Forget New Year’s Eve ball drop in Times Square

The year that can’t end fast enough will appropriately end with a Times Square fizzle.

The massive annual New Year’s Eve celebration ringing out 2020 will go virtual this year thanks to the COVID-19 crisis, with pandemic-weary revelers invited to welcome 2021 just like they’re doing everything else — online.

Health officials ruled that the usual hundreds of thousands of celebrants packed tight for blocks at the Crossroads of the World officially qualified as anti-social distancing, forcing cancellation of the 113-year-old Times Square ritual.

The decision marks the first time the ball won’t drop since World War II, when the wartime “dimout” of lights in New York City forced its suspension in 1942 and 1943.

“One thing that will never change is the ticking of time and the arrival of a New Year at midnight on Dec. 31,” said Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance.

“But this year there will be significantly new and enhanced virtual, visual and digital offerings to complement whatever limited live entertainment or experiences — still in development — will take place in Times Square.”

The bad news about the canceled Dec. 31 blowout came as opera lovers learned the upcoming Metropolitan Opera season, like so many of its productions’ characters, has come to a tragic end.

“We regret to inform you that the Metropolitan Opera has made the extremely difficult decision to cancel the entirety of the 2020–21 season, based on the advice of health officials who advise the Met and Lincoln Center,” the company said in a news release.

Organizers of the nation’s largest performing arts organization said the opera doors will remain shut until at least next September, a gloomy sign as New York’s once-vibrant theater industry remains idled with its marquees still dark.

The 3,800-seat opera house shut down in mid-March, a blow that cost the company more than $150 million in revenue. Roughly 1,000 full-time employees, including its world-class orchestra and chorus, remain furloughed without pay as they have been since April.

The company previously announced the cancellation of performances through Dec. 30 because of the pandemic.

“Because of the many hundreds of performers who are required to rehearse and perform in close quarters and because of the company’s large audience, it was determined that it would not be safe for the Met to resume until a vaccine is widely in use,” the company said in a statement.