So yesterday I had missed my chance to catch a show out of town and was thinking about what to do. Interestingly enough, I was three blocks from Broadway and I instead decided to go and see this movie
The first show I wanted to see was sold out. Turned out that there was another show an hour later that wasn't. So I bought a ticket.
Broadway was three blocks away and I bought a ticket to a movie.
As I sat there with my huge bag of buttered popcorn and my massive soda, I thought about why I chose to do this and it really comes down to convenience.
Why do we order pizza?
It's convenient. Someone comes to your place and hands you food. You don't cook, you don't work, you just take it and eat. The same is true with a movie. You choose to see it from at least seven or eight different times in the day. If you miss one, another is there to get you to go in. You go in and you watch.
So why did I go watch robots smash the hell out each other rather than watching a Tony winner?
Convenience.
That whole process was easy. If I wanted to see a Broadway show, I could go online but there's only going to be one curtain time. If I'm late, I'm screwed. The same applies for an Indie show or even Off Broadway.
Why? We have a lot of rules to follow. But you have to wonder if someone broke the rules and had 4 or 5 shows running at different times of the day multiple times the way a movie does, if we might get more people in the seats.
I'm sure plenty of folks have asked this before, but why can't theatre be more convenient?
If you're just as annoyed as I am, feel free to comment below.
Also note that PLAE is still accepting applications up until July 1rst!
Excelsior!
Because actors can't do 8 shows a day?
Posted by: Duncan | June 29, 2009 at 05:13 PM
I'm sure I heard a story from a producer coming back from NYC who had precisely that happen. He was seeing a show Off Broadway but had to leave in the interval to get to an appointment. On the way out he was asked by the manager why he didn't like it and would he like to slip in to another show playing a few doors down. Great practice if you do have more than one show playing in the same proximity I think.
Posted by: Tom Atkins | June 30, 2009 at 07:45 PM
Interesting thoughts posed here. I just closed the first major show I've produced and have been thinking a lot about the movies, actually - specifically about standard movie showings vs. standard theatre times. After several "intimately attended" Saturday matinees, I began to wonder, perhaps I should think outside the box in terms of showtimes. Maybe we should do a 5PM show and a 9PM show instead of the standard 2PM & 8PM.
However, we did have two weeknight shows that started at 7:30PM and without fail, every one of those nights, there was at least one friend who was like, "wait, I thought it starts at 8?!"
So, are audiences ready for showtimes that are similar to movie theater times??
Posted by: Melissa Fendell Moschitto | June 30, 2009 at 11:48 PM