Friday matinees... discuss!

[joeyvalcort]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 2:08pm

So Book of Mormon went first, and announced their Friday matinees for the summer. And now Rock of Ages... which officially makes it a thing, huh?

What do you all think? Who's the target audience? Are there really enough tourists coming in for the long weekend to fill out houses on a Friday afternoon?

And what do you think the TKTS booth will do? Open early? Sell Friday matinees on Thursday night?

And will other shows follow suit?

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts!

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 2:10pm

I'll be curious to see how it pans out.

[madbrian]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 2:15pm

I think it's a good idea for the summer, but what performance are they dropping to offset this?

[joeyvalcort]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 2:26pm

For the summer, both will take Monday off, do Tues thru Thurs night, two on Friday and Saturday, one on Sunday. So the trade-off for the summer is losing a Sunday evening show and gaining a Friday matinee.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 2:31pm

Goodness gracious. When does ROA start theirs?

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 2:32pm

This plan would also appeal to people who work in administrative offices that have "Summer Fridays".

[joeyvalcort]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 2:37pm

ROA starts up May 23, and BOM (not sure I like the acronym but whatevs) starts May 30.

[rjjn]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 2:39pm

I can't imagine a Friday matinee selling better than a Sunday evening performance during the non-summer months, or regular weekends. But I guess it's a good thing to have in place for the long weekends, so people will know about it in advance?

[tommyboy]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 2:39pm

6 perfs in 69 hours. Wowzer! Keep an extra dance belt in the make-up room.

Not sure the Sunday Mat will have any energy.
Updated On: 1/6/11 at 02:39 PM

[bjh2114]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 2:44pm

For the summer, both will take Monday off, do Tues thru Thurs night, two on Friday and Saturday, one on Sunday. So the trade-off for the summer is losing a Sunday evening show and gaining a Friday matinee.

So to put it simply... the Friday matinee is in place of the Wednesday matinee.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 6:26am

If both shows meet with some success with their Friday matinees, we could be looking at some changes in the future all over b'way.

I have no real "feelings" about it, but I think it's great that some producers are TRYING something different. From a traveler's point of view it has great potential: I can book a hotel room for only two nights (Fri & Sat) and potentially see SIX shows. I like that. (So maybe, I DO have a feeling about it!)

[A NIce Macaroon]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 7:01am

Why stress about **** you have no control of?

Don't sweat the small stuff.

One of the best life lessons.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 7:44am

Why do seemingly intelligent people use mawkish, empty platitudes like "Don't sweat the small stuff"?

I guess where there's smoke, there's fire.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 9:58am

I don't see ANYONE stressing out, or even complaining. They are just DISCUSSING the plan -- in quite a civilized way until you jumped in.

[tking001]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 10:16am

Drammama
how do u figure seeing 6 shows in 2 days
I only counted 4
Friday: 2 (2 &
Saturday: 2 (2 &

[BroadwayGuy12]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 10:28am

She said two nights, which implies she would be in the city for three days:
Friday matinee and evening (spend Friday night)
Saturday matinee and evening (spend Saturday night)
Sunday matinee and evening (go home)

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 10:44am

Friday: 2 (2 &
Saturday: 2 (2 &

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 3:11pm

As an above poster mentioned, I think this would work well for summer months, with people out of school and taking early Fridays (or even the entire day off).

Depending on the amount of tourists that take long weekends in NYC throughout the year, I think it may work better than having a matinee in the middle of the week.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 4:34pm

joeyvalcort, if you admit don't like "BOM", just spell out the whole damn title. It's a message board, not a tweet.

[joeyvalcort]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 4:48pm

Ohh, snap. Okay, you've got it. Book of Mormon. Guess I was just trying to make fetch happen.

Thanks for the discussion all!

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 5:20pm

If it's in place of the Wednesday matinee, I can only imagine it would do better. And any Sunday night performance I have ever been to has been pretty deserted. I personally love the idea! I would love to go to the city and be able to see 6 shows on a weekend.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 5:52pm

What BwayGuy said: 2 nights = 3 days. If I wanted to see two shows each day (IF there were 6 shows playing that I wanted to see) I'd be in theater geek heaven.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 1/8/11 at 5:20pm

I'm suprised La Cage hasn't switched up their schedule an added another matinee since they sell so much better. They could be dark on Mondays & Tuesdays, Wednesdays @ 2:30 & 8:00; Thursdays @ 8:00; Fridays & Saturdays @ 2:30 & 8:00; & Sundays @ 3:00.

[singtopher]

Posted: 1/8/11 at 5:45pm

^As an actor, I would despise that schedule. Even if I got two days off.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 1/8/11 at 6:04pm

The talk of a Friday matinee stems back all the way to 1969. In his legendary book on Broadway. THE SEASON (a must read if you haven't) James Goldman writes that when polled, theatre goers have routinely stated that one of their top preferences for a show time would be a Friday matinee.

Its a little surprising that its taken so long for Broadway producers to actually try it but about time they did.

Summer is the perfect time for a test run: as previously stated, the tourists are here already with their days free and many New Yorkers take four day weekends (with a Friday matinee perhaps being the only time some of them would venture to the theatre on a weekend).

Here's betting it proves a lot more popular than the Sunday evening performance.