Broadway and the Virus

[mamaleh]

As of today it is exactly one year since I saw a play on the legit New York stage. Actually I saw two that Wednesday last March 11: an Off-Broadway comedy, THE PERPLEXED, and a starry revival (Laurie Metcalfe and Rupert Everett) of WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF on Broadway. I had no idea that would be the last date anyone in New York could see a live stage performance in a packed theater. The Broadway League at first thought the shutdown would last two months, tops. But we all know how that shut down became longer and longer.

Happily, I think we now can be cautiously optimistic that theater operations will see a return to at least some degree of normalcy by the fall of this year, The “new normal” will likely include new policies to safeguard public health. But the idea of theaters reopening: that’s a good feeling. Let’s hope it happens.

Ellen

[jo]

Mar 11, 2021 9:11:57 GMT -5 mamaleh said:

Happily, I think we now can be cautiously optimistic that theater operations will see a return to at least some degree of normalcy by the fall of this year, The “new normal” will likely include new policies to safeguard public health. But the idea of theaters reopening: that’s a good feeling. Let’s hope it happens.

Ellen

"Could be! Who knows?
There's something due any day;
I will know right away
Soon as it shows

It may come cannon-balling down thru the sky
Gleam in its eye
Bright as a rose!
Who knows?

It's only just out of reach
Down the block, on a beach
Under a tree...
I got a feeling there's a miracle due
Gonna come true
Coming to me!

Could it be? Yes it could
Something's coming, something good
If I can wait!
Something's coming
I don't know what it is
But it is
Gonna be great!

With a click, with a shock
Phone'll jingle, door'll knock
Open the latch!
Something's coming, don't know when--
But it's soon;
Catch the moon
One-handed catch!

Around the corner
Or whistling down the river
Come on, deliver
To me

Will it be? Yes, it will
Maybe just by holding still
It'll be there!
Come on something, come on in
Don't be shy
Meet a guy
Pull up a chair!

The air is humming
And something great is coming!
Who knows?
It's only just out of reach
Down the block, on a beach
Maybe tonight...."



Maybe in the fall

With apologies to Steve

[jo]

"Could be! Who knows?
There's something due any day;
I will know right away
Soon as it shows

It may come cannon-balling down thru the sky
Gleam in its eye
Bright as a rose!
Who knows?

It's only just out of reach
Down the block, on a beach
Under a tree...
I got a feeling there's a miracle due
Gonna come true
Coming to me!

Could it be? Yes it could
Something's coming, something good
If I can wait!
Something's coming
I don't know what it is
But it is
Gonna be great!

Definitely...
In late fall ( or is that early winter) --

It's The Music Man!


🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵



Jo

[jo]

New Yorkers and even longtime tourists used to complain about the tourist traffic at the world's most famous crossroad - TIMES SQUARE!

Hope this image will be a thing of the past sometime soon

[jo]

Re the following article --

The article itself is confusing - as to whom the appeal is being addressed. Eventually, it turns out that she wants Hollywood producers to mount theatrical productions (including regional theatre) and to cast famous film actors in theatrical roles to entice the public to re-engage in seeing theatre shows.

Hollywood itself is experiencing its own withdrawal pains...and is now just starting to film new projects. The issue that besets Hollywood is how to get back the appeal of cinema or theatrical screenings, which has been overtaken by streaming services during the pandemic. Having a career in Hollywood also implies that a new film project for Hugh Jackman will help revive the appeal of the theatrical box office.

If Hugh is already committed to Broadway -- why ask him to do regional theatre?? For one, being on Broadway will be a big boost to the Great White Way since he is its biggest draw. It wouldn't just be the domestic market but also the international market that can be courted when he appears on Broadway!


Jo

Mar 10, 2021 10:35:45 GMT -5 jo said:

Broadway asking Hollywood to help its return --

from the NYTimes ...

Where Is Hollywood When Broadway Needs It?

A critic writes a plea to the film and TV stars who got their starts in the theater and can do more to aid its rescu


By Laura Collins-Hughes
March 10, 2021, 5:02 a.m. ET



Dear Extremely Famous Friend of the American Theater,

You’ve been on my mind a lot lately. I realize the pandemic has turned life upside down, but you’ve gone so quiet that I’ve started to wonder if you ever truly meant it — if all the times you spoke of your love of the stage, if every time you reminisced in an interview about how profoundly it shaped you, you were just … what? Following a script? Trying to fit in with your cast mates while you briefly returned to the theater, this time as a star?

I’d rather not believe that. It was comforting to think of you, out there in the klieg-light glare of screen celebrity, as someone who loved the footlights with a kind of tenderness, the way we do the things we cherish most. And the theater — the people of the theater, the people who built their livelihoods telling us stories in the dark — could really, really use some public cherishing right now.

