Madisonians want two things from their live entertainment — familiarity and humor.
“People need to laugh,” wrote Jess Schuknecht, director of ticketing at Overture Center, in an email detailing the most-attended shows of the 2024-25 season at the downtown arts center.
Overture leadership observed a continued trend of “people largely going for shows that make them feel good,” he added. “This being an election year quite probably played into that.”
Ticket sales totals provided by Overture Center do not include removed seats or comp tickets for special guests, tour VIPs, promotions or press.
Topping the attendance charts locally were the millennial mixtape pop musical “& Juliet,” the Michael Jackson jukebox “MJ the Musical” and the fifth return of the blockbuster “Wicked” (“always close to a sellout,” Schuknecht wrote). Though one “Wicked” performance had to be moved in July due to a maintenance issue, some 51,714 tickets were sold for Stephen Schwartz’s witchy show.
“‘Wicked’ is always nostalgic,” said Tim Sauers, chief artistic experiences officer. “It’s very important to us to have a good subscription base. But we know our audience, and we cultivate (it). I’m thinking about that when I’m booking a season. What’s really going to resonate with people?”
Jessie Davidson as Elphaba and Zoe Jensen as Glinda in the national tour of “Wicked,” which even with a rescheduled show was nearly a sell-out in Overture Hall. “Wicked” has visited Madison five times.
Overture Center opened in 2004 and became a private nonprofit in 2010. The center, which hosts nine resident organizations including the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Madison Opera, Forward Theater and Madison Ballet, receives $2.17 million in support from the city of Madison but operates independently from it. Overture is led by a team of four co-CEOs and a board of directors. As of 2024 it had about a $24 million budget.
Overture saw a more than 17% increase in attendance for Broadway and Overture Presents shows between this past season and the one before, from 160,457 attendees in 2023-24 to 188,733 in the season that just ended.
Attendance at the tours presented by Broadway Across America can swing. A season with “Hamilton” in it, for example, leads to higher attendance numbers. Programming the tour of “Funny Girl” over the New Year’s holiday likely led to lower ticket sales, Sauers said.
“It’s hard to compare year over year,” Sauers said. “It all depends what’s on the season. But we’re happy with our numbers.”
“AVATAR the Last Airbender” was the top selling non-Broadway show in Overture Hall during the 2024-25 season.
Among the most popular performers in both Overture Hall (capacity about 2,255) and Capitol Theater (1,089) were comedians who’ve played Madison before, like the combined show from Steve Martin and Martin Short, as well as Jerry Seinfeld, Mike Birbiglia and Lewis Black.
The tribute band Rumours of Fleetwood Mac appealed to audiences’ sense of nostalgia at Overture Center.
“Even Justin Willman, while more magician than comedian, has a very humorous bent to this show,” Schuknecht wrote.
Family shows, like “Bluey’s Big Play,” and some nostalgia acts did well, like Rumours of Fleetwood Mac and the Red Hot Chili Pipers, a Scottish band that covers rock hits. “The big thing right now with all the agents is tribute, tribute, tribute,” Sauers said.
Combining a live orchestra with pop culture, like the “Harry Potter” live score series, also tends to draw crowds. “Avatar the Last Airbender” sold out quickly, a “big surprise” to Sauers, though a similar event with the anime series “Naruto” didn’t sell as well.
In the Capitol Theater, magician Justin Willman was the top seller of the Overture Presents season during the 2024-25 season.
Sauers aims to give the season as much variety as he can, while paying attention to what audiences are saying — both in surveys and with their dollars. Schuknecht noted the rise of branded “experiences” to go along with the shows.
“This past season saw more shows with different VIP experiences/options,” he wrote, “whether a soundcheck pre-show, a post-show meet and greet or even a seat in a section where you were guaranteed to be roasted by the comedian on stage. Our OzDust Lounge pre-show event before ‘Wicked’ also was a great success.
“There is an increased demand for people to have experiences over things, looking for offerings that are shareable on social media and give more than (a) physical item by which to remember a show.”
Lindsay Christians is the food and culture editor at the Cap Times. She earned a master’s degree in theater research from UW-Madison and has been a member of the American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association since 2007.
Email story ideas and tips to Lindsay at [email protected].
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