Thursday, August 25, 2011

Standard Curtain Time? Wait, I Have to Check the Schedule

What is up with the crazy evening curtain times now on Broadway? Remember when Broadway was dark on Monday, then Tuesday's curtain time became 7PM and the rest of the week through Saturday was 8PM with matinees on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.

If you are a New Yorker and say you work (so that you can afford your theater habit), there used to be sufficient time to have a decent but quick sit down meal before a weekday night at the theater. Now, I find myself inhaling cups of soups or swallowing chunks of Starbucks cookies for sustenance before the theater because I have no time to eat with the non-standard curtain times. A friend of mine pulled out a PB&J sandwich during intermission at a recent show because he simply did not have time to eat beforehand and knew that he would be disrupted by hunger pains during the performance.

Now, you have to check the schedule before you make dinner or other plans because the show that you are going to see may not have a standard start time. Shows now play on Monday nights. Check out Chicago, Phantom, and Priscilla. Some shows start at 8PM on Tuesday and others at 7PM. Spidy is right in the middle at 7:30PM. Thursday night, well, let’s pull up the schedule. The Book of Mormon and Jerusalem start at 7PM. Billy Elliott and Spidy start at 7:30PM and maybe the show you are going to see starts at 8PM.

But you better check or you may miss the opening act.

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