The resumption of performances on Broadway is not scheduled until January 3, 2021 due to the pandemic.
For Broadway, the season is already over.
AFP
Broadway theaters, one of New York’s major attractions, closed since March due to the pandemic, will remain closed until at least January 2021, the trade association The Broadway League said on Monday. All theaters “now offer refunds or exchanges for tickets purchased for performances scheduled before January 3,” the association said in a statement, without giving a firm reopening date.
Safety as a first priority
“Our members are working closely with unions, experts and great minds within and outside the theater world to (…) identify and implement measures that will allow performances to resume safely for the public and employees, ”said Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League.
“The chemistry through which 1,000 people come together and form an audience that nourishes each artist will be possible when theaters can be safely full again,” said Thomas Schumacher, chairman of the board of the Broadway League.
“The safety of the artists, the production, the orchestras and the audience is our first priority and we will only return to the stage when it is safe. One thing is certain, when we come back, we will be stronger and we will be needed more than ever ”.
Unemployment benefits
The Broadway theaters accounted for some $ 33 million in weekly revenue until they closed on March 12. Professionals can only count on unemployment benefits for weeks. Until then, some still hoped for a reopening in September of these theaters which attract millions of tourists to New York each year.
If the epidemic in the American economic capital has ebbed a lot since the peak recorded in April, the rate of contamination is very high in other American states, with record contamination figures recorded in particular in Florida and Texas in recent days.
“The Broadway business model is such that social distancing is impossible,” Charlotte St. Martin warned in May. “Even with rooms 50% full, a show could not pay its bills.”
Posted: 06/29/2020, 6:04 p.m.-
