The 7:30 Curtain

The idea seemed simple enough. Raise Broadway curtains at 7:30 p.m. instead of 8:30, and all those suburbanites and would-be theatergoers from New York's outlying boroughs could stop worrying about missing the last train and getting the baby sitter home. Still, it took the League of New York Theaters years to get the unions and the producers of all the shows on Broadway to agree.

This past December they did, and early last month the new curtain time went into effect. Despite the league's enthusiasm, early evidence suggests that the 7:30 plan made little financial difference. A comparison of last January's gross receipts with this January's shows only a negligible change. But there are other, intangible benefits.

In making the switch, the theater owners were meddling with the eating and drinking habits of thousands of New York theatergoers inside the city and out. Restaurant proprietors were the most severely affected, and many of them announced split-schedule dinners, with cocktails and the main course before the show, dessert and coffee afterward. In practice, the simpler pattern of a couple of martinis and some hors d'oeuvres first and dinner after is frequently followed. That has changed not only the audiences' dining habits, but the audiences--probably for the better. "It reminds me of London," says Carol Channing, star of Four on a Garden. "The audience is not overstuffed, overfed, and can enjoy the play more. People laugh better on empty stomachs." Maureen Stapleton (The Gingerbread Lady) looks beyond the closing curtain: "I love the 7:30 curtain. It gives me more time for parties afterwards."

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