Curtain Up Time

The Oxford Playhouse has a very idiosyncratic schedule

7.30pm for all evening shows apart from Fridays - where they don't start until 8pm

The rationale that is always trotted out is to allow Oxford residents who work in London time to get back to see the Playhouse offering of the week.

All it means in reality these days is that Friday night shows finish really late.

Shriek 7pm always leads to people rolling up late and disturbing everyone. Rocky Horror 8pm because it’s “edgy”? Not really. They just want people to get tanked up in the bar.

Let’s just go for 7.30 then we all know where we are.

I think 7:30pm is just about right, especially for anyone wanting a meal before when coming from work. What I like about theatre so much is how reliable the times are.

Just to hijack the topic for a second - What I don’t like is varying start times for Pop/Rock concerts. Almost universally tickets say that doors open at 6:30pm, when sometimes a support act might not even start until 8pm and main act not until as late as after 9pm. Encouraging people to turn up more than 2 hours early is purely a ploy to get people to buy food and drink.

You will often see people leaving shows early in order to catch their trains home. I don’t have a problem at the moment myself as I live quite central with good 24 hour bus services, but I’ve seen people around me looking at the time constantly and leaving only halfway into a concert before. It doesn’t help that some of the major London concert venues (The O2, Brixton Academy, Wembley) are on the far end of their tube lines, so the last trains are quite early. Seriously what difference would it make to event organisers and performers to just start a show an hour earlier, particularly on a Sunday?

I'm delighted for people from the north if they can leave work in time to get to a 6pm show... I don't think that's going to work for many people in London.

One night a week, mon or tue a 6.30 or 7 pm start would be great. I would be inclined to book them



Early starts must be very useful for people with caring responsibilities or early birds

On the subject of late starts why does the MCF normally start at 8 pm? It makes for a long night

Funny enough I was at a 7pm show yesterday. On one hand I spent the preceding hours cursing it for being just that bit earlier. On the flip side being only an hour to was praising it that I was home by 9....

That said I think most people would struggle getting into/across London for 6pm starts. Hell traffic in Cardiff would make that a struggle.

I do like the odd 3.30pm or 5.30pm shows - either to squeeze in an extra one, or just for a “get home early” situation now and then.

I don't care much in London since I'm always just a short walk/tube ride from the hotel afterwards and don't have to get up early next morning, but I'm very glad that we have one early midweek show here that starts at 6.30.

I tend to book that one especially when I'm on my own as I don't do a big dinner on my own anyway. I can just leave work at five, wander into town, have a snack, be at the theatre around six and happy to be home by nine or so. Of course that does work best for locals - we had booked the early 6.30 performance for Tarzan last December and got stuck in abysmal rush hour traffic on the way there, so dinner felt very rushed.

Anyway, I think I like the Broadway/German solution of ONE earlier midweek performance, so people can choose for themselves which one they prefer. (Gasp, I can't believe I said something positive about German theatre).

I’m sure convenience for diners determines much ROH timing. Usually a 7.30 start, but earlier for longer productions. However, short productions seem to start later. For example, From The House of the Dead started at 8 pm, but I would have preferred getting home earlier!

I visit Belgium quite a lot and start times often tend to be 8 pm. I’ve seen this with operas ending at 11.30 pm, which seems a bit late for many mid week audiences.

I doubt I'd be able to fit in dinner before a 6pm start after finishing work (I normally finish between 5.15pm and 5.30pm), so the time I'd gain by finishing early I'd lose by having to eat straight after - unless I just scoffed a sandwich down in the interval. I'd probably end up getting the same train home.

Although if I was an early bird who finished work at 4.30 pm it might work - early dinner, early show, and early to bed!

Rock of Ages had a 5.30 Friday show on tour.

Equally the late matinee/early evening are handy in NY either to catch a later cabaret show after or just get a much needed early night one evening of the holiday!

If the curtain time was earlier than 7.30 I simply couldn't go on a weeknight - not everyone finishes work at 5.30pm! As it is a 7.30pm start for me means a sandwich on the Tube for dinner or I won't get there in time.

I hate the fact that lots of Proms now start at 7pm as it basically bars me from seeing them as I can't get to Kensington in time.

All this talk of eating before shows has made me wonder if we’ve ever had a thread on best places to eat near each theatre. The website hotdinners did a great post on best family friendly restaurants that aren’t dreadful tourist traps near major tourist spots (https://www.hot-dinners.com/Features/Hot-Dinners-recommends/great-restaurants-to-take-kids-out-to-in-london?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=180327&idU=3) (apologies, I have not worked out how to do nice embedded links in posts on a mobile device)

I’ll start the thread if there’s interest. In the spirit of full disclosure, I used to moderate a restaurant Internet forum, so I will do my best to reign in my more opinionated, obsessive tendencies.