The Shubert Organization, the largest owner of Broadway theatres, operates 24 theaters, including 18 on Broadway. It has brought hundreds of classic shows to Broadway over the decades, including The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, and Les Misérables. The Nederlander Organization is the second largest owner of Broadway theatres, owning nine theatres on Broadway and several elsewhere in the United States and England. Nederlander produces Hamilton, which is still running at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway since Hamilton opened in summer 2015.

Hamilton is an American musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda that tells the story of American founding father Alexander Hamilton. The show features hip hop, R&B, pop, soul, and traditional-style show tunes. Hamilton has won 11 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. It also received the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Hamilton is produced by The Nederlander Organization. The show earned back the amount that Nederlander had invested in it after just six months.¹⁶
The Broadway musical Mamma Mia! moved from the Winter Garden Theatre to the Broadhurst Theatre, both of which are owned by the Shubert Organization and are on Broadway in New York City. Mamma Mia! saved up to $100,000 per week¹⁷ in operating costs due to the Broadhurst’s smaller size; the Broadhurst seats 1,160, while the Winter Garden seats 1,530.
Theatre experts estimated the show’s weekly costs to be approximately $600,000 to $700,000, and its weekly ticket sales were usually in the mid- to high-six-figure range.

Another Shubert-produced musical, Beetlejuice, opened in Shubert’s Winter Garden Theater in April 2019. In Beetlejuice, a recently deceased couple become ghosts who haunt their former home using a variety of strategies to try to scare the new occupants away. Beetlejuice was closed less than a year after its opening on Broadway. Two years later, The Nederlander Organization reopened Beetlejuice in its Marquis Theatre, located on the third floor of the Marriott Marquis Hotel on Broadway.

Questions:

1. For each show that the Shubert Organization or The Nederlander Organization produces, what type of financial accounting information would be generated or recorded?
2. What information would the producers of Hamilton have needed to calculate that the original investment of the show had been earned? What information would producers need to decide to keep the show open? What information would be provided by the financial accounting system?
3. What information would producers of Mamma Mia! have needed to make the decision to move the show to a different theatre? What information would be provided by the financial accounting system? What information would be provided by the management accounting system?
4. What information would the producers of Beetlejuice have needed to decide to close the show early? What information would be provided by the financial accounting system? What information would be provided by the management accounting system? What factors do you think The Nederlander Organization considered when it decided to produce Beetlejuice in its Marriott Theatre after the Shubert Organization closed the show?