It is hot in the Jungle — the Jungle Theater.
Three shows have exceeded goals at the Minneapolis playhouse this year, and the recently closed "Urinetown" sold at 92 percent of capacity over nine weeks — "more than 100 percent when you count comps," managing director Margo Gisselman said.
Attendance patterns over the past six to eight months in the Twin Cities reaffirm the showbiz notion that the show, not the economy, drives sales. Hot shows sell well and dogs die, no matter how hard you try to sell tickets.
"We don't discount," Gisselman said. "If you discount, subliminally, people wonder if the show is any good. You can't make them come."
The Jungle hasn't had to discount, with "Venus in Fur" and "Deathtrap" joining "Urinetown" as hit shows. All three exceeded goals, with "Urinetown" doing $265,000 in sales — against a goal of $192,000.
Business at the Guthrie has been up and down. "The Primrose Path," a new adaptation of an old Russian story, never found an audience, doing a notably low 38 percent capacity over 54 performances on the thrust stage. That's roughly 400 people per show, in a theater designed to hold 1,100.
"Pride and Prejudice," on the other hand, has benefited from title recognition and the presence of TV star Vincent Kartheiser to post a 97 percent capacity figure so far. It has been the brightest spot in a season that started disastrously last fall with the Christopher Hampton festival and saw low attendance for Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night."
"Clybourne Park," Bruce Norris' play about racial attitudes, played to 79 percent capacity over 66 performances in the 700-seat proscenium.