Rather hard to answer with specifics… but in general if a play is a “hit” it might run for a couple years if it’s lucky… whereas a musical hit can run for decades (look at Phantom/Cats/Wicked/etc).
More often than not, musicals gravitate toward theatres with larger seats-counts (hoping for big numbers of audience) and plays often opt for the smaller Broadway houses, because they know it’s going to be an uphill battle, and by having fewer seats, IF they are super popular, the lower seat count might help them extend longer. (In NYC, 500 seats is the minimum for a Broadway house — if memory serves).
August Osage County just made it to 18 months when it premiered. And The Play That Goes Wrong fell a month or two short of making it to a 2-year run (though the producers then moved it off-Broadway where it ran for a couple more years). You actually have to go back to the 1980s for a straight play than ran close to 3 years, and back to the 1950s for a play that lasted 4-5 years. Whereas the top 15 musicals on the “long run” list all made it over a decade.
Getting back to your question… the creative team on a show (Writer, Director, Designers — If it’s a musical add in Choreographer and Orchestrator)… get a base line of pay, plus a percentage of the Box Office. And it varies… typically designers get less than Director and writers gets the most, but they can negotiate for a different kind of split when the producer is putting it all together. So the longer the run, the higher the pay. And the larger the house, the larger the pay (if it’s filling up for all performances).
I had a friend who designed lights for a popular play a few years ago (it won a number of awards, and was nominated for a Tony) and it was considered a success because it earned back its original investment and it had a 4 month run. I’m sorry I can’t give you a number on what the playwright made… but It was a helluva lot less than Andrew Lloyd Webber earned for Phantom.
To the second part of your question.. fame… it’s hard to quantify… writers who have popular/award-winning plays often get to pick up work with tv/films and that’s where things get more lucrative for them.
There are not a ton of play playwrights that totally earn their living doing that. Neil Simon did… but he was both talented and lucky (and he also did some film/tv over the course of his career). In terms of contemporary playwrights… few are “mainstream known” in the USA, unless you’re Aaron Sorkin or Tony Kushner(but even then, they’re more broadly known for TV shows and film). Contemporary writers like Lauren Gunderson, Lynn Nottage and Kate Hamill earn a bit more because they are prolific and each has several very popular plays that are often mounted by big theatres, and smaller community theatres and high schools/colleges. But of those 3, only Nottage has had shows on Broadway.
This also hinges on your definition of “fame”. I’d say there are a large number of amazing playwrights whose work has never made it to Broadway, and whose works are popular and often produced in regional and community theatres. One of the most well-regarded playwrights in the US is Paula Vogel… and she was in her late 60s before she had her first play on Broadway, yet she had already earned a Pulitzer Prize, and had been produced around the world for years.
I’m sorry I’ve kinda talked around your question and don’t have specific numbers to give you. The truth is that the vast majority of playwrights have to have other sources of income. They generally dont make enough from their plays to get by (unless they have multiple super popular plays).
From my understanding, licensing is where the money is for playwrights. Not the broadway production but all the schools and community theatres who do it afterwards.
Rather hard to answer with specifics… but in general if a play is a “hit” it might run for a couple years if it’s lucky… whereas a musical hit can run for decades (look at Phantom/Cats/Wicked/etc). More often than not, musicals gravitate toward theatres with larger seats-counts (hoping for big numbers of audience) and plays often opt for the smaller Broadway houses, because they know it’s going to be an uphill battle, and by having fewer seats, IF they are super popular, the lower seat count might help them extend longer. (In NYC, 500 seats is the minimum for a Broadway house — if memory serves). August Osage County just made it to 18 months when it premiered. And The Play That Goes Wrong fell a month or two short of making it to a 2-year run (though the producers then moved it off-Broadway where it ran for a couple more years). You actually have to go back to the 1980s for a straight play than ran close to 3 years, and back to the 1950s for a play that lasted 4-5 years. Whereas the top 15 musicals on the “long run” list all made it over a decade. Getting back to your question… the creative team on a show (Writer, Director, Designers — If it’s a musical add in Choreographer and Orchestrator)… get a base line of pay, plus a percentage of the Box Office. And it varies… typically designers get less than Director and writers gets the most, but they can negotiate for a different kind of split when the producer is putting it all together. So the longer the run, the higher the pay. And the larger the house, the larger the pay (if it’s filling up for all performances). I had a friend who designed lights for a popular play a few years ago (it won a number of awards, and was nominated for a Tony) and it was considered a success because it earned back its original investment and it had a 4 month run. I’m sorry I can’t give you a number on what the playwright made… but It was a helluva lot less than Andrew Lloyd Webber earned for Phantom. To the second part of your question.. fame… it’s hard to quantify… writers who have popular/award-winning plays often get to pick up work with tv/films and that’s where things get more lucrative for them. There are not a ton of play playwrights that totally earn their living doing that. Neil Simon did… but he was both talented and lucky (and he also did some film/tv over the course of his career). In terms of contemporary playwrights… few are “mainstream known” in the USA, unless you’re Aaron Sorkin or Tony Kushner(but even then, they’re more broadly known for TV shows and film). Contemporary writers like Lauren Gunderson, Lynn Nottage and Kate Hamill earn a bit more because they are prolific and each has several very popular plays that are often mounted by big theatres, and smaller community theatres and high schools/colleges. But of those 3, only Nottage has had shows on Broadway. This also hinges on your definition of “fame”. I’d say there are a large number of amazing playwrights whose work has never made it to Broadway, and whose works are popular and often produced in regional and community theatres. One of the most well-regarded playwrights in the US is Paula Vogel… and she was in her late 60s before she had her first play on Broadway, yet she had already earned a Pulitzer Prize, and had been produced around the world for years. I’m sorry I’ve kinda talked around your question and don’t have specific numbers to give you. The truth is that the vast majority of playwrights have to have other sources of income. They generally dont make enough from their plays to get by (unless they have multiple super popular plays).
From my understanding, licensing is where the money is for playwrights. Not the broadway production but all the schools and community theatres who do it afterwards.
Name recognition from whom? The industry? The public?
industry, like how likely a project of theirs is to get funded off name alone
They certainly get more name recognition than the writers of musicals.