Shut down until June 7 — Page 4

Broadway Flash said: "The essential workers have always beenworking. This conversation was about when the city opens up again. Also, why is the assumption that there won't be people coming back to the theatre anymore? There wasrecord attendance happening on Broadway before the virus, people can't just assume that nobody is going to go to the theatre. People are giddy to go out and do stuff

Here's some reading on our economic state and unemployment - hope it helps you understand things

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-weekly-jobless-claims-report-preview-economist-forecasts-unemployment-coronavirus-2020-4

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/4/1/21201700/coronavirus-covid-19-unemployment-rate

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Updated On: 4/8/20 at 09:16 PM

Robbie2 wrote in part: Personally, I don't think BWAY will open till after Labor Day!"

Here are 2 paragraphs from the 4/8/20 Wall St Journal:

“League President Charlotte St. Martin said it is still difficult to determine a true opening date for Broadway. It will depend not only on when New York state lifts restrictions on gatherings in venues, but also on when producers are able to get their casts fully rehearsed and ready, she said.

On top of that, the industry is mindful that it might take time before theatergoers are comfortable coming together, even if state officials give the green light, Ms. Martin said.

“We won’t bring the shows back until we feel there’s enough of an audience to be there,” she said. Professionals in the industry echoed Ms. Martin’s concerns, with some saying a September opening seemed a more realistic possibility.”

And The Washington Post which discusses the $ aspects:

“How many shows can Broadway sustain when Broadway comes back?” asked one longtime insider who did not want to be identified, for fear of industry reprisals. “Maybe it’s not 31 shows. Maybe it’s 20.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/broadway-extends-its-shutdown-for-nearly-two-more-months-as-anxieties-rise-about-its-future/2020/04/08/2c9d606c-79ae-11ea-b6ff-597f170df8f8_story.html

Updated On: 4/8/20 at 10:50 PM

So...bway is not reopening April 12. Never thought it was gonna open then. June 7....eek, that's probably not gonna happen either! My guess is Fourth of July weekend (how patriotic!!) or Labor Day. My guess is it'll reopen when the kids go back to school. However, they're gonna have to severely discount tickets because I just don't see people rushing back to the theatre.

wolfwriter said: "What do you all think happens to off-Broadway and off-off Broadway?

If Broadway will have such difficulty, will other theater have it as hard or maybe a bit easier, since they don’t rely on tourists as much?

As a playwright, it doesn’t really make me want to get up and write each day."

Something like this affects creativity greatly, and from one writer to another, I understand how hard it is to write at a time like this.

Something that's been keeping me going is the excitement of how radically different theatre audiences will be after this. The writers that flourish in post-COVID theatre will be the ones that didn't stop writing, and were ready with material that's suited to the new world.

If the virus sticks around several changes will need to occur within a typical evening of theatre. You will not be able to have crowds gather in front. Many of the restrooms and changing areas will need to be redone. Seats in the auditorium will need to be reconfigured. Staging and choreography will have to be reimagined so performers are apart from one another. Lighting booths and make up rooms will have to be redone.....the list goes on....producers will not be game if their is no profit..

Sutton and Robbie, you do not have a crystal ball. You say theatre will not be back in business right away. You have no idea.

Broadway Flash said: Good, don’t come than, bye !"

*then

SmoothLover said: "If the virus sticks around several changes will need to occur within a typical evening of theatre. You will not be able to have crowds gather in front. Many of the restrooms and changing areas will need to be redone. Seats in the auditorium will need to be reconfigured. Staging and choreography will have to be reimagined so performers are apart from one another. Lighting booths and make up rooms will have to be redone.....the list goes on....producers will not be game if their is no profit.."

Well, here's a silver lining for us: maybe when Broadway comes back, the bathroom lines will be manageable.

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Broadway Flash said: "Sutton and Robbie, you do not have a crystal ball. You say theatre will not be back in business right away. You have no idea."

Sadly that's not how any financial collapse works. No we don't have crystal balls. What we DO have is information at our fingertips and points of historical reference to determine the most likely outcomes, 2008 being the recent one and many of us here remember that all too well. If Broadway were going to open this coming Monday/Tuesday, then yeah it could possibly be a 'finger snap' and all will be well. But it's not. Shutting down for three months when most shows don't have the cash reserves to just come right back at the end of this, will kill some, if not most, shows. Producers only have so much insurance they can cash in on, and with the extreme likelihood that June 7th isn't happening, any cash built up will dwindle and FAST. Running shows even in the best of times is costly as heck. And unless individual people have a decent amount of money to spend when this mess is considered over, they're not going to see live events, which means that Sutton and Robbie are correct. No, it won't be back in business right away. This WILL take time to recover from. For any business to flourish, it means having, well....business. If "we the people' don't have money, there is no business. That's how it works.

I'm surprised so many are placing everything on a vaccine, like it's obviously going to happen. Things will start to resume to a form of normality when the peak has passed and numbers start to drop. Broadway and any other large gatherings will likely be the last to return. The lockdowns have been more about medical facility capabilities and slowing the spread rather than the virus vanishing completely. It will become a case of living with it as best we can. Hopefully a vaccine can be found, but there is no guarantee that will happen. Science can't always cure everything sadly, and at the moment scientists cant even agree on the virus which doesnt help matters.

A global pandemic has been warned about for many years, it's always been a case of not if but when. Covid 19, as bad as it is, is not as bad as it could be (compared to previous historical ones) but should certainly act as a warning to us all on our complacency and how we live our lives.

The economy is already going back up btw. I think the worst has passed. The stock market is going up, and employment is at least paying people’s bills

Princeton-You make many great points, but as a reminder, vaccines aren't found, they're made. It's why we can give a timeline for when we might see one. You can't give a a timeline for something you're trying to find, but something you're trying to create. And there's no "cure" anyway, because as we learned in grade school science, viruses aren't curable due to their mutating nature. Vaccines aren't "cures", they're just the deadened virus to help your body make an imprint of it as to fight it off in the future. You're correct that there isn't a cure for everything, even vaccines can't catch every strain of whatever virus is at hand. That just a general statement, but scientists aren't all in agreement about this virus because they're still studying this nasty bugger and I'm sure they're working around the clock. We all know anything that requires this level of scientific study requires...time. Test after test, peer reviews, trials, etc. Give it time and they, and therefore we, will will know much more about it come end of this year. A friend also works in this very area of drug administration ( I don't know how else to describe it...), and he's mostly confident that one will come...eventually. What he's not confident about is what needs to bridge that gap between now and then.

Updated On: 4/9/20 at 11:04 AM

Broadway Flash said: "You don’t know if those things will happen Kad. Not that you’re very concerned about broadway anyway. You said it yourself."

It’s already happened. How do you think the economy is “going back up” if whole sectors of industry aren’t open and people have no reliable income? What do you think the economy is? Do you not think that we can look to the substantial amount of historical precedent in economic recessions, depressions, and downturns? To precedent in how people act following disasters and world events, including disease?

No, I am not as concerned with Broadway as I am with, yknow, the rest of American theatre, which is in a more precarious position.

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Updated On: 4/9/20 at 11:24 AM