With Broadway’s lights dimmed, actors mull pandemic’s impact on their lives
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A week after the bright lights of Broadway theaters in New York City were dimmed for a month to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, two actors weighed in on how the closures are affecting their daily lives.
Joel Hatch, who plays reallife mayor Claude Elliott of Gander, Newfoundland, in the award-winning Come From Away, said he agreed with Broadway’s temporary closure.
The musical is set in tiny Gander, Newfoundland, where dozens of planes were forced to land after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, stranding thousands of passengers, who were then taken in by the locals.
Hatch compared the musical to the coronavirus outbreak in New York.
“They thought about, ‘We’re all in this together.’ And so I think that’s a story that’s worth adhering to right now,” he said. “We have to stop thinking about ourselves personally and think about the general common good.”
People should be “doing healthy things, staying distant from each other, staying clean and trying to create less of a disaster for the people on the frontlines in our hospitals,” Hatch said.
Roe Hartrampf was making his Broadway debut in the starring role as British Prince of Wales Charles in Diana, a two-act musical chronicling the late Princess Diana’s courtship and marriage to Charles and their eventual separation.
Speaking of the royals’ outreach to lower-income communities and at-risk youth, Hartrampf said: “I think we can take a cue from that in this moment and make sure that we are thinking about those who are actually at greater risk than we are.”
Broadway was shaken last week when an usher who had worked at two New York theaters tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. The venues’ owners said they had ordered deep cleaning, and their shows went ahead on Wednesday.
The Broadway League said in a statement this week that shows would be suspended until April 13.
On the temporary closure of theaters, Hartrampf said: “In terms of global public health, it’s really important that we follow directions and commit to the social distancing aspect.”
Some 14.8 million tickets were sold for Broadway shows in the 2018-2019 season that ended in May, bringing $1.8 billion in box office receipts, according to the Broadway League. More than six out of ten theatergoers were either from outside the US or outside New York.