I just took a quick spin through Telecharge searching for shows doing an evening performance on New Year’s Eve.  I came up with nada (admittedly, I stopped about a quarter of the way through the alphabet – why isn’t there a site that gives you the show schedule by day?).

It was just over a decade ago when New Year’s Eve was one of the most popular nights of the Broadway year.  In fact, some shows used to charge premium prices for that performance, before premium pricing was even in existence.  I remember getting off work from a sold out New Year’s Eve performance of Ragtime in 1998 at 11 PM, right on 43rd Street, about 30 yards from the crazies and that big ball.

What happened?  Did our customers really decide that seeing a show on New Year’s Eve was something they didn’t want to do?  Did security get too difficult?

I think it was a combination of two things:  the turn of the Millennium and September 11th.  Both of these major events changed the way that New Year’s was treated in this city, and we’re all a little more careful now . . . as we should be.

But that makes me wonder, could there be an opportunity there now?

People are always looking for special events on New Year’s Eve . . . and to me, there’s nothing more special, or more of an event, than a Broadway show.