I’m amazed at some of the opinions on this thread. It’s already been established (by Charlotte St Martin of the Broadway League) that she has been informed that live theater will be the last sector of the economy to reopen. The reasons? (which should be self-evident) A) Theatre (or at least Broadway) is completely indoors (there being much less concern about large gatherings in open-air areas; think about it, if cruise ships are considered Petri dishes at sea compared with trains and planes, then it goes without saying that, relatively speaking, a Broadway house is a Petri dish of performance when compared with a roofless stadium) B) Theatre, more than sports, depends on both tourists - likely in short supply until we get closer to a vaccine - and more importantly, older audiences (the exact group most at risk for this virus).
We can all feel free to speculate away about fanciful scenarios where everyone’s rushing to get theatre back up and running as soon as possible, before baseball and football, and to that end, everyone’s seated 6 feet and 2 rows apart, the bars and concessions are closed, and audiences are instructed not to laugh, cheer, or open their mouths in any way, while sports stadiums are sitting empty except in Arizona and teams are playing strictly for a television audience.
But I really believe anyone who thinks that sports won’t be up and running in some form long before theatre and other indoor arts performances resume is fooling themselves and not looking at the situation, and the comparison, logically. To say that sporting events will clearly come back after Broadway does, just because they involve more people and hot dogs, seems almost perversely naive.
Updated On: 4/17/20 at 07:59 AM