Broadway Will Stay Closed Until At Least June

April 8, 2020 / Posted by:

A little less than a month ago, Broadway announced that due to coronavirus, it was temporarily rebranding itself from the glitzy and glamorous Great White Way to a solemn and bleak CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. The lights of Broadway went dark at 5:00pm on March 12 (one day after an usher tested positive for COVID-19), and the plan was for theaters to remain empty until April 12. Well, Deadline says that Broadway will continue to remain as empty as a matinee of Honeymoon in Vegas: The Musical until June 7, possibly longer.

This