I don't understand the distinction between people who have to go to work at 8am, and people who work "more typical NYC hours". If someone has to be in the office at 9am, and they live 45 - 60 minutes away from their office, then they have to go to work at 8am. Are you suggesting that people who work 9 - 5 are a weekend audience, while people who work 10 - 6 are a weekday audience? Is it a difference of industries (finance versus the more creative sectors)? Or are you saying things about the people themselves?
I sometimes get the impression from this board that many people who moved to New York in the latter decades of the 20th Century don't always understand the ways that rising population and skyrocketing rents have pushed significant portions of the population into neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens (and now the Bronx) that once seemed unthinkably far away.
I don't want to misread your comments, so I'm curious: Where does the typical weeknight Broadway musical audience live? What are their zip codes, and how far into the boroughs do they tend to make their homes?