences identified as female;
- The average age of the Broadway theatergoer was 40.4 years old. That was the youngest in the past twenty seasons. (The 2018-19 report put the average age at 42);
- Twenty-nine percent of attendees identified themselves as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or People of Color), the highest percentage to date;
- Of theatergoers aged 25 or older, 85.8% had completed college and 43.0% had earned a graduate degree;
- The average number of attendances by the Broadway theatergoer was four in the past year. The group of devoted fans who attended 15 or more performances comprised only 4.9% of the audience but accounted for 30.2% of all tickets (3.7 million admissions);
- The strongest motivating factors for show selection were the music and personal recommendation;
- The average reported date of ticket purchase for a Broadway show was 34 days before the performance, compared to 47 days in the 2018-2019 season;
- Most theatergoers attended in pairs or small groups of family or friends;
- Ninety-five percent of attendees said they plan to see another Broadway show in the future;
- Twenty percent of theatregoers worked in New York City.