Craving theater, we wait . . .
DARYL Roth. Multiple Tonys. Backs Pulitzers. Co-produced Broadway’s “Kinky Boots.” Broadway just announced its theaters are dark for the rest of the year. So doing what about the East 15th theater named for her?
“Working on arranging the configuration. Off-Broadway’s more flexible than Broadway since our seats are movable. Look, it’s a war. We’ll work out how our audiences are safely gathered, then we have to battle the backstage purity. Keep our stagehands and crews safe . . . Questions get decided with help of the Broadway League. Committees are talking. Many different people talking. Will it now be a smaller space? Will we seat 1,500 or 300? In-depth conversation is to follow government protocols, make it safe. We’re dealing with consultants and compromises. We’ve worked on temperature control and air purification.
“Somebody set a police car on fire near my theater, which is a landmark, so we constructed a plywood wall around it. And the walls are talking. Not with graffiti, but with words. We had an artist paint quotes over it from famous playwrights. There’s a magnificent mural called ‘Black Lives Matter,’ where names of people who have died are memorialized.
“For now, I’m stuck home like everyone else. Watching birds from my window. Reading scripts. Grateful for my dog, Louie. Happy at least I live near my doctors. Obsessing on many who depend on a livelihood and are now unemployed. The world yearns for theater. It’s a great healer.”
What I hear
MEANWHILE, others are out doing. Julianne Moore’s off to play a sharpie con artist in Apple’s thing “Sharper” . . . JOSH Gad ?In England doing some brilliant HBO job whilst muttering: “I’m busy wiping down every damn thing with sanitizers, like those Clorox hand-wipes” . . . AS the world rages, LeBron James is producing a doc about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.
Hat in the ring
JOHN Catsimatidis .Ifhe got off his radio stations long enough, he’s itching to be next New York City mayor. Getting in shape, he’s lost 60 pounds.
So — if he doesn’t exactly
run for office — he could now very definitely walk fast for it. Due to a greatly reduced behind size, his new pants come from JoS. A. Bank.
Please try to pay attention
BOLTON’s bullbleep book burbled Trump thought Finland’s under Russian control. I am told Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin reportedly snarled: “We thought the same thing about the United States.” Finland, known for nothing except for being Santa Claus’ home, might shut up. As should this not-so prime minister, who need realize even Santa looks to get the hell out of that country once a year.
Yanks for new memories
YANKEE Stadium can seat — give or take a few behinds — 54,251. Today, finally, it’ll open for six — could be, maybe, eight — executive-level rear ends. In their offices. To prep. No peanuts, no Cracker Jack. But Allahu Akbar — God is great. Come July, it’s root-root-root for the home team. In Tahiti, the national pastime is making love. Us dumb-dumbs — we picked baseball. Only in New York, kids, only in New York.