Broadway loses $8.5M thanks to Sandy

NEW YORK, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Broadway shows lost an estimated $8.5 million in ticket sales when Hurricane Sandy took a bite out of the Big Apple last week, theater officials said.

The New York Times said Tuesday every Broadway show was impacted by the superstorm, but the musical "Nice Work if You Can Get It" and the play "Grace," starring Paul Rudd, Michael Shannon and Ed Asner, were particularly hard hit, suffering a 50 percent drop at the box office compared to the week before.

After performances resumed, attendance was relatively light since public transportation wasn't immediately back to normal and some tourists avoided the region, the Times said.