New York Gave These Broadway Shows Millions — And They Flopped Anyway

When the musical “KPOP” shut its doors in December 2022 after just 17 performances, it concluded a disappointing Broadway run. The show, which celebrated Korean music and cost about $13 million to make, sold too few tickets to stay open longer than two weeks.

But there was a silver lining for the show’s producers. About a year after “KPOP” closed, the State of New York awarded them $1.9 million. Taxpayers subsidized the show for an amount that comes out to more than $110,000 per performance, thanks to the New York City Musical and Theatrical Production Tax Credit.

The program began as a one-year, $100 million lifeline during the pandemic, which shut Broadway down for 18 months. It has been extended three times since. Now, Governor Hochul is proposing to grow the program by $150 million, bringing the state’s total outlay to $550 million through mid-2027 — even as Broadway attendance and revenues surpass pre-pandemic levels.

More than two dozen Broadway producers and other industry figures donated over $240,000 to Hochul’s re-election campaign last fall, a few months before she made her proposal public, New York Focus previously reported. State lawmakers have asked few questions and appear likely to approve the extra funding, despite a 2023 state-commissioned study that found the tax break generated just 23 cents for every dollar the state invested.

State leaders have defended the credit as a crucial tool for sustaining the theater industry during the pandemic, along with the enormous tourist sector it helps support. Producers say the credit remains essential for attracting investors — helping wobbly productions stay in business, hire workers, and attract tourists. They also note that the 2023 study concluded the expense might ultimately be worth it, given the impact of Broadway on local businesses like hotels and restaurants.

The state does not publicly announce which productions have received the credit. But a list obtained by New York Focus through a freedom of information request shows that the state sent $308 million to 129 different Broadway shows and 21 Off-Broadway shows between August 2022 and February 2026.

They include long-running hits like “Chicago,” but also a notable number of flops — raising questions about the program’s effectiveness.

The 2024 musical “Tammy Faye” closed after 29 performances but received $2.5 million from the state earlier this year. The musical “Lempicka” got $2.6 million after its monthlong 2024 run. “Mrs. Doubtfire,” which had 77 performances across a pandemic-interrupted run, received the maximum $3 million.

All told, the state has given at least $179 million to Broadway shows that had fewer than 200 performances each. Of the 150 total shows that have received the credit, all but 15 have closed, according to the data.

The program has also attracted criticism from the opposite direction: for throwing money at shows that would likely have succeeded anyway. The New York Times noted in 2024 that top-grossing shows like “The Lion King,” “The Book of Mormon,” and “Wicked” each got the maximum $3 million. Weeks after that article was published, “Chicago” received the maximum award as well, according to the updated list obtained by New York Focus.

Empire State Development, the state corporation that administers the benefit, defended the spending.

“Broadway’s comeback after the pandemic was driven by investment in the people who make it run — the stagehands, musicians, costumers, and crews who were out of work for nearly two years,” ESD spokesperson Emily Mijatovic said. “This program helped bring those workers back and support new productions across the city. Every show that comes to New York, regardless of how long it runs, supports jobs and strengthens the city’s theater economy.”

Focusing on programs with short runs is misleading, ESD argued, since limited-run productions have long been part of live theater and New York’s program was not designed to support only shows with a certain lifespan.

Several watchdog groups have urged the state not to put more money into the program or extend it past its current 2027 sunset date. The fiscally conservative Citizens Budget Commission tolerated the program as an emergency measure in 2021, but opposes its expansion now that the industry has recovered.

“The intent of the program has shifted to help cover costs, as opposed to when it was first created, which was explicitly to help Broadway recover and reopen from the pandemic,” said Sean Campion, CBC’s director of housing and economic development studies.

The Broadway League, the industry’s main trade group, declined to comment. The group, which represents theater owners and producers, has argued that far fewer investors would be willing to fund high-risk shows without the tax credit.

Philip Boroff, who covers the theater industry as editor of the website Broadway Journal, said it’s inevitable that some state money has been spent on short-lived shows, given the program’s goal of boosting the whole sector.

“Whether the runs are short or long, the advocates for the tax credit would say it’s doing its job in making investing on Broadway more attractive,” he said. “It is probably true that in some cases, short runs are a little bit longer because of the tax credit, because there is an incentive in running longer.”

Hochul proposed the additional $150 million infusion in January as part of her executive budget in response to reports that the state’s fund had unexpectedly run dry, two years before its June 2027 end date. The Broadway League has called for extending the tax credit through 2029 and restoring it to $100 million per year, its original funding level. (The more recent extensions under Hochul cut the program to $50 million per year.)

Both the state Assembly and Senate included Hochul’s expansion in their one-house budget proposals this month, meaning it’s highly likely to be approved. State Senator James Skoufis, one of the tax break’s few vocal critics, said the money spent on short-lived productions highlights “a fundamental problem” with the program: that the jobs it sustains are themselves short-lived.

“To sustain one person’s job, you need multiple iterations of this credit,” said Skoufis, a Hudson Valley Democrat. “For one individual to remain employed in this profession, they might need, over the course of their career, 10, 11, 15 shots of the Broadway tax credit. So the true per-job subsidy is, in reality, off the charts.”

Although it’s administered as a tax credit, the program works more like a grant, since the state reimburses shows for their expenses regardless of how much they paid in taxes. Producers can be reimbursed for employees’ salaries, production costs like sets and costumes, and advertising spending.

The program’s rules require the most successful shows to repay the state up to half the money they received once they reach a certain profitability threshold — if their revenues are twice as much as their costs after receiving the full benefit from the state. But more than five years into the program’s history, no shows have triggered that provision yet, according to ESD.

Meanwhile, shows produced by nonprofit organizations are ineligible for the credit, as are other performance arts like opera and ballet. Several nonprofit theaters have figured out a workaround by creating for-profit corporations to receive the credit, the news site Broadway World reported.

The Broadway tax credit barely came up during an eight-hour budget hearing on the state’s economic development programs last month. State Senator Erik Bottcher said he supports the expansion but asked ESD President Hope Knight what reports or data backed up the proposal.

Knight called Broadway “synonymous with New York” and said it sustains thousands of jobs, but shared no specific figures.

“It’s important that Broadway stays strong,” she said.