So it is weird and sad and lonely not to have heard from you amid the real torment of this industry, almost wholly shut down for a year as film and TV production has geared back up.


Because I know you know what sets live theater apart, and that the very things that draw us to it — all of us gathered close in a room, breathing the same air — are the reasons it will be so slow to reopen. Indoor theater largely won’t start inching back until sometime this fall, even if all goes well with the vaccine rollout.

And I know you know, if you think about it even for an instant, that the many theater people thrown out of work, barely hanging on, will need meaningful help if they’re going to make it through. Whether that’s a Federal Theater Project reboot for the 21st Century or financial support for the duration, it’s going to require public understanding.



Which is why I’m coming to you — you who fell in love with the stage as a kid, who sharpened your skills and forged your connections in that top-flight training program, who did regional shows or scrappy downtown stuff (oh, how we loved you in that) until luck and talent and timing worked their alchemy, turning you into a household name.

Because, in one of the more surprising revelations of the shutdown, it turns out that the American theater has no towering figure even attempting to lead it through this crisis, the way Andrew Lloyd Webber has in Britain. The people you might expect to step up — powerhouse producers, I mean, not stage stars, many of whom have spent the shutdown donating their skills to countless online benefits — seem to have succumbed to a strange, Darwinian torpor.



It’s like watching the horizon for help that never arrives, because the helpers, comfortable enough themselves, have opted out.

In such a scarily perplexing time, there is no one to rally the troops, let alone do what I’m hoping you will: Make the theater’s case to the culture at large.

You, with your incandescent charm, would be brilliant at that. Even though, in some ways, it’s a very tough sell.



This swaggering cowboy nation of ours has always had trouble thinking of employment in arts and culture — which in 2017 contribute $877.8 billion to gross domestic product, more than construction or agriculture — as real work rather than some extravagant of self-indulgence. Toward theater in particular there’s an entrenched macho bias, bound up in misogyny and homophobia, that makes it hard for the industry to be taken seriously as the economic force it is: Broadway production alone grossed $1.83 billion in the 2018-19 season.

It doesn’t help, of course, that the theater is also perceived as a playground of the rich. Oddly, that’s held against its workers in a way that it isn’t for those who make their living by, say, driving a limousine or handling check-ins at a plush hotel.

As if the wardrobe supervisor were pulling in the same pay as the expense-account executives in the premium seats. As if all the freelancers who work gig to gig — actors, lighting techs, ushers — had some cushy security that freed them from the need for employment. As if many of them weren’t close to the breaking point after so many months of unasked-for idleness, endured with a frayed safety net.



But you know firsthand the smoke and mirrors of it all. You know those cramped backstage spaces, the antithesis of luxury, and the unfamous, everyday people who toil there. You know the restaurants down the street, the bars around the corner, and how they fill up pre- and post-show. You know that it’s a vital ecosystem.

And you know that none of it is happening now — not on Broadway or Off, and not at almost any of the thousands of theaters across this vast country.



Admittedly, I’m being a little coy, not calling you by name. That’s because, in a nation so adept at producing globally famous screen stars, there are quite a few of you. But if you’re wondering whether this applies to you, you can take that as a clue that it probably does.

In any case, I can guess what you’re thinking: It’s too late in the game to step up now, and besides, the situation isn’t as dire as it was, what with the vaccines, the new president and the narrowly flipped Senate. None of that has shortened the shutdown’s projected duration, though. Those socially distanced productions and outdoor pop-ups you’ve read about are more anomaly than comeback.

And when the theater does begin its return in earnest, big, expensive productions employing loads of cast and crew will not be the trend. There will be no poof-it’s-over restoration for this hobbled industry and the workers whose jobs vaporized because it wasn’t safe to breathe.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the median hourly wage for actors in 2019 was $20.43, which full-time (and we both know that full-time acting work is rare) would add up to about $42,000. Just imagine going into the pandemic with that as your baseline — and, 12 months on, still having to dangle over a cliff until autumn. At best, you’d be clinging by your fingernails.



True, the $15 billion in federal relief for arts venues and cultural institutions will help some theaters and producers to survive. And yes, the Biden White House is much friendlier toward the arts, and more responsive to the plight of American workers, than the last administration was. Yet the emergency is ongoing, and the arts in this country have a history as a funding afterthought, no matter who is in charge.

It would be a mistake to assume that legislators, who hold the purse strings, will commit to spending what the theater industry’s devastation demands — especially where individuals, not institutions, would get the money. When those individuals are seen by lawmakers and the people they represent as part of some so-called elite, their actual means notwithstanding, they are at risk of being denied aid.



The reality is that a lot of them will continue to need unemployment benefits until the theater is up to speed again — which means that extending them through Sept. 6, welcome news though that is, will not be long enough. If, in your leaner years, you ever had to scrape by on unemployment, you know that the same goes for the supplemental benefits.

