Broadway before the omicron: “This time we will not close”

Broadway before the omicron: “This time we will not close”

From an economic point of view, a new closing season would be doubly catastrophic for Broadway, because in addition to the investments that were lost, and the drama of the personnel who lost their jobs and did not relocate again, must be added the new investments, loans and credits that would go public again.

The president of the “Broadway League”, Charlotte St. Martin (equivalent to the Chamber of theatrical entrepreneurs of our country), gave a report to The Hollywood Reporter in which, unlike what happened in 2020, shows more hopeful. “We had started December with 85% of the seats in all of our cinemas occupied. The foreign travel ban had been lifted and we started hearing a lot of different languages ​​spoken in Times Square, which is always good. Tourism began to strengthen a lot. There are more than 300,000 people in Times Square every day, which is good for Broadway. “

Last week, the League launched its BWAYTODAY.COM site to help ticket buyers quickly locate the program. Many interpreted this as a way of affirming the continuity of the billboard and not discouraging the potential ticket buyer, especially the tourist who does not spend too many days in New York, and who fears that the show they purchased will be canceled. “We are very aggressive in our disclosure saying: we are not going to close,” said St. Martin. “It’s true, some shows are closing. One day we had five closures, and in three of them the cases that led to the closure turned out to be false positives. On Saturday there were 11 closings. But that means we had 21 shows running. “

Where the businesswoman was absolutely categorical was in a statement: “Broadway does not close. We don’t have any plans in that regard. We pay close attention to the protocols. The other 20 or 30 shows are still running because we follow the protocols that we have established. People are tested before entering. With the artists there is even more demand. Days ago we had a case of appendicitis and we had no replacement for that role. Of course, the first rumor that ran when the performance had to be suspended was that it was coronavirus. “

Last week, when more details of the omicrón variant and its high contagiousness were known, the League summoned three epidemiologists to a meeting of the board of directors. St. Martin claims that the actors, technicians and other members of their family productions have received or are receiving third doses of the vaccines since then. ”Some shows do tests every day, and sometimes twice a day when there is one. evening function and another night. Never let your guard down. As Dr. Anthony Fauci says, this changes every day, every month, every week. You think it’s one thing, and then there’s something new. “

Source From: Ambito

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