Seven Hits, Five Walks, 25 Errors

On Broadway, the Great Producer records not how a show played but whether it won or lost. By that criterion, the box-office score for the season now ending is seven hits, five others that stayed on long enough to break into the black, and 25-odd errors. That reckoning, disastrous as it sounds, is about standard for the '60s--and so was the season.

Out of six attempts, David Merrick had four flops, including the musical adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Still, there were many sellout holdover hits (Mame, Cactus Flower among others) and enough intriguing fresh attractions to build an all-time high Broadway gross of $55 million, up 2% from the season before. Among the high spots were: one major S.R.O. smash, the musical Cabaret; two comedy clicks, Robert Anderson's You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running and Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy; one important drama, Harold Pinter's The Homecoming, which turned a profit only because of a movie sale; and the settling in, for the first time in 28 years, of a first-rate rep company, the APA.

The off-Broadway Theater, which has averaged about three successes, financial or critical, in recent seasons, was adorned with a dozen -- most notably, the anguishingly funny America Hurrah. Even further afield, touring companies -- which, according to Variety, drew $32 million in 1965-66 and have never topped $40 million -- pulled in $43.6 million this season. That does not count one other extension of the road. London this month is showing no fewer than seven U.S. imports, from Hello Dolly! to The Odd Couple, and Amer ica Hurrah will open there in August.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.