The bottom line is that we need theater people to be OK until their places of employment open up again — later than most other industries, because that’s what public health requires. We need the country to have their backs until then.

Last weekend in the Observer, the British actor Samuel West suggested that television and film stars pitch in to reboot local stages by signing on “to do a play at the regional theater closest to where they grew up.”

“They could say: I will come in 2022 for four weeks, and I’ll take the company wage and I don’t need the play to transfer,” he said. “That would really help.”



Imagine the effect an effort like that could have in this country as well — the excitement it would create, the jobs and ticket sales that would follow.

In the interim, though, the American theater needs a big-name, wildly charismatic advocate — or, hey, it could be a whole glamorous team — making clear to the public and its politicians how deeply this industry matters, economically and otherwise, and how imperative it is that its people make it through.

That isn’t necessarily about writing a check; it’s about using the spotlight that comes with stardom to shape understanding: in interviews, in lobbying and, yes, in tweets.

So I think again of you, and of the love that you professed. And I imagine some hazy future when the theater is back and you’re headlining a Broadway show — conscious, as mega-famous screen stars tend to be, of having to prove your live-performance bona fides.

If I ask you then what you did during the pandemic, what will your answer be?

I’m hoping I won’t even have to pose the question — because when the theater was in peril, you offered genuine friendship. And used your fame to do extraordinary good.

[jo]

Ha - I am not saying I am belittling the man's idea of Hugh appearing in regional theatre...but isn't it a better idea of helping revive the theatre industry if Hugh is involved in the biggest and most celebrated theatrical community - Broadway?!!

Besides, regional theatres may not be able to afford large musical productions (as seen on Broadway) to best showcase Hugh's triple-threat talent. At best, maybe a straight play ( something like A Steady Rain with its 2-hander casting and minimal sets).

I also think that there is a bit of hypocrisy involved -- when film stars get involved on Broadway, many in the community look down on it as "stunt casting" ( and look at the snobbish attitude that the film adaptation of LesMiserables received from theatrical people like Stephanie Block and Michael Cerveris - tsk, tsk)... and even adopting the attitude of Hunter Foster who said that film stars have no business doing theatrical work...Now that theatre is in dire straits - they want to be rescued by the film stars


Jo

[jo]

nypost.com/2021/03/11/when-broadway-will-re-open-and-what-shows-you-can-see-first/

When Broadway will reopen and what shows you can see first

By Lauren SteussyMarch 11, 2021 | 9:02am | Updated

Broadway shut down all productions over COVID pandemic, March, 2020


It’s been almost exactly a year since Broadway went dark due to the coronavirus pandemic — but now there’s light on the horizon of the Great White Way.

Broadway insiders are finally looking toward reopening after months of delayed optimism. But it will still be a while before you can see shows again, said Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League.

St. Martin told NBC4 New York that productions are expected to hit stages with audiences and all by the fall. This comes after some had hoped for a reopening early this year.

“At this point, we’re thinking early fall, perhaps early September. That’s the way things are pointing,” she said.

She expects that some of Broadway’s long-running favorites will be the first to reopen — think “The Lion King,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Wicked” — because the cast of those shows “has muscle memory,” St. Martin said.

Broadway is coming back, but not straight away.

As for what that reopening will look like — maybe don’t expect the same experience you enjoyed a year ago, pre-COVID-19. Masks will probably still be worn inside. And St. Martin said the league hasn’t ruled out asking theatergoers for some kind of proof of a negative test or vaccination.


How Broadway’s workers are getting through the shutdown together
“While we don’t know if that’s going to be the case, I think we would be very supportive of that because we cannot afford to reopen without knowing our cast, our crew, our audience is gonna be safe,” St. Martin said.

One aspect that probably will go back to normal are the cramped seating arrangements. Theaters can’t operate financially under social-distancing guidelines. So just hope you don’t get seated next to a cougher.

“If the theaters aren’t at least 75% full, the shows won’t last,” St. Martin said. “They’ll have to close.”

Over the past year, Broadway workers from shoemakers to costume designers to marquee makers have had to find other kinds of work, or make serious sacrifices.

“Our jobs are our spirit,” cellist Kristine Kruta told The Post. She was set to perform with “Jagged Little Pill” but had to put that dream aside when the pandemic hit. “It will be like waking up Christmas morning when we get to go back.”

Businesses in the surrounding area have suffered, too. The Theater District’s 13-mile thoroughfare has 335 vacant storefronts as of September — a 78% jump from 2017 — with about 25% of new closures due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the study released Friday by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.

[jo]

Re how insurance companies are dealing with Broadway theatre claims...

and how industry people are foreseeing the return of Broadway.


www.forbes.com/sites/marchershberg/2021/03/31/insurers-snub-broadway-shows-creating-uneven-playing-field/?sh=241b5c112bcd

[jo]

Baby steps to reopening.

