Broadway: the show must go on

NEW YORK — When Broadway theatres finally reopen, at least one musical theatre fan will show up. But she’ll look a little different.

“I would wear a mask and gloves,” said actress Emily Hampshire, the “Schitt’s Creek” star and huge “Hamilton” fan. “I don’t think we can forget what happened for a long time.”

COVID-19 has shaken theatre fans and shuttered all New York City’s venues, including Broadway, which grossed $1.8 billion last season and attracted a record 15 million people. How Broadway — one the city’s jewels — will reopen is still not clear.

Will every other seat be kept empty? Will there be thermometer checks? Mandatory masks? Bar service? Deep cleanings between shows? More ushers? More exits? No shows until a vaccine?

Producers and labour groups are discussing various options, but one thing Actors’ Equity Association stresses is the Broadway community has one chance to get it right.

“We have to be really, really careful about how we start to come back,” said Mary McColl, executive director of the association, which represents more than 51,000 actors and stage managers.

“If we step wrong and we do something too quickly when we haven’t figured out all of the ramifications, and it goes badly and people become sick because of it, that is going to set the whole industry back a long time.”

Broadway theatres abruptly closed on March 12, knocking out all shows — including 16 that were still scheduled to open — and postponing indefinitely the Tony Award schedule. Producers, citing health and city authorities, have extended the shutdown through at least June 7.

The financial demands of Broadway shows don’t favour keeping seats purposefully empty. The average operating costs for a play are about $300,000 per week, while weekly costs run $590,000 for musicals.

Conventional wisdom is that many shows can break even while taking in 50% of their potential grosses — as long as they have fullprice tickets and some premium customers.

But insiders say tickets will need to be deeply discounted to attract wary customers when Broadway reopens, and that means theatres will need to be full. In that scenario, some theatremakers will be taking home less than before.

“I cannot imagine Broadway theatres functioning at less than capacity unless all costs are reduced,” said veteran producer Robyn Goodman, who this season was to bring a reimagined “Company “to Broadway. “That could be a monumental task but the only way to reopen.”

The shows with the best shot of survival will probably have to be both popular and offer attractive sale prices. Broadway will also have to depend more on New Yorkers, since tourism accounted for 65% of sales during the 2018—2019 season and the number of city visitors will likely dip.

Already some creators are adapting and innovating. Playwright Richard Nelson has written a six-person play designed to be livestreamed. Others have turned to putting new works on podcasts, benefit concerts or offering a song cycle online.

The shutdown frustrated composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s plans to mount a musical remake of “Cinderella” in London’s West End. He and his cast were ready for rehearsals when they were stopped by force majeure, the legal term for unforeseeable circumstances.

Now he’s thinking of returning to a business tactic he used at the start of his career when he couldn’t get backing for a stage version of “Jesus Christ Superstar”: Release a cast album first.

“Not because I really want to go that way round, but because force majeure kind of makes one have to do that,” he said.

The Associated Press