The Broadway theater season officially ended Sunday (May 25), with last fall’s 19-day Stagehands strike blamed for a “slight decline in both paid attendance and grosses,” according to the Broadway League.

The number of new shows continues at pace level with recent years. A total of 36 new productions opened with 11 new plays (same as last season), eight musicals, one return engagement and 16 revivals. This year as last season, the number of new plays and important play revivals blunts the criticisms first expressed a decade ago that Broadway is becoming an exclusive musical row.

The box office numbers weren’t bad, either, with attendance of 12.27 million down just 0.2 percent, and box office receipts down from $938.5 million to $937.5 million.

“While we are disappointed that we didn't exceed last year's record-breaking season, we are confident that in the coming season, with such big name shows on the horizon as “Billy Elliot,” “Shrek,”“West Side Story” and “Equus,” to only name a few, that we will have the best season in recorded history," the League’s executive director Charlotte St. Martin said in a statement.

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