From the NYTimes --

Broadway Reopened. For 36 Minutes. It’s a Start.

Before a masked, distanced and virus-tested audience of 150, the dancer Savion Glover and the actor Nathan Lane performed, celebrating theater and testing safety protocols a year after the pandemic caused theaters to close.



Nathan Lane, left, and Savion Glover taking their bows after performing Saturday at Broadway’s St. James Theater.

Michael Paulson
By Michael Paulson
April 3, 2021
Updated 6:37 p.m. ET


Three hundred and eighty-seven days after Broadway went dark, a faint light started to glimmer on Saturday.

There were just two performers — one at a time — on a bare Broadway stage. But together they conjured up decades of theater lore, invoking the songs and shows and stars that once filled the grand houses in and around Times Square.

The 36-minute event, before a masked audience of 150 scattered across an auditorium with 1,700 seats, was the first such experiment since the coronavirus pandemic caused all 41 Broadway houses to close on March 12, 2020, and industry leaders are hoping it will be a promising step on what is sure to be a slow and bumpy road to eventual reopening.



Mr. Glover, a renowned tap dancer, performed an improvisational song-and-dance number in which he seemed to summon specters of productions past.Credit...Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

The dancer Savion Glover and the actor Nathan Lane, both of them Tony Award winners, stood in for a universe of unemployed artists and show-starved fans as they performed a pair of pieces created for the occasion



Mr. Glover, a renowned tap dancer, performed an improvisational song-and-dance number in which he seemed to summon specters of productions past. He walked onstage, removed the ghost light that by tradition is left on to keep spirits away from an unoccupied theater, and began to sing lyric samples, accompanied only by the sound of his bright white tap shoes. “God I hope I get it,” he began, citing the yearning theme of “A Chorus Line.”


And from there, he was off, quoting from “The Tap Dance Kid,” “Dreamgirls,” “42nd Street” and other shows that he said had influenced him, often celebrating the urge to dance, while also acknowledging the challenges of the entertainment industry. (“There’s no business like show business,” he sang, before adding, “Everything about it is eh.”) He also made a pointed reference to Black life in the U.S., interpolating the phrase “knee-on-your-neck America” into a song from “West Side Story.”

“I was a little nervous, but I was elated, and happy, and there was nostalgia, and I was sentimental — it was everything,” he said in an interview afterward. “And I felt very safe. I want to be rubbing elbows and hugging — we’re looking for that eventually — but there’s no more safe place than right in the middle of that stage.”



Mr. Lane, a three-time Tony winner, performed “Playbills,” a comedic monologue written for the occasion by Paul Rudnick.


Mr. Lane, one of Broadway’s biggest stars, performed a comedic monologue by Paul Rudnick, in which he portrayed a die-hard theater fan (with an alphabetized Playbill collection) who dreams (or was it real?) about a parade of Broadway stars, led by Hugh Jackman, Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald, arriving at his rent-controlled apartment and vying for his attention while dishily one-upping one other. (“Have you ever heard of a little show called ‘Evita’?” Ms. LuPone, Broadway’s original Eva Perón, asks Mr. Jackman, to which he retorts, “I loved the movie with Madonna,” at which point Ms. LuPone grabs a steak knife.)



In an interview after the event, Mr. Lane said: “These are baby steps toward a real reopening. It’s a way of signaling to everyone that we’re coming back.”

And did he feel safe? “I felt as safe as anyone who has been vaccinated and tested 123 times,” he said. “I’ve been swabbed. I’ve been hosed down. There were a lot of precautions and protocols, so yes, I felt safe.”

The event’s safety measures included the limited audience, mandatory masks and socially distanced seating. Plus, all attendees were required to show proof of a negative coronavirus test or a completed vaccination regimen and to fill out a digital questionnaire attesting to an absence of Covid-19 symptoms or recent exposure; attendee arrival times were staggered; there was no intermission, food or drink; and although bathrooms were open, attendees were encouraged to use a bathroom before arriving to reduce potential crowding.


The 150 attendees sat spaced apart in the 1,700-seat theater, and had to provide proof of a negative coronavirus test or a completed vaccination regimen in order to enter.

The St. James, a city historic landmark built in 1927, was chosen in part because it’s big — one of the largest theaters on Broadway — and empty. The theater also has a modern ventilation system, which was installed when the building was expanded in 2017, and its air filters were upgraded during the pandemic in an effort to reduce the spread of airborne viruses.

The theater’s owner, Jordan Roth, teared up in the lobby before the event, moved by the moment. “It’s the first step home — the first of many,” he said. “This is not, ‘Broadway’s back!’ This is ‘Broadway is coming back!’ And we know it can because of this.”


