New Shows Are Canaries in Broadway's Coal Mine, People!

Despite global economic annihilation, Broadway producers plan to open 43 productions during the 2008-9 season, an unusually high number in any year—by comparison, the 2007-8 season featured 36 new shows. Some long-running hit spectacles, like Wicked, are already reporting smaller audiences, but the financing for upcoming productions—like the hotly anticipated West Side Story revival and the star-studded NY premiere of God of Carnage—was obtained back before the economy's rigor mortis really kicked in, and they're not turning back. So producers of shows planned for later this year are anxiously monitoring the new arrivals' box office returns. Charlotte St. Martin of the Broadway League tells the Times, "The biggest concern at this point is how the spring shows do: If they do well, or relatively well, then the shows in the pipeline will go ahead. If they don't do well, then we may have a problem for the next season." If that means no U2 Spider-Man musical, then these are dark days indeed.