Metro

Costume characters are scaring away Broadway ticket buyers

Want to know why Broadway ticket sales are slumping? Blame Cookie Monster!

Aggressive costumed characters who pose for pictures to drum up dollars in the Theater District are driving away customers from one of the city’s biggest draws, industry leaders said Wednesday.

“We are actually seeing a decline in local theatergoers and they tell us that it’s because they are accosted, they are overwhelmed,” said Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of the Broadway League.

“They’re telling us this is beginning to make them not want to come to the theater.”

Sponge Bob at Times Square.

St. Martin shared her concerns Wednesday at a meeting of the Times Square Alliance, where the issue over the panhandling puppets took center stage.

Alliance and community members heard from property owners, politicians, retailers and hotel managers who all had the same message: Times Square is not Elmo’s World.

An informal Alliance count one day last month found 76 cash-collecting characters, including nine Elmos, seven Mickeys, six Minnies and seven dressed as the Statue of Liberty.

A survey of pedestrians in the area showed half had experienced “an unpleasant interaction with a costumed character” said Alliance chief Tim Tompkins.

City Council member Dan Garodnick said he is in favor of a system to license the characters.

“We need to balance the constitutional rights of individuals in the context of personal speech verses what is, in many cases, garden-variety harassment,” Garodnick said.

Chad Rachman
But the workers said they are just trying to do their jobs.

“I’m trying to make an honest living,” said a man dressed in a Mickey Mouse costume. “I don’t get in the way of anyone.”

Last month a man dressed as Spider-Man, Philip Williams, 36, was found not guilty of attempting to assault a 46-year-old mom in 2013. Days later, another Spidey character, Mousa Rabaoui, was arrested after cop said he groped a woman’s backside.

In February, a “Cookie Monster” — accused of violently shoving a toddler whose mother wouldn’t tip him — had his case dismissed after he agreed to one day of community service.

The allegedly frisky “Spider-Man” is in jail on an immigration hold for overstaying his visa, according to court papers. Rabaoui is due back in court July 16.

“They get meaner when it gets hotter,” said Taz Rihan, 42, a messenger. “I’ve seen Elmo yell at kids. It must get hot under those costumes. But they need to calm it down.”

“They need to go,” said Sheila Leonard, 35, who works in Times Square. “This is not a New York City thing. These characters are imports who have nothing to do with the city.

“I remember a time when they weren’t even here.”

Tamara Beckwith