Nathan Lane's return boosts Producers box office

The Producers broke its own Broadway box office record the day tickets went on sale for the limited-run return of Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick to the show. Sales on Sunday totaled $3.5 million as of 10 p.m.--the highest one-day take in Broadway history, according to Monday editions of The New York Times. Tickets went on sale at noon Sunday at the St. James Theatre as well as by telephone and on the Internet. Prices ranged from $30 to $100, though a limited number of tickets for the best seats in the house were available for $480 each. More than 39,000 tickets had been sold by the time the St. James box office closed at 10 p.m., the show's producers told the Times. Internet and telephone orders were still being taken after that time. The musical--based on Mel Brooks's 1968 movie of the same name--also set the previous one-day record for Broadway sales, scoring more than $3 million the day after it opened in April 2001. It remained Broadway's hottest ticket until Broderick and Lane left in March 2002. Since then its fortunes have sagged.