Broadway’s long-running musical revival of Chicago has gotten a massive boost at the box office from the latest in its years-long practice of celebrity stunt-casting: Now starring Whitney Leavitt as Roxie Hart, the John Kander-Fred Ebb classic grossed $1,410,093 last week, its biggest take since 2023’s lucrative December holidays haul.
Approaching its 29th year at the Ambassador Theatre, Chicago is currently Broadway’s longest running American musical. Leavitt joined the production on February 2 and continues her run through March 15.
Producers Barry and Fran Weissler have long cast numerous cross-over celebrities to keep the production fresh and audiences interested – including Ariana Madix, Pamela Anderson, Brandy, Christie Brinkley, NeNe Leakes, among many others – but Leavitt, also a Dancing With The Stars alum, is proving to be a particularly strong draw. The $1.4M gross for the week ending February 15 is about twice the amount (or more) for every other non-holiday week this year.
Granted, last week was a holiday week itself – the Presidents Day weekend no doubt attracted some long-weekend visitors, and Broadway also saw the final week of its special two-for-one Broadway Week promotion – but not even this year’s Christmas and New Years holidays proved as bountiful for Chicago. With an attendance of 8,565, the venue was at 99% of capacity, easily its best this year.
Other shows benefited from a strong holiday week as well, with all but one of the 27 productions (Bug bucking the trend) showing increased box office over the previous week. Aladdin, Hamilton and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child all had gains of more than $300,000, while The Great Gatsby, The Lion King and Wicked bounced by more than $400,000.
Top earners for the week were Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ($2,682,872), Hamilton ($2,198,060), Wicked ($2,024,329), The Lion King ($1,918,748) and Chess ($1,588,042).
In its final week of performance, Marjorie Prime was up $49,627 to $405,194, filling 95% of seats at the Hayes.
In all, the 27 productions grossed $33,578,362 for the week ending February 15, an 11.3% jump over the previous week and 19% over last year at this time season (Presidents Day 2025 did not fall within that period). Attendance for the week was 246,718, holding about even with the previous week and year-to-year. The average ticket price was $136.10, a hefty $18.59 more than the previous week).
Note Stranger Things: The First Shadow did not have regular public performances last week while the production was being filmed for a future release.
Season to date, Broadway, in the 38th week of the 2025-26 season, has grossed $1,394,123,670, up about 8% over last year at this time, with total attendance of 10,416,208 up 3%.
All figures courtesy of The Broadway League. For more box office information visit the League’s website.
