Daniel Craig`s `A Steady Rain` turns 65% profit for investors

If you were lucky or smart enough to invest $100,000 in “A Steady Rain,” the $3 million drama starring Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman that ended its limited Broadway run on Dec. 6, your 12-week gamble would have returned $165,000 in time for Christmas shopping.

James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli was involved in the production, no doubt bringing her magic touch from the financially successful 007 series to Broadway.

If, on the other hand, you were unlucky enough to have dropped the same amount on “Ragtime,” a revival that opened at the Neil Simon Theatre on Nov. 15 on the tails of glowing reviews at the Kennedy Center in Washington, you will probably never see that money again.

Barring “a miracle,” as one production source put it, the musical will close Jan. 3 at a total loss of its $8 million capitalization. In human terms, that translates into 40 actors and 28 musicians heading jobless into 2010.

Discuss this news here...