New Musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Tailors Schedule for Family Audiences
"I think this is the schedule that soon most Broadway musicals will have," Chitty producer Frederick Zollo told Broadway.com. "Tuesdays at 7 work for most shows. The timing allows people to get home on the weeknights a little earlier. I think audiences appreciate that. It is time to change the Broadway schedule to make it more convenient for the audiences."
While Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is the first show to have Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7pm, it is not the first show to have a family-friendly performance schedule. Beauty and the Beast tried 7:30pm curtains early in its run but soon returned to the conventional 8pm start time. A Year with Frog and Toad had a particularly unusual schedule--it was dark Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, played two performances on Wednesday at 2pm and 7pm, one performance on Friday 7pm, three performances Saturday 12pm, 3:30pm and 7pm and two performances Sunday 1pm and 5pm. The revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown had three performances on Saturdays to attract more children.
"I think people will have to get used to it," Zollo said. "And we'll try our best to accommodate them and be as helpful as we can. The show has a substantial advance and when people buy the tickets and are aware of the time, they seem to be quite pleased with it. What a nice thing to be able to get home an hour earlier on a weekday! So overall, I think it is a great idea that people respond to."
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang began performances at the Hilton Theatre on March 27 and will play its first Tuesday at 7 on March 29.