New York To Drop Indoor Mask Mandate This Week- Page 6

[JayElle]

Posted: 2/12/22 at 11:57pm

I was at MM Feb 5 matinee. Was amazed a guy center orch, 2nd row on aisle was videotaping first 2 minutes before anyone told him to stop.  Right under nose of Hugh and company.

Looks like everyone is just plain "over it."  All of it.

I know I am.

[stoptheworld38]

Posted: 2/13/22 at 12:17am

I saw the Hamilton tour on New Year's Eve in Buffalo and was reprimanded when I had my mask down for about 5 seconds for a (completely failed) photo. And yet concessions were still served and people had their masks down for way longer than that at a given time to eat/drink so make it make sense. They seemed much more strict there than when I saw Hadestown on Broadway in September.

If masks are required to see a show, I'll wear one. If they're not, I won't, but I have no problem if other people do. And of course what we want is to go back to pre-Covid normal. New York put the mandate back in place because cases were going up, and now that they're dropping it, that presumably means that cases are going down, which is good sign. Obviously things could go in any direction in the next few months, so let's not count chickens before they hatch, but I'm fairly optimistic the mandate won't be extended past the end of April.

 

[JayElle]

Posted: 2/13/22 at 6:48am

Shows closed from poor sales/lost income/cast illness. What's going into St James when Utopia is done? Do they have a show lined up? Or will it be another empty building just waiting?

Globally, everyone is done with vax and other strict measures.. Truckers blocking roads, unvaxed protesting losing jobs, airline passenger brawls, governors lifting restrictions, etc.  

If opening the theater bars and lax mask enforcement expedites the return to normal, then great.   Can't see this dragging into summer.  No one wants sick cast members, but there's no cast in a show if patrons don't buy.

 

[adotburr]

Posted: 2/13/22 at 8:08am

Many states are defying the CDC anyway with lifting the mask mandates. People are very sick of covid anything. 

Updated On: 2/13/22 at 08:08 AM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 2/13/22 at 9:33am

Regardless of what is the common practice, I will continue to wear a mask on Broadway theaters, where sitting side-by-side with strangers is the common practice. In church or in movie theaters, where we can spread out if space permits, I'll play it by ear.

[inception]

Posted: 2/13/22 at 2:54pm

Dollypop said: "Regardless of what is the common practice, I will continue to wear a mask on Broadway theaters, where sitting side-by-side with strangers is the common practice. In church or in movie theaters, where we can spread out if space permits, I'll play it by ear."

Yup I feel the same.  Wearing a mask doesn't hurt anyone, and the people making it into a big deal are frankly psychopaths.

[DearTheodosia]

Posted: 2/13/22 at 4:37pm

JayElle said: 

Once the show started, no "mask monitors" wandering up/down aisles tonight asking folks to mask up like they do in other shows. And I noticed among patrons when those masks slipped below the nose/mouth, they stayed there. 

 Hopefully David Byrne and his company will finish theirs without them, even if it's sagging masks conveniently ignored. Hope other theaters follow. That will hasten the return to normal.

My guess is that ushers are ignoring "sagging masks" or just ignoring noncompliance in general because they are afraid of angry audience members who think that the New York lift on mask mandate applies to theatre, too. Just look at all of the incidents with irate passengers on airplanes now. People can really act like jerks.

If the ushers feel like they can't enforce proper mask wearing right now, it's NOT a positive that means we are on our way to normal. It just means that people are not respectful of the guidelines that are currently in place, guidelines that influenced some of us to actually buy tickets because we felt safe. Those guidelines are also in place to protect the performers, and we should all want to do whatever we can to keep them well so we won't have a repeat of all the cancellations that happened just a month ago.

Honestly, I have been on this chat board as a pleasant place to celebrate a love for Broadway and get away from all the ugliness in the world, and yet the same divisive stuff is on here, too!  It makes me sad to see a lot of comments about people wearing masks as "virtue signaling." If the virtues that I am signaling are that I care for others, am respectful of rules, and want Broadway to be able to operate without closures, then I'm all for "virtue signaling."
 

 

Updated On: 2/13/22 at 04:37 PM

[bear88]

Posted: 2/14/22 at 12:18am

I understand the political and commercial pressures driving the push to get rid of mask and even vaccine rules. Politicians have got to do what they’ve got to do. It will make me much less likely to plan a New York City trip if I believe basic, sensible COVID-19 precautions are being abandoned or just ignored. But that’s just me. If Broadway producers think they will gain more without restrictions, that’s what they will do.

As it stands, I am concerned about how things will go even in the San Francisco Bay Area, which has been one of the more cautious areas in the country. I have tickets for one show in a couple of weeks and hope to see a play and a nightclub performance. We’ll see what happens.

In the end, it’s just entertainment. I am not trying to prove my virtue to anyone by wearing a mask or wanting others to wear them in small, airless, indoor spaces shared by unmasked performers. I’m trying to take reasonable precautions to keep myself and others safe in the middle of a pandemic. 

If the powers-that-be disagree, I’ll just pause my theatergoing unless things get a lot better than they are now. I will survive if that happens. It will just be a bummer for me.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/14/22 at 12:22am

One thing I’ve started to notice this week and especially this weekend, is that bars are no longer checking vax to get inside. Just walking around Hell’s Kitchen tonight i didn’t see one person checking to get inside. 

[bear88]

Posted: 2/14/22 at 12:27am

Wow. I guess I’m not surprised. It sounds like the New York City vaccine requirements are collapsing even more quickly than I expected. I sure hope the politicians are right this time and we get lucky.