Broadway shows do eight performances a week, right? Well, usually…but Christmas week is different. Here's the schedule for next week. A few shows are doing less than eight. Billy Crystal — who, let's remember, does a one-man show and can't exactly put on an understudy — is doing eight. But most shows are doing ten, a few like Kinky Boots and Wicked are doing eleven…and Spider-Man is doing twelve. In fact, they're doing ten in five days!
Now, I believe that show has a bunch of different actors playing the characters who have big stunt scenes…but it's got to be a pretty strenuous week for those who can't be swapped out. And it's worse that that. That schedule I linked to only goes from Monday, December 23 through Sunday, December 29. They have one show tonight, one show tomorrow night, one show on Friday, two on Saturday and two on Sunday. Then we get to that week of twelve shows and it doesn't stop there.
Here's the schedule for the following week. Now, it's not totally accurate for Spider-Man because it lists two performances on January 5 and the show is closing on January 4. But in the other six days of that week, they have nine performances. So in the remaining eighteen days before the show ends, there will be twenty-eight performances and zero days off!
It's not enough that some cast members have had to worry about dropping from great heights. Now, they all have to worry about dropping, period. I hope they're being paid well for the extra hours.
Reportedly, tickets are selling well…although the page for the TKTS booth does list discounted tickets available at the moment. A glance at the Ticketmaster site suggests both performances on Christmas Day and New Years' Day are sold out and it says "few remaining" for one of the two performances on January 4, which is the date the show closes. Actors always wonder what they're going to do when their show closes. I think we know what these actors are going to do: Sleep 'til Groundhog Day.
(P.S. Before this version of the show goes away forever, you might want to download this PDF, which is the Study Guide.)