There's a lot of good discussion and a lot of smart people in this thread. I'm glad to "know" you.
It's hard to wrap our brains around it, but if we think of the way things were in the US a month ago as "normal," and the time this is over and handled (which to be honest is impossible to guess), we have to get used to never getting back to that normal. Shows and businesses may not reopen as we knew them. It's terribly, awfully sad and scary. But it's our reality.
But these restrictions are what is needed to save the lives of as many people as possible. And remember the words of Prior Walter in "Angels in America" when the tough going gets tougher:
This disease will be the end of many of us, but not nearly all. And the dead will be commemorated, and we'll struggle on with the living, and we are not going away. We won't die secret deaths anymore. The world only spins forward. We will be citizens. The time has come.
Per the press conference and news alerts just now... Advising people not to gather in groups of more than TEN?? And saying that American life won’t return to normal until August?
Yeah, as far as theatre goes I’m gonna say that, assuming we’re all still here, we should just cross our fingers for -some- entries in the 2020-2021 season at this point. (This season will be the biggest write-off in the history of Broadway.) And as far as those saying this isn’t time to politicize this I’d respectfully say that this is the EXACT time to politicize this...it could have been so easily mitigated, though obviously not avoided entirely, with different leadership that hadn’t disbanded the US pandemic team 2 years ago, and it’s affecting people’s lives and livelihoods. So (to keep this on-topic), I’m gonna say Robert DeNiro had the right idea at the Tonys a few years back: F*** TRUMP. (And oh how I wish there were going to be Tonys this year so they could invite him back to scream it again. It’s a war cry that has certainly aged well and I think would only receive a less controversial, more generally enthusiastic, and even more positive reaction this time.)
While August does not seem improbable on many levels, take it with a grain of salt as Trump was clearly ad-libbing when he noted the July-August timeframe. We'll know far more two weeks from now when we see if these suppression efforts did indeed flatten the curve.
jdrye222 said: "I predict the economic situation, where so many are suddenly left completely jobless and the salaried are not really caring much about them, will be MUCH worse than any virus would have been. And once again it is the people with the least means who have to suffer. If they'd spent the money they just infused into the stock market on instead making tests and sending them to every single person to take on the same day, it would massively cut down on the time ... There is NO way people without savings and without a job will ever go much longer than the initial limit without there being a massive revolt. At some point one has to ask what we are doing it for if we are essentially under house arrest."
I edited your post slightly, but you answered your last question yourself: We are doing it because we are being ordered to by our government, and we are doing it to save lives (possibly, very possibly, including our own). Dismissing what’s gone on abroad essentially as “yes, yes, I’ve heard about Italy, but the US is different and so we won’t put up with it here and shouldn’t have to” is ludicrous... we’re no better than Italy (certainly not with our president), and to act like we should disregard them as if there are no lessons to be learned there is at best, perversely oblivious, and at worst, offensively selfish.
As to what’s in the first paragraph above, my answer is: while obviously not all of this is Trump’s fault (let alone Cuomo and de Blasio, etc.) - the answer there is a) This is how we prove what New Yorkers and Americans are made of, and b) This is why we have elections.
No doubt tensions among some will rise, but I'm not sure what any sort of public revolt will do. Individuals can break suggested (or in the case of some select areas) mandated social distancing quarantines, but no amount of protest gets them a job because government that either no longer exists because a business couldn't weather this or because government can quite effectively keep them shut down if so mandated. Is Equinox gonna "fight the man" and rebelliously reopen so people can go do their usual workout?
Read a book about the bubonic plague in Europe recently- and this crisis, in many ways, reminds me of it. Theater is the least of our worries- though I also have tickets to a few shows and had high hopes to see them. This is an unprecedented crisis- and it will probably devastate the entire world economy for a while. No getting around it. There might be bread lines and soup kitchens and places to feed the hungry if this lasts long and people do not have money for food due to loss of jobs. But,there is no way around it....we just have to deal with it.
Dismissing what’s gone on abroad essentially as “yes, yes, I’ve heard about Italy, but the US is different and so we won’t put up with it here and shouldn’t have to” is ludicrous... we’re no better than Italy (certainly not with our president), and to act like we should disregard them as if there are no lessons to be learned there is at best, perversely oblivious, and at worst, offensively selfish.
I agree, 100%. That poster is THE reason why NYC is closed and DeBlasio will insist on people going out for meds and food only. The ignorance and the ME mentality is wild. We live in a society where other people are a consideration, start acting like it.
LightsOut90 said: "watch people revolt and get a bullet from the cops....
people really dont get how this country works do they...."
They don't....maybe now they will get a clue.
Broadway, will be back. It will be a while. Many shows won't recover. There will be a limited number of shows that will stimulate things again. Slowly and carefully, it will come back.
I'm wondering if we'll get an announcement in the next few days of a closure extension. I think most people agree that a 4/13 reopening isn't happening, so they should probably make it official and stop selling tickets.
The Kennedy Center* announced it will be closed until May 10th, which definitely seems the more likely date when broadway will be ready to reopen.
In our millions, in our billions, we are most powerful when we stand together. TW4C unwaveringly joins the worldwide masses, for we know our liberation is inseparably bound.
Signed,
Theater Workers for a Ceasefire
https://theaterworkersforaceasefire.com/statement
Call_me_jorge said: "The Kennedy Center*announced it will be closed until May 10th, which definitely seems the more likely date when broadway will be ready to reopen."