Posted: 11/11/21 at 8:57pm
It would be nice to have at least one thread every now and then where more comments reflect trying to respond with some understanding, humility, and even grace instead of going on the attack.
Posted: 11/11/21 at 9:32pm
Wow. Lots of people agreeing and disagreeing with others in the same thread lol.
1. No one who is fearful deserves to be blamed for the economic troubles that shows may or may not face.
2. There is no epidemiological, medical, or moral equivalence between a breakthough infection and an infected spread by an unvaccinated person.
3. The unvaccinated are murderers. As if we have not had enough Covid deaths already, we are about to see a lot more as the 4th wave that has already commenced in parts of Europe is going to spread like a wildfire in the immoral states of America. I don't expect it to have all that much effect in our 99% vaccinated precincts but it is certainly going to hurt tourism.So if you are going to blame some group, you can start drawing your target now.
Posted: 11/11/21 at 9:36pm
There are a variety of reasons why Broadway is struggling right now. One is certainly that people are reluctant to sit in a theater again even masked and even if they’re vaccinated. It’s gonna take time.
But that’s just one variable. As has been mentioned, you’ve also got people that refuse to get vaccinated. They can’t attend and right now, they shouldn’t be allowed to.
And also as has been mentioned, for a lot of people, their finances are not the same as they were pre-pandemic.
A large chunk of Broadway depends on tourists (some of them with children, some who weren’t vaccine-eligible until recently) and for them this is much more complicated. It’s not just about the comparatively low risk of sitting in a theater filled with other masked, vaccinated people, but all the adjacent risks related to travel if they can even afford travel right now.
So it’s a more nuanced conversation than what some might think. For me, my finances are much different (and not in a good way) than they were 20 months ago. I also visit my mom in a nursing home (which I’m grateful for; for 13 months I could only visit through a window) and even though she and almost everyone there is vaxed, I still mask up pretty much everywhere I go so I lower my risk of introducing Covid to the residents.
I was lucky enough to make an unexpected quick NYC trip last month (thank you, Delta Skymiles & Hilton points), but it’ll probably be my last for a long while until I recover financially.
Still, things are improving for many of us & as they are, we’ll be less worried about the risk to ourselves, but also the risk we pose to others. Broadway will gradually return. Not as fast as we’d like, but it will.
Since I got my booster shot last month, I’ve eaten out several times, I saw two touring shows, and flew to NYC and saw two Broadway shows. I even marched with Madonna at 2:00 a.m. in Harlem. I wouldn’t have thought that imaginable not that long ago. That’s probably going to be a common trajectory (minus that last sentence..lol) for a lot of Broadway patrons & tourists. The speed of that trajectory for each person/family will be depend on all the variables above.
Of course, all it takes is another more contagious/dangerous variant that responds less well to the vaccine to change all that. I had started to venture out more once I was fully vaxed in April but then backtracked in July due to Delta and my state’s sub-average vaccination rates.
Not sure it’s helpful to blame others (other than perhaps the stubbornly unvaccinated) for the current status of Broadway (and off-Broadway).
But back to Chicken & Biscuits. I’m grateful I got to see it. I’m glad it made it to Broadway. But it was always going to have a hard time on Broadway, pandemic or no pandemic. It’s not a musical and it’s not a play about a boy wizard and it doesn’t star Jeff Daniels.
Posted: 11/12/21 at 9:55pm
BroadwayRox3588 said: "I'm pissed at so many people right now. At unvaccinated people, for keeping this thing going for way longer than it needs to. At vaccinated people who are irrationally afraid to go to the theatre. At the media, for causing the previous thing.
All are contributing to not only this, but the entire struggle befalling Broadway right now."
Wow? You are pissed at me because of my irrational fear? I am immuno-compromised and in the highest risk age group . I live with someone in the same circumstance. It isn't an irrational fear my friend. It is a real fear. It is RATIONAL FEAR. Breakthrough cases occur every day. Read the headline concerning Jane Krakowski? I am sorry you are pissed at me. I guess I have to live with it. But what I will live with is my careful lifestyle and my fully rational fear that I have to protect myself and my loved ones to the highest level. And attending live theater events is not happening for me yet. Even masked and vaccinated it is not happening for me now. And I doubt I am alone. So you will have to remain pissed at me and at us. Sorry about that.
Posted: 11/12/21 at 11:11pm
I think sometimes we have to remind ourselves that no one signed up for a pandemic. No one asked for this or wanted this.
Being mad at those who have taken covid seriously, gotten vaccinated, and are still entering life again cautiously is not really fair or logical.
Be angry at covid. Be angry at those not taking this seriously, defying rules, not getting vaccinated.
Updated On: 11/13/21 at 11:11 PM
Posted: 11/12/21 at 11:56pm
BroadwayRox3588 said: "And I'm sorry, but if this irrational fear (yes, I said it again) ends up killing the theatre industry, what are we supposed to do, just coddle people and say "It's okay, Rocky, you go when you feel like it?" Are we just supposed to let Broadway go out with a whimper like that? Because if so, that's just sad. I'm gonna fight like hell for this industry; and if that means I have to throw some tough love at people, then so be it."
A show closing early is not a sign of the end of Broadway or theatre. No one has to explain their fears. You are not throwing tough love; you are throwing a temper tantrum. There is a difference.
