Broadway Will Remain Closed Until June 7

Broadway Will Remain Closed Until June 7By Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Broadway curtains will not rise again on Easter.

Due to Covid-19, theaters will remain closed through June 7, nearly two months after the date the original shutdown was set to lift on April 12, the Broadway League announced Wednesday.

The closure extension, the theater trade association noted, is in accordance with Centers for Disease Control guidelines and directions from Gov. Andrew Cuomo. (Cuomo himself expressed skepticism about the June 7 reopening date at his daily coronavirus update.)

“Broadway will always be at the very heart of the Big Apple, and we join with artists, theater professionals, and fans looking forward to the time when we can once again experience live theater again,” said Broadway League president Charlotte St. Martin in a statement.

June 7 is the date the Tony Awards were set to broadcast. The fate of the awards show, which was postponed on March 25, remains up in the air. The future of Broadway shows that were running before the shutdown, as well as productions set to open in the spring, is also uncertain.

The extended blackout was not a surprise plot twist to theater insiders.

“I expected it,” said Sue Frost, producer of Come From Away on Broadway, as well the touring productions in the U.S., London, Toronto, and Australia. All are closed.

“We are an industry where people come to gather, and until it’s safe we can’t come together,” added Frost, who said that she sent an email to everyone in all five companies about the extended closure to help boost morale.

Since the shutdown went into effect, resilient theater performers have taken to virtual performances.

The original Broadway cast of Hamilton, led by creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, virtually gathered for a feel-good reunion on John Krasinki’s weekly web series “Some Good News” to surprise a Florida girl who couldn’t go to the hit show on Broadway because of coronavirus.

Rosie O’Donnell revived her self-named talk show on March 22 in an online version to support the Actors Fund, an organization that supports not just actors, but everyone in the performing arts and entertainment. Patti LuPone, whose role in the new Broadway revival of Company was shuttered by coronavirus, was among the starry array of guests. The Evita and Gypsy Tony winner later gave additional tours of the basement of her home via Twitter.

“Stars in the House,” co-hosted by Sirius XM Broadway Seth Rudetsky and husband James Wesley since March 18, is another way stage, TV and film luminaries have made virtual appearances amid Covid-19.

Airing at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. daily, the show has raised $165,700 for the Actors Fund.

“I believed in the power of Broadway long before I ever stepped foot in New York City to meet it,” said Kelli O’Hara, a Tony winner for The King and I and the first guest on “Stars in the House.” “It wasn’t something tangible to me. It was a spirit that beckoned me with its history, its healing power and its resolve. That is how I feel right now. I am patient because I know the payoff.”

“Broadway will come back to me, to all of us, with more resilience and more value to the community than ever before, and just as I did then, I will find its light and long to be part of its story,” added O’Hara, whose spring concert schedule, including shows in Florida and Nebraska, was shut down by the pandemic. “It will be a new and different chapter, for sure, but maybe the best one yet.”

Frost, the producer, is one of the many fans of the new online theater entertainment.

“While you can’t replace being in a theater together,” she said, “this is what we’ve got now, and people are making the most of it.”

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