Any reason why Broadway plays and touring shows don't perform on Mondays?

Because performers are gods to us, and we don't think they should have to work on Mondays. Mondays suck. We all hate them. So we give them to our performers as golden, work-less days. Kind of a sacrifice of sorts, because we worship them.

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It's not universal. Some Broadway shows do have Monday performances, and some tours do perform on Mondays. Often with tours, Monday is their travel day so that is the reason for no performances.

Wheras on the Westend only 4 shows perform on a Sunday and all the others perform on a Monday!

99.9 percent of shows in the uk do mondays

Its rare that UK shows do sundays(thats our day off)

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"'cause everyone needs a day off ? Even actors ?"

Agreed. Most especially stage performers.

Frankly I don't understand why more Broadway shows don't perform on Monday and choose another weekday to make dark. The selection of Broadway shows to see on Mondays is very limited...

But, what would that accomplish? Then that other weekday would have a limited selection.

Les Miz [in late February] cancelled Sundays (3:00pm) for the summer (6/24-9/2)[actually sending out refunds], and added Mondays (8:00pm) instead (6/18-8/27).
[Dark on both Sunday 9/2 and Labor Day 9/3]

One response to a previous thread:
Les Miz did this to their schedule every year... at least post tenth anniversary...Sundays are a HARD sell in the summer. Few people want to be in a theater at 2;00 on a beautiful sunday afternoon in june ,july and august.

p.s. Any other shows doing the same?

what does that have to do with their being off on Mondays?

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Because Garfield hates Mondays, obviously

It is because of this that i am flying into New York and back out on a Monday so i know i wont miss anything, lol.

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Well imo I always figured that most people go to the city on the weekend (north jersey does) to go hang out and shop and stuff a lot more often during the school year than on regular weekdays. It makes sense to put shows on the weekend to me.

I'm going to agree with the earlier statement of slow business on Mondays, most people are going back to work or school on Monday after the weekend off, and it gives a nice break for actors by taking Monday off.

Does Spring Awakening have a day they go dark? I know that they do a Monday show and I heard that they don't have a matinee, but do they ever have a dark day?

I think it has something to do with the rationale for theaters being open on Sundays. This probably came about because it allows families to be able to see shows together or out-of-towners to see a show in New York -- which is very good for business. But most shows open only for Sunday matinees and the cast and crew are free in the evenings. By making Monday their day off - it allows them a much longer rest period -- from after the Sunday matinee... to the warm-ups for the Tuesday evening performance.

Just guessing

Producers decide for their shows whether they think Monday or Sunday will be more profitable, sometimes by trial and error. Some shows (such as Les Miz, traditionally) purposely change their schedules for the summer season and then switch back in the fall.

Sometimes a big star can influence the dark day if they have a strong preference for one schedule or the other. Most theatre people have a preference -- performing on Mondays means you have one less matinee, but performing on Sunday means you get four extra hours on the weekend, which is especially liked by people who have houses out of town they like to visit.

As for why shows don't pick a random day and have everyone have a different schedule, I can think of two reasons -- one, it would confuse the hell out of everyone; and two, it would make things unpleasant for people who work on Broadway and Off- who would not be likely to have the same day off as their spouse or friends. Of course producers don't really care about that, so I guess somehow it must come down to $$$.