Broadway shuts down amid virus threat
>>The adage is synonymous with Broadway itself: The show must go on.
And for decades, through wars and recessions and all forms of darkness, Broadway, the heart of America’s theatre industry and an economic lifeblood for many artists, has kept its curtains up and its footlights on.
But on Thursday, facing a widening coronavirus pandemic and new limitations on large gatherings, the industry said it was suspending all plays and musicals for 32 days, effective immediately.
The shutdown — longer than those prompted in recent decades by strikes and snowstorms and even the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001 — will inevitably cost tens of millions of dollars for investors and artists and associated businesses and will likely trigger the collapse of some plays and musicals that will be unable to survive the delays and losses.
The move came as Gov Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio enacted new restrictions to try to stop the spread of the virus, which in the city has infected nearly 100 people, a number expected to grow.
City and state officials banned most gatherings of more than 500 people and required smaller venues to cut their capacity by half; they also limited nursing home visits. Mr De Blasio declared a state of emergency, empowering him to take measures like implementing a curfew or limiting traffic should conditions worsen.
Public schools, however, were remaining open. The governor noted many children’s resistance to the virus, while the mayor expressed worry about the disruptions that school closings would create.
Broadway — central to, and symbolic of, New York — is not only the pinnacle of the American theatre world but is also big business: Last season the industry grossed $1.8 billion (57 billion baht) and drew 14.8 million patrons.
“The full effects of this on the industry can’t possibly be known yet, but our priority has to be the well-being of audiences and our Broadway families,” said Thomas Schumacher, president of Disney Theatrical Productions and chairman of the Broadway League, the industry trade group.
The shuttering of theatres, which the Broadway League said would last until April 12, followed a flood of cultural closings around the country and around the world.
Earlier Thursday, several of New York’s largest and most prestigious cultural institutions — including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic — announced they would temporarily shut down. At the same time, Live Nation Entertainment and AEG Presents, the corporate giants that dominate the concert industry, suspended all North American tour engagements.
In Asia and Europe, many performance spaces had already closed; in the United States, venues from the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle to the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles to the Kennedy Centre in Washington scrapped shows.
The theatre industry had been hoping to avoid mass closings, taking steps to reduce the risk of infection by adding hand sanitiser dispensers, more frequently cleaning seats, barring backstage visits and stage door interactions and even soda refills in used cups.
But Broadway has a lot of risk factors — many of its shows attract an older audience, and older people seem to be particularly susceptible to the coronavirus; it depends heavily on tourism, which is plunging as a result of the pandemic; and its theatres, lovely as they are, pack patrons into tight quarters, making the now-recommended social distancing essentially impossible.
As public health officials increasingly warned about the riskiness of large gatherings, and after a part-time usher was diagnosed with the virus, the drumbeat for closing grew louder.
The closure forces a temporary end to the runs of all 31 plays and musicals currently in progress, from crowd favourites like Hamilton and The Lion King to new musicals like Six, which had been scheduled to open Thursday night. Signs went up at many theatres with information about refunds and exchanges.
Broadway theatres did not close for the 1918 flu pandemic. But in more recent years they have shut down for labour disruptions, storms, and, on Sept 11, terrorist attacks. Most of the closings were short, but many theatres were shut for 19 days by a stagehands’ strike in 2007 and 25 days for a musicians’ strike in 1975.
The cancellations will invariably be disappointing for tourists and locals who rely on Broadway for inspiration, entertainment and artistry.