Broadway Weekly Schedule

https://www.playbill.com/article/weekly-schedule-of-current-broadway-shows

To answer your actual question, it's basically because audiences didn't want it. A couple of shows did try to change things up a bit a few years ago. At about the same time Phantom moved its weekday matinee to Thursday, another show did the same (I want to say it was Matilda). Another show tried moving to Fridays.

These changes were a total flop. Since the new schedule was meant to be temporary anyway (basically a test), they simply reverted back to the traditional schedule. Phantom wasn't/isn't selling that well for its Thursday matinee...but since it's also not selling worse than it was for Wednesday, either, they just left it.

Of course, none of the shows that tried were in high demand (which is part of the reason they experimented), and do remember thinking at the time that a true test of demand for a non-traditional schedules would need to be done by high demand shows.

Simply put, audiences expect tge traditional schedule.

The family shows tend to have Sunday evening shows. Right now, only Phantom and Chicago regularly do Monday evenings.

The original CATS added Monday performances years into its run so it was the only show playing on Broadway on a Monday night, which helped keep that kitty enormously successful - it had an 18 year run at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway!

Not having a Sunday matinee is an anomaly these days as most shows have a Sunday matinee performance. Years ago, Broadway was dark on Sunday; I remember seeing Amadeus during a Sunday matinee in the early 80s, the first time I attended a show on Sunday.(in August, no less). The theater district was like a ghost town and it was pretty eerie. During the time after that, more shows played on Sundays so that by the 90s, it was more the norm.

I actually like when shows perform on Monday evenings. For those of us coming in from New Jersey, there's less traffic coming into the City and parking is cheaper! Recently, Hangmen was dark on Sundays and had Monday evening performances throughout its short run. As someone mentioned, shows tend to be dark on Sundays and play on Monday evenings during previews. In fact, I'll be seeing The Piano Lesson on a Monday evening in early October. I find Sunday evening shows to be rare, but I like them because I can come into the City on one non-work day and see two shows - one toll, one parking fee!

I remember reading some time ago that more shows were reconsidering Wednesday matinees. The reason was that in the past, Sunday matinees were attended by women who didn't hold full time jobs and local high schoolers on field trips. The article stated that with women being in the workforce, there were fewer audience members in demand of Wednesday matinees. That was a while ago, but I haven't seen much of a shift from Wednesday matinees.

After all that, I have no idea why the current typical schedule of Broadway shows is what is it is, lol.

jagman1062 said: "
I actually like when shows perform on Monday evenings. For those of us coming in from New Jersey, there's less traffic coming into the City and parking is cheaper! Recently, Hangmen was dark on Sundays and had Monday evening performances throughout its short run. As someone mentioned, shows tend to be dark on Sundays and play on Monday evenings during previews. In fact, I'll be seeing The Piano Lesson on a Monday evening in early October. I find Sunday evening shows to be rare, but I like them because I can come into the City on one non-work day and see two shows - one toll, one parking fee!
"

For more than thirty years, I attended trade shows at the Javitz Center about four times a year. The shows ran Sunday - Thursday morning, and most attendees (thousands of us) would be finished with business by Tuesday mid-afternoon, and on our way home. So many attendees and vendors were looking for a show on Sunday night (or Sunday matinee if they would start on Monday morning) or Monday night, and the choices were slim at best. (Restaurants were always opened and packed on Sunday and Monday nights).

I no longer attend trade shows at the JC, but I still get out to NYC regularly and still book my getaways from Sunday - Tuesday (hotels are soooo much cheaper Sunday and Monday nights). Glad I've been able to catch some great shows on a Sunday matinee.

Mark_E said: "It seems to work well in London to have varying matinee days. Infact, if you planned carefully you could do 2 shows a day from Tuesday-Sunday with Monday being the only day with no matinees.

Most shows do a Weds or Thursday matinee (it’s pretty evenly split), with a handful doing Tuesdays (Beauty and the Beast, Woman in Black) and Fridays (Mormon, & Juliet).

As a regular visitor to New York I’d love a more varied schedule. In fact, I always tend to catch the Phantom Thursday matinee on my trips (and did Moulin Rouge when they had them in 2019)"

I wish the London schedule was more how NY was. I would love to do something like a Weds-Fri trip and see six shows instead of four. I only want to get a hotel for so many nights and pack in as many shows as I can so I wish there were more days with matinees for me to do 2 show days (and I'm not gonna see Phantom on a Thursday every time I come haha). But I know, it's very much a "first world problem."

I'm sure if it was viable or potentially a money maker, producers would explore it more so it must not be the case as some of you said.

Thank you all for your insights!