Broadway League To Announce Further Broadway Closure til May 30th — Page 3

Were House Managers for most Broadway theatres furloughed? If not, do they and the staff beneath them have to be hired back? If furloughed have the furloughs ended like what has been happening with many major businesses?

Robbie2 said: "a lot of industry people collecting unemployment but for how long? Are the benefits extended? How does it work? Not in the industry and thankfully working remotely until next year is the plan for our company in NYC."

Yes, benefits were extended early on during this, and assuming someone started collecting unemployment when Broadway shut down, they'd be covered through around April/May which unfortunately means that we won't be covered until Broadway is back without another extension of some kind. Better than nothing at the moment though.

PrelfordJase said: "Let's be clear to separate the science part of this from the economics part.

There's no reason why Broadway couldn't safely reopen if the infection levels are under control and audiences comply with public health protocols like masking. A vaccine would help with this, but it's not inherently necessary --- weknow this from the examples we see in Europe and Asia where commercial theater is operating sans vaccine. (And given the hurdles facing the successful development and widespread deployment of a vaccine, it is poor business planning for Broadway theater owners, producers, etc. to put all their eggs in that basket.)

In that sense, Broadway shouldn't have to wait until "covid is in the rear view mirror," at least from a public health perspective. Yes, that won't happen right away, and it will take a stronger, more coherent government response to the virus than we've seen so far. But it's not impossible, and we in the industry shouldn't settle for less.

Now from an economics perspective, HogansHero is right that Broadway will need a "critical mass of audiences" that are comfortable with returning to theaters before shows can viably resume. Marketing will be a part of that, but if NYC/NY/USA can get the former right --- the science part --- that will definitely help with the latter in a big way.

Hopefully electing a new administration will begin to take us in that direction. The industry just needs some life support in the meantime, and why the Broadway League (among others) is not more out in front campaigning harder for government aid is a mystery to me."

Several of your premises are wrong but we are not wholly in disagreement.

Control and compliance are big IF's in your point. We have 2/3 of the country labelled persona non grata in New York. It is going to take a LOT of leadership change to fix that and we are 4 months away from even starting that process. I have been saying all along that the issue is not a vaccine per se but effective treatments. We are not that close that that either and it is unclear how long it might take for that critical mass to embrace that. Using Europe as an example is not very nourishing to your point: they are spiking and heading quickly back to heavier regulation. Where are these indoor theatres operating without density controls in Europe? Yes there are examples in Asia but (as I have also been saying here for months) Asia (or parts of it that is) is a horse of a different color, for a ton of reasons.

I am not seeing that much difference in your expectations and mine; you don't think this is a snap-your-finger type of solution. I don't however think you can separate the science and the economics and I think yu also expect more of the industry than it can deliver: it is a government issue, not an industry one. You can't market to people who will have to quarantine for 2 weeks when they get here. What the industry can and should be doing is fighting for public support. And when I say industry I don't really see the League at the forefront: its membership is, by and large, doing just fine. (And sad to say, but they are not that worried about the people who worked for them.) So when I read your projections, what I see is an industry that is going to start to come back next fall, and hopefully will be back to its new normalcy by the spring of '22.

I will leave you with the one word I have been preaching here since March or so: patience.

The real damage to the industry will be a loss of the rank and file performers, stage managers, etc. etc. who simply cannot go 15+ months without jobs and living on unemployment that at best will only cover some expenses. If anyone in the industry has been considering bailing out, I would imagine this will give them the push to either leave the area or leave the industry altogether.

The top producers and theater owners and the marquee-name actors are fine and will remain fine and will be back whenever Broadway reopens. They are extremely wealthy and have other income sources- they can wait it out. Everybody else, though? Not so much.

ACL2006 said: "Every Broadway show that returns would have to go back into rehearsals before re-opening. Similar to when tours go off on hiatus for several months and start back up with new cast members. Hoping a plan is in place for Broadway to gradually reopen next summer."

Sure shows will have to go back into rehearsal.

Maybe shows will have a kind of cut price previews to warm the actors up and get them back up to speed and incentive people to come back to theatre.

HogansHero said: "Several of your premises are wrong but we are not wholly in disagreement.

Control and compliance are big IF's in your point. We have 2/3 of the country labelled persona non gratain New York. It is going to take a LOT of leadership change to fix that and we are 4 months away from even starting that process. I have been saying all along that the issue is not a vaccine per se but effective treatments. We are not that close that that either and it is unclear how long it might take for that critical mass to embrace that. Using Europe as an example is not very nourishing to your point: they are spiking and heading quickly back to heavier regulation. Where are these indoor theatres operating without density controls in Europe? Yes there are examples in Asia but (as I have also been saying here for months) Asia (or parts of it that is) is a horse of a different color,for a ton of reasons.

