"One of the benefits of the Annual Broadway League meeting held every December is that you get to pick up your glossy copy of the Broadway Audience Demographic Study," writes Broadway producer and blogger Ken Davenport. If you say so! But his post does provide some fun statistics about the demographic of the average Broadway fan who marches through the miserable crowds just west of Times Square to make it to the theater in time to get a sippy-cup full of white wine before the curtain rises. The results of the study will probably not blow your mind.

It's really useful for Broadway producers, who funnel cash into shows destined to appeal to the most average of theatergoers. Davenport posted the executive summary of the study (the full report can be found here), which includes some of the following facts:

In the 2010-2011 season, approximately 62% of all Broadway tickets were purchased by tourists.

65% of the the audiences were female.

The average age of the Broadway theatergoer was 44 years.

83% of all tickets were purchased by Caucasian theatergoers.

Broadway theatergoers were also quite affluent compared to the general United States population, reporting an average annual household income of $244,100.

Broadway theatergoers were a very well-educated group. Of theatergoers over 25 years old, 78% had complete college and 39% had earned a graduate degree.

Playgoers tended to be more frequent theatergoers than musical attendees. The typical straight play attendee saw eight shows in the past year; the musical attendee, five. 

Word-of-mouth was by far the most influential factor in show selection. In general, advertisements were not reported to have been influential in making the purchasing decision. 

74% of the Broadway audience said that some kind of incentive (discounts, freebies, add-ons) would encourage them to attend shows more often.

It's certainly not surprising, given the high prices of tickets for even straight plays, that the average theater attendee has a lot of cash to spend (it also makes sense that people see plays more often than musicals, considering that musicals are more expensive than plays). And most New Yorkers won't be shocked to know that tourists are buying the bulk of those tickets! The "word-of-mouth" factoid is also expected; I can imagine that the average poll participant would consider "word-of-mouth" to be the reason why he or she is aware of The Lion King or Phantom. 

Naturally, Broadway attracts a lot of white people. While at least two straight plays this season (The Mountaintop and Stick Fly) feature predominantly African-American casts, the socio-economic demographic of the average Broadway audience is not going to change while tastes in subject matter and music tend to attract white audiences (and the high ticket prices won't help, either). Davenport acknowledges that disappointing statistic in his post, writing, "The good news is that there are some cool League programs designed to diversify our audience, expanding it at the same time." But he also ends his post with a somewhat flippant remark: "Just do me one favor. Don't complain about it. If you don't like it, do something to change it."

There are plenty of creative people who write plays and musicals that do not necessarily appeal to the major Broadway demographic as defined by the results of this study. But who is more capable in changing the tastes and--ultimately--the demographics of the Broadway audiences other than those who supply the money to produce those productions? Considering the high stakes of mounting a stage production on Broadway, what are the chances that the few who have the most control over what influences the demographic will actually "something to change it?"