NY blinded by the light of Broadway returning to life
As pandemic worries fade, the Great White Way reopens with Springsteen extravaganza
After more than 15 months in the dark, the lights are once again bright on Broadway. Curtains opened on Saturday night with Springsteen on Broadway, a sold-out performance with more than 1,700 attendees.
About 30 musicals, including Hamilton, Wicked and The Lion King, have announced they will follow suit later this year, with most planning to resume in the fall.
New Yorker and avid theatergoer Lauren Lamonsoff told The Jerusalem Post she has been highly anticipating the return of live theater since the coronavirus pandemic shut Broadway down for the longest period in its history beginning on March 12, 2020.
“There’s this emotional catharsis that comes with getting to sit in the theater and watch a live show,” said Lamonsoff, 25, who attended her first musical at four-years-old and has since called herself “Broadway obsessed.”
“Not getting to have that experience this past year, not being moved by something so deeply, has been sad. I’ve missed it so much,” she said.
Lamonsoff, who has seen
almost 70 Broadway shows, credits the theater for providing a connection to her Jewish culture.
“Cabaret is a huge part of my favorite musical theater arsenal. It tells the story of Nazis taking over Germany in World War II. It’s a big show for the Jewish community and I was personally moved to tears as a Jewish
person watching the show. It was super-impactful and helped me get in touch with my Jewish identity by connecting Judaism and theater,” she said.
“The Band’s Visit [based on the 2007 Israeli film of the same name] is another great one that has threads of Judaism,” Lamonsoff continued. “There really is Jewish culture running
through the Broadway community no matter where you look.”
The first show she plans to attend this year is Hadestown, slated to return in the coming months.
She expects the experience to be different from what it was before the pandemic began.
“I’m hoping that one day we get totally back to normal and that I can sit in a theater with my friends without a mask on,” Lamonsoff continued. “But I would so much rather sit for two hours in the theater wearing a mask than not sit in the theater at all.”
CHARLOTTE ST. MARTIN, president of the Broadway League, said ticket demand appears to be coming back rapidly.
She noted that although theaters are allowed to resume capacity at 100%, there are strict health protocols in place.
“We are thrilled that Gov. Cuomo clearly recognizes the impact of Broadway’s return on the city and state’s economy and the complexity of restarting an entire industry that has been dormant for over a year,” St. Martin said.
“Nothing beats Broadway. The theater owners, producers, and other League members will continue to work with the New York State Department of Health and the governor to coordinate the industry’s return and the related health and safety protocols required to do so. We remain cautiously optimistic about Broadway’s ability to resume performances this fall and are happy that fans can start buying tickets again.”
Among the health protocols in place is the requirement that theatergoers present proof of inoculation against COVID-19 (with the exception of guests under 16). On Saturday night, ahead of Springsteen’s reopening, this decision triggered a small protest outside the theater from those opposed to vaccination requirements, holding signs that read, “unmasked, unvaxxed, unafraid” and “Bruce Springsteen is for segregation on Broadway.”
Audience members, which included Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten; Tony Award-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell; and MSNBC journalist Brian Williams were not required to wear masks as they listened to 71-year-old Springsteen play and dance.
Packing the St. James Theater to see “The Boss” reopen Broadway was a mix of lifelong New Yorkers and tourists from as far as California, helping to revitalize the economically struggling Times Square area.
Giancarlo DiMascio, 28, who drove from upstate New York to see the show (his 49th Springsteen concert), told The New York Times the night was “epic.”
“It’s big for New York, it’s big for arts and culture here, and to have this open up is a sense of normalcy,” he was quoted as saying.
Springsteen, whose performance will run through September 4, addressed the civil unrest throughout the United States.
“We are living in troubling times,” he told the crowd of 1,721 filled seats. “Certainly not in my lifetime, when the survival of democracy itself, not just who is going to be running the show for the next four years, but the survival of democracy itself is deeply threatened.”
Rick Miramontez, a spokesperson for Springsteen on Broadway, which previously ran from October 2017 to December 2018 and grossed $113 million with 237 performances, echoed the exhilaration felt throughout the industry. He said other than the safety protocols, not much will be different.
“Except to say that the energy in the house should be like nothing we have ever felt before,” Miramontez told the Post ahead of Springsteen’s reopening night.
“Saturday night is the moment when we can start celebrating the return of Broadway, at long last,” he continued. “[With] a sold out crowd in the audience and one of the greatest artists who ever lived on stage – it’s pure New York.”