I am not seeing that much difference in your expectations and mine; you don't think this is a snap-your-finger type of solution. I don't however think you can separate the science and the economics and I think yu also expect more of the industry than it can deliver: it is a government issue, not an industry one. You can't market to people who will have to quarantine for 2 weeks when they get here. What the industry can and should be doing is fighting for public support. And when I say industry I don't really see the League at the forefront: its membership is, by and large, doing just fine. (And sad to say, but they are not that worried about the people who worked for them.) So when I read your projections, what I see is an industry that is going to start to come back next fall, and hopefully will be back to its new normalcy by the spring of '22.

I will leave you with the one word I have been preaching here since March or so: patience."

Nah, my premises are fine --- you've just misread or misconstrued them.

Of course control and compliance are big ifs. My point was that vaccine-less theater should be and indeed is possible, not that we're almost or already there. To the extent you may disagree about the possibility of it, I think you're really talking about the practicality of it. While you might argue that's not a useful distinction, I draw it because if we lose sight of the former, we won't be able to work on addressing the latter.

As for who the "we" is, I do see this as a public policy matter. I'm not sure where you are getting the idea that I am expecting too much of the industry, unless you think I'm wrong that the industry should be prepared to think outside the vaccine box and advocate for itself to policymakers. And I mentioned the League because it's the one that's been making these announcements about closures. That's given it --- and Charlotte St. Martin, who is constantly quoted in news articles --- a particularly prominent public profile that it has failed to use effectively during this crisis to speak up for the industry, which will eventually come back to bite the League's membership.

Please note also that Europe is more than just Spain and France. Germany, for example, had some theaters start to reopen at limited capacity in June, at which point its infection rate continued to dwindle or stay flat for a number of weeks. While its infection rate is now rising, it’s also rising here in New York, where we don’t have theaters open, which suggests these increases aren’t being driven by resumption of live indoor performances.

PrelfordJase said: "You don’t work in the industry, do you? That’s the only reason I can imagine you’d be so dismissive of the livelihoods of thousands as “the epitome of non-essential.”

Yes. I do work in the industry.

"The fact is, the danger is much lower now than it was in the spring and may even be lower still by next spring. But sure, stay at home forever."

No. The danger isn't much lower. Just ask the hot spot communities in Queens and Brooklyn.

PrelfordJase said: "Nah, my premises are fine --- you've just misread or misconstrued them."

I would say it is you who is either misreading or not reading. For one thing, I was very clear that I do not think it necessarily needs to be a vaccine; that's just the headline-grabber; what I said was an effective treatment, which is what I have been saying for months. You are new here. Of course perhaps you were lurking but having a sense of an ongoing discussion seems like a good idea. In any event, as I suspected you do not have an example of theatre without social distancing in Europe. As has been rehearsed here many times, Broadway with social distancing is a no-go. What you are talking about in Europe is not viable.

You misapprehend what the League is doing: as I have also said many times, that's accounting plus a smidge of marketing. The League cannot affect the rules on mass assembly; it's not negotiable. Plus it is a fool's errand: audiences are not coming back on the terms you are advocating and audiences are Broadway's oxygen.

Finally, you are fundamentally misapprehending the numbers in New York. They are flat and even falling once you subtract the hotspot zipcodes that are (in case you are not keeping up) being dealt with ferociously. The positivity rate excluding those zip codes is .9. Germany is unfortunately spiking badly.

I get that you want to push reopening. This virus does not negotiate.

Jarethan said: "I hate to burst your bubble, but this is just another latest postponement. It is inconceivable to me that Broadway will be opening in May. If you work backwards, this means that shows would need to be in rehearsals in (?) March and that a vaccine willhave to have been widely distributed by then.

Do you see any announcements,other than proclamations from the moron in the WH? I don’t, and I am old enough to really be upset by these delays...the longer they go on, the larger the % of my remaining theatre going life is lost.

If I had to bet real money on an open date, I would not. If I had to bet fake money, I’d say a year from now earliest.

...and I won’t even venture a guess as to how long it will be before we have filled houses, other than the occasional monster hit that enough people will take risks to see, I’d that is even the case. The economics of Broadway over the next 5years or so will be scary at best."

I made the point to write twice that the May 30th will probably not happen (at the start and at the end) and that was not at all the point I was trying to make. Perhaps you should read the context of what is being said instead of replying to random posts like they were written in a vacuum. So, I'm sorry to burst your bubble but you're not bursting any bubbles.

Updated On: 10/9/20 at 10:30 PM