The event, while free, was by invitation only, and the invitations went mostly to workers for two theater industry social service organizations, the Actors Fund and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Among them was a Broadway Cares volunteer, Michael Fatica, who is an actor; he was in the ensemble of “Frozen,” which was the last show at the St. James, and which has announced that it will not reopen on Broadway. “They were fantastic,” he said afterward. “And it’s incredible that people are performing. But it’s so far away from commercial theater, and tens of thousands of actors are still out of work.”

The event was also a chance to bring back the theater’s employees. Tony David, a porter, was there wearing his black suit and a tie and hat with the logo of the Jujamcyn theater organization, plus latex gloves and a face shield over a mask. “It’s nice to be back and doing something,” he said. “Hopefully this is the beginning.”



Jordan Roth, left, the theater owner, greeted the event’s director, Jerry Zaks. “It’s the first step home,” Mr. Roth said of the show. “The first of many.”Credit...Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

The event was directed by Jerry Zaks, a four-time Tony winner, who over the years has both acted and directed at the St. James. “This has been the longest I have not been inside a theater in 50 years,” he said. “I don’t want to sound giddy, but I’m excited, and I feel like a kid. There is a pulse — it’s faint, but there is one, and it augurs well for the months ahead.”

The performance was sponsored by NY Pops Up, which is a partnership among the state government, the producers Scott Rudin and Jane Rosenthal and the artist Zack Winokur. Empire State Development, which finances the state’s economic development initiatives, has set aside $5.5 million from its marketing budget to pay for 300 performances through August; the purpose, the state says, is to lift the spirits of New Yorkers and to jump-start the entertainment industry.

The organizers said they would confer on Monday morning about lessons learned from the Saturday event, and they anticipate nine other programs in Broadway houses over the next 10 weeks. But most producers expect that full-scale plays and musicals will not return to Broadway until the fall; commercial theater producers have said they do not believe it is financially feasible to reopen at reduced capacity, and the state is hoping to increase occupancy limits and reduce restrictions over time.

“I don’t have a crystal ball — none of us do, but we have shows scheduled to reopen in September, October and November,” said Charlotte St. Martin, the president of the Broadway League. Ms. St. Martin, who attended the Saturday event, said the Pops Up performances could be helpful steps toward reopening.




“It will give the health department the opportunity to see how the theaters work, and hopefully to learn what it will take for us to be declared OK to open at 100 percent,” she said. “And it’s also a great opportunity to remind us all of what makes New York so special.”

After a Dark Year, a Little Light

Hey, 3 major TMM personalities involved - Rudin for PopsUp, Zaks who directed the show, and Jackman ( as parodied presumably by Nathan Lane). Augurs well for The Music Man.

*It seems they chose the topmost Broadway royalty for the skit - diva Patti, multi-awarded Audra, and Broadway BF Hugh

*I wonder if Hugh was invited to the event?

Jo

[jo]

If you follow this thread on BWW, there are 2 links to glimpses to the performance.

www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.php?thread=1124857

[jo]

It looks like Nathan Lane was doing a parody of Man On Chair ( from Drowsy Chaperone).


I saw the the live performance of the culminating event for the BC/EFA fundraising in 2003 ( it was called the Gypsy Event) _ I was lucky to have gotten second row seats ( but I was unlucky not to know that Hugh and Deb were sitting across the aisle on the other side from me). When Hugh came up to announce the winners of the fundraising, Nathan Lane was so funny showing how much he was taken with Hugh -- embracing him everywhere. It was so obvious that Bernadette Peters ( the other host) that she became jealous ( of Nathan being enamored with Hugh) - and did her turn, too ( hugging Hugh!). That was fun!

Jo

[jo]

Nathan Lane monologue and parts of his filmed performance here --

newyorktheater.me/2021/04/04/read-paul-rudnicks-hilarious-new-broadway-play-playbills-starring-nathan-lane/

Playbills
by Paul Rudnick

Theatergoer:

Okay, okay. First off, you’re not going to believe a word of this, but please, please trust me: this really happened. It’s totally true.

Okay, okay. So, like so many people, I’ve been sitting at home, in
my apartment, for an entire year now. And for a while, I was working
from home, which I’m sorry, but that always sounds like something a
serial killer would say. But look at me, from the waist up: my hair is combed, I’m wearing adult clothing, I brushed my teeth, I’m all like, hi, welcome to me pretending I didn’t just binge-watch anything with Nicole Kidman wearing three wigs. But below the waist: Armageddon.

