Broadway to return in Fall 2021?

Word on the street is that several shows were informed today - Sing Street, obviously, but several others, including a few long-running productions (e.g, Phantom) that they aren’t looking at a reopening until fall 2021.  A long way off to be sure, but one that a majority of parties seem to be confidently targeting as realistic for a change (based on most projected timelines for a vaccine to be approved late this year or beginning of next year, but allowing for the logistics of that vaccine to reach a significant enough segment of the population.).

Makes sense to me. Tragic, no doubt, the idea of having to wait more than a full year from now, but at least It sounds like there’s a plan in place that seems possible, and that won’t feel like Chinese water torture as it almost would inevitably get kicked down the road month by month from the current January date, or that increasingly feels like unrealistic magical thinking between now and then. (Maybe they could even get the long-delayed Tony awards together in time for the 2021 holiday season!).  Has anyone heard similar reports, even unofficial or anecdotally as I have?

Updated On: 8/4/20 at 01:47 AM

My daughter teaches with someone who was on maternity leave from "Wicked" before the shutdown and she has been told they will tentatively go back Oct 2021.

I think it makes sense that shows like Phantom and Wicked are being told that they won't likely reopen until Fall 2021, because even putting safety precautions aside, tourism likely won't start to pick back up again until at least a year from now, so it wouldn't make a ton of financial sense to have those shows running in March.

But some of the smaller shows may very well be able to open in the Spring still.  Still far too much uncertainty of where we'll be standing by then to say.

This is all so ridiculous. 

A1. Pathetic that countries all around the world are working toward practical solutions to reducing and safely (relatively) living with the virus. Pathetic that we can't even conceive that our country could realistically get there without a vaccine. 

B2. ALL of this is speculation. If we believe we're not going to be able to reduce the risks of living with the virus by spring, there's no real reason to believe we'll be able to do so by fall. Fall 2021 is just as arbitrary as Spring 2021, just further away. We could develop treatments and vaccines by the end of the year allowing a relative normal by Spring 2021. These are unprecedented times and a miracle might happen. But. Just as likely no vaccine or no new treatments could be produced anytime soon, making Fall 2021 as much of a fantasy as Spring 2021. 

off broadway makes no money as it is. There is NO WAY without restructuring all the contracts that off bway could open with less seats. 

 

Broadway61004 said: "I agree it wouldn't make sense for Off-Broadway to return with social distancing in place, although I do wonder if once social distancing rules are relaxed, whenever that may be, if it may make more sense for Off-Broadway to reopen first. Because ultimately, whenever things do reopen, the vast majority of audiences are going to be made up of New Yorkers for at least the first year or so until tourism starts to pick up again. So it may be smarter for some off-Broadway shows that regular NY theatregoers enjoy to return first, rather than the big tourist shows ala Wicked, Phantom, etc."

Yes. That’s what I was getting at. Theatre should be aimed more towards New Yorkers than tourists in the beginning cause tourism in New York is dead for a bit

as always, no one knows. But to suggest that the imagination, relative flexibility, market, and alternate funding possibilities of non-profit off-B do not help it solve the reopening riddle in ways unimaginable on Broadway seems kinda wrong. I expect that we will see something manifest as soon as the state determines that the data permits it.

The only place I've heard this type of speculation is on the Places Podcast (hosted by two Book of Mormon tour alumni, and it started as a travel pod) that American actors may start looking overseas for theatre work, in more covid-hardy and safe countries, as some had lucked out in the international Phantom tour that's currently playing in Seoul. I imagine actors from other countries would have priority, but I wonder how that'll pan out.

Some schools have already opened, and I give it a few weeks before they are shut down again. Colossal disaster. 

I honestly wish people would stop with saying/speculating things like this. There is absolutely zero way in which saying now that Broadway won't return til fall 2021 makes sense when that is over a year away. (Personally, I think that even deciding at the end of June to stay closed through 2020 may have been jumping the gun a bit, but I won't get into that). Is it possible that the shutdown could last that long? Sadly yes. But for anyone - those in the theatre industry, scientists, government officials, anyone - to say that now is just crazy and achieves nothing other than people's anxiety/uncertainty (whether that be for financial related reasons or mental health related reasons or both) to just sky rocket through the roof. As uncertain as it is, really the best thing we can do now is to wait and see and not jump to conclusions that are totally unrealistic (for better or for worse) this far in advance.

As other people have mentioned, I could see Broadway doing a staggered reopening and not bringing all shows back at the same time, in which case I'd agree that some shows might not return/open until fall 2021 (or later) especially new/upcoming shows that haven't yet started, or shows that were in previews before the shutdown but hadn't officially opened. But at this point it's not out of the question that some shows could return in winter/spring 2021, and we just won't know until we get closer to the time.

The Theater Leaders in New York have been handling this pathetically. 

Despicable, repugnant, greedy, and useless I will also add.