I can’t even call them sweatpants, not anymore. They’re like – old skin. They’re welded to me, like Old Navy barnacles. At first I ordered, you know, the fancy versions, athleisure, tapered, with a waistband. Yeah, that
lasted a week. Until the waistband got a little snug, and I just thought, I don’t need a waistband judging me. So I went one-size-fits-all. Which means literally everyone in the world can fit into my
sweatpants, at the same time. And here’s the true meaning of the pandemic: online, no one can smell the Doritos.
(an evil laugh)

And then I got laid off. Furloughed. “Furloughed” is the new “But I do
love you, I’m just not in love with you, do you see the difference?” But hey, it happens. To so many people. It’s no one’s fault.



Although I blame that graphic of the coronavirus, the one they use on every news show, that little adobe tennis ball, with the red darts sticking all over it. It’s like a dog toy that can kill you. I hate that graphic, not just because it’s a virus, but because it’s always there, like some vicious cartoon character, like Spongebob’s idiot cousin, or like what Pac Man would look like with bad skin in high school. I just want to squish that graphic, to hear the sound it would make under my foot.

Okay, I know, cabin fever. Covid brain. Whatever. But here’s the thing:
I remember the exact first day of the lockdown, because I had tickets for a show. And I was debating with myself, should I go, because I love the theater so much, and I wanted to show my support, but was it too dangerous, but then I got a text: the performance had been canceled. And the show was postponed, indefinitely. No shows. No theater. No TKTS. No Playbills. No singing, no dancing, no anything, not until further notice. Boom. Curtain.



And I know, theater is a luxury. Except it’s not. I live on Ramen so I can buy half-price tickets. I alphabetize my Playbills and I get upset if someone touches them with food on their fingers.
(They pause, pulling themselves together from the horror of this)

I go on every theater website and defend every version of Merrily We Roll Along because at least it’s an attempt. Someday Merrily will work, I have to believe that. Or I can’t move my head.
(pulling themselves together)

I’m sorry. And fuck you, Anyone Can Whistle was ahead of its time, and we are not going to talk about casting the movie version of Follies, because, fine, there’s a restraining order. But Meryl is Phyllis! Fuck Cate Blanchett!



I love theater. I can’t explain it, it’s just, when I have tickets to a show, it lifts my whole day. It’s like a date, with someone who might be wonderful, or might be boring, or might change my life forever. You know?

Except for this past year, and I’ve been watching Zoom readings and old Tony Award numbers on Youtube and movies of great plays, but it’s not the same. Especially Zoom, with everyone in their little squares, it’s like watching Streetcar performed by the Brady Bunch. I mean, I appreciate all of those things, but there’s just not the same tingle of being right there, in a theater, with a live audience, with real live actors, and we’re all in it together, waiting to see what’s going to happen, and jumping to our feet screaming because we loved it so much and then looking under our seats afterwards to find that lady’s inhaler. Although this one time, this lady said she didn’t need her inhaler, not anymore. Because that really long award-winning Irish play had healed her. Sleep can do that.

And I know, be patient, one vaccination at a time, there are lives at stake, but then – okay, okay. Bear with me. Because it happened last night at 7 PM when in the olden days, I’d be heading into the subway, on my way to a show, or just to wait in line for cancellations. But instead I’m sitting here, wondering if there are any more episodes of that Norwegian detective show on Netflix, or if that last episode was actually the ending – I mean, he killed twelve people because they wouldn’t use solar panels?




But there’s a knock on my door, except I haven’t ordered takeout or anything from Amazon, you know, the new sex, so I put on my mask and I open the door and right there, standing in my hallway – it’s Hugh Jackman.
I know. I know!


And at first I think, no, it’s just the hottest UPS guy ever, or I’m hallucinating, from too much Ramen, but it’s really him and he does the elbow thing and he says, “Hi, I’m Hugh Jackman, may I come in? Mate?”
(Hugh’s “mate” is especially thrilling)

And he says, “I’ve been vaccinated” and I say, but you’re too young, and he says, “Broadway stars have just been classified as essential workers” and I say duh, come right in. And he looks so grateful and he looks around my one bedroom apartment, fine, it’s a studio with an alcove, and he says, “This is lovely.” And I realize – Hugh Jackman’s been cooped up too. He’s lonely. He’s needy. And he wants to be back in a theater as much as I want
to see him in one, because he asks me, “Can I sing Ya Got Trouble from The Music Man for you?” And I’m dumbstruck, I’m floored, and I say, but I don’t even have a piano and he says, “It’s fine, I brought my boombox” and he puts the boombox on my couch, right next to the five almost-empty cereal boxes and the towel which is covering the duct tape which is holding the cushion together, and he asks, “Do you know the show?” And I try not to
act offended, I just find my Playbill from the Craig Bierko revival and my Playbill from when Robert Sean Leonard took over, and my original cast CD with Robert Preston and my DVD of the movie and my other DVD of the Matthew Broderick/Kristin Chenowith TV version, and my high school yearbook with the photo of me in the drama club waiting for the Wells Fargo wagon and Hugh says, “I get it.” And he’s smiling but
a little like, sure, but you haven’t seen The Music Man with Hugh Jackman, so I ask, where should I sit, and he points to a folding chair and just as he’s about to push Play on his boombox – don’t you love that Hugh Jackman has a boombox – there’s another knock on my door. So I say, Hugh, I’m so sorry, I don’t know who that could be but I’ll get rid of them and I open the door and – it’s Patti LuPone.



Yes. I’m not kidding. She’s tiny. But fierce. And she’s got that look
on her face, that Patti LuPone look, like, am I going to hug you or treat you like someone using their cell phone during Rose’s Turn? But she’s totally mesmerizing and she says, “Hi. Patti LuPone.” And I try to say something, to tell her I worship her, but my throat is dry and she’s already pushing past me into the apartment and she says. “Oh. Hugh Jackman. So that’s how it is.” And he says, “Patti, darling” and I assume they know each other from, like, the Tony Awards or doing benefits, and Patti says, “Right before the shutdown I was in previews with
the gender-swapped version of Company with a female Bobbie. So I’d really like to sing Ladies Who Lunch for you.” And I’m thrilled, I’m dying, but I want to be fair, so I gesture and I say, “I would love that, but Hugh was here first.” And Hugh and I both, like, duck, but Patti stays calm and she says, “But Hugh wasn’t even in rehearsal and I was gearing up for an opening night so I’ve got Stephen Sondheim blueballs.” But I say, Hugh brought a boombox and Patti says, “I have a full orchestra on my phone and have you ever heard of a little show called Evita?” And Hugh says, “I loved the movie with Madonna” and Patti grabs a steak knife and Hugh says, “I’m kidding!” And I take the knife and Hugh says to Patti, “Ladies first” and Patti says, “Thank you, Ironman” and just as Hugh’s saying “Wolverine” he gets it and Patti points to the folding chair and tells me, “Sit.” And she points to the couch and tells Hugh, “You too, Batman. Learn something.” And she stands right near my refrigerator, right in front of my Patti LuPone refrigerator magnet, and I’m hoping she doesn’t notice my Glenn Close in Sunset Boulevard mug, and I’m so excited and so scared and just as Patti opens her mouth to sing there’s a
knock on the door and Patti asks, “Are you expecting anyone else?


Carol Channing?” And I say, no, of course not, although Hugh and I
exchange a glance like, wouldn’t that be fabulous, but then I open the door and – Audra McDonald. Oh my God. But it’s true! Everyone has Lockdown Fever!


And the three of them look at each other and they go, “Audra”, “Patti”, “Hugh” and I’m terrified that they’re all going to leave so I say, “Isn’t this amazing! So many legends in one rent-controlled apartment!” And I point to all of their bobbleheads lined up on the microwave and Patti puts the Andrew Lloyd Weber bobblehead in the microwave
and Audra says, “I don’t have a show coming up so I was going to perform one of my sold-out concerts, but if you’re busy…” and Patti says, “Audra, I love you, but wait your turn” and Hugh says, “What
if we all sing You Could Drive A Person Crazy together?” And Audra says, “I love that idea, but first let me ask you, which person in this room has six Tony Awards?” And under his breath I hear Hugh say, “But which person has a film career?” And under her breath I hear Patti ask, “But which person has an assault weapon in her shoulderbag?” And I’m thinking, I wish Kristin Chenowith was here because she’s so sweet and sunshiney and maybe that would calm everyone down but then I thought, or maybe they would pull off her head and eat her.


But instead Audra takes a deep breath and she says, “I’m sorry, I was just surprised to see everyone here, and Patti, as you may have heard, I’m going to play Mama Rose, but out of respect for your incredible, definitive performance, I’m going to wait until after you’re dead” and Patti says, “I appreciate that” and Audra says, “Ballpark?” And Hugh says, “Oh, snap” and there’s a knock on the door, no, a ton of knocks, like a hailstorm, and I open it, and there’s Donna Murphy, Danny Burstein, Sutton Foster, the entire cast of Hamilton and Judi Dench and everyone’s all like, “Um, does Judi have a work visa?” And Judi says, “Of course I do” and Patti says, “Even after the Cats movie?” And they’re all starting to sing and dance at once, and then all of these other, younger people flood in behind them
and one of them says, “We’re from off-broadway which is even more exciting and inclusive and innovative” and Patti says, “Fuck you, motherfuckers” and I go, “Patti!” and she says, “No, that’s how you
say I love you off-broadway” and then Nathan Lane climbs in the window and asks, “And what am I, chopped liver?” and it happens: I faint.


The lights go out. Just like last March. And when I come to… they’re gone. All of them. And I wonder, was it just a lockdown-induced fantasy? Some impossible dream of things opening back up? Maybe it’s never going to happen. Maybe theater is just – gone. But then I notice something – there’s a note stuck to my refrigerator, with my 42nd Street magnet – from London – and the note says, “You’re out of Ramen. Love, Hugh.”

Great promo for THE MUSIC MAN


LOl - Scott Rudin ( heading the PopsUp festival which sponsored this show) and Jerry Zaks ( who directed this show...and will soon direct The Music Man) -- must have been smiling broadly

[jo]

Three Broadway royalty ( in addition to Nathan Lane) --

what's the connection?

*Hugh and Audra sang the roles of Billy and Julie in the Carnegie Hall concert at Carnegie Hall in 2002.

*A little far off -- but Patti was the original Fantine in Les Miserables when the English adaptation of the musical opened in London. Hugh is Jean Valjean in the film adaptation of Les Miserables.

Jo

[jo]

Return of shows by September?

As reported by BWW --

Now the Broadway League has confirmed hope in his plan, issuing the following statement:

"The Broadway League has been working closely with State and City officials on plans for safely restarting the Broadway industry, welcoming audiences, and bringing our workforce back. Today's remarks by the mayor give us further optimism that Broadway productions can resume this fall, beginning in September, and we look forward to providing more details about reopening in the coming weeks."

[jo]

For those doing some travelling -- it seems there is a pent-up desire to travel causing a rise in prices.

From BWW --

Bettyboy72
Send PM
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Broadway Legend
joined:3/31/06
Broadway reopening
#27
Posted: 4/29/21 at 5:14pm

Sutton Ross said: "Im actually expecting the opposite. They have lost over a billion dollars over the past year, the industry is hurting. I think tickets will be very expensive for the first 6 months."

I agree with Sutton. I think tickets will be expensive. Summer air travel is going to be obscene as well. A formerly $98 JetBlue flight to Boston is now $357. Experiences this summer will be for the 1% I wonder what hotels will be doing.

Sutton Ross was projecting ticket prices for Broadway shows.

Hotel prices are also rising fairly fast.

Also, it seems the same for international travel. Some flights from Asia for early 2022 are already sold out.

Jo

[njr]

I already got our Delta tickets (using my Sky Miles points) to the U.K. ages ago. They were 50,000 pts. each (round trip - same as in 2016) and last time I checked they went up to 70,000 pts. Locked in hotels too as soon as available for August. (free cancellation) Now the U.K. just has to follow suit with all the EU countries and drop the required quarantine or we can’t go! (we’re both fully immunized)

[jo]

On the return of Broadway --

www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/arts/2021/04/29/broadway-return?fbclid=IwAR22YmPVImvGzIcLzOGvgtJI1tHxZfxOhwFI1RS_cICTu1g38AtL9SsMBxA

ARTS
Broadway poised to announce September return

BY FRANK DILELLA MANHATTAN
PUBLISHED 4:06 PM ET APR. 29, 2021
The Broadway League says it expects shows to officially return in September.

Sources say a formal announcement is set for May 11.

Mayor Bill de Blasio hinted at Broadway’s return during an appearance on MSNBC Thursday in which he said he would like to see the city fully reopen on July 1.

The initial plan is for some of the bigger blockbuster shows like "Wicked," "The Lion King" and "Hamilton" to return first, most likely around Labor Day. Another source says the cast of "Moulin Rouge!" was called into a Zoom meeting this week and informed that the show will reopen in mid-September.

This news comes on the heels of Telecharge putting tickets for "Chicago," "Jagged Little Pill" and "Ain't Too Proud" on sale for performances for early to mid-September. No official reopening dates have been announced for those shows, but it is possible they will also be making a return sooner rather than later.

The reason Broadway shows won't return on or around July 1 is because they will have to go back into rehearsal. When the shows get the green light to resume, cast members may differ, safety protocols will have to be enforced, and it’s going to be a whole new experience for the artists and crews involved with putting up the shows.

We recently reported on Disney Theatrical Productions president Tom Schumacher’s journey to Australia as he put up "Frozen: The Musical" in Sydney. That experience is being viewed as almost a blueprint for how things are going to happen in New York.

In fact, other theater owners and producers have taken notes from Tom’s experience.

Broadway is a huge economic engine for the city. During the 2018/2019 season – the last full season where revenues were reported – the theater industy brought in almost $15 billion to the local economy between ticket sales and related restaurant, hotel and tourism revenues. Broadway is also responsible for employing almost 100,000 workers, meaning New York will not be back until Broadway is back up and running.

In the meantime, many smaller venues could potentially open before Broadway returns in September. The Delacorte Theater in Central Park will present "Merry Wives of Windsor," and Lincoln Center will be hosting events this summer. Some of the smaller performing arts venues like Birdland and 54 Below are also expected to return in full in July, but Broadway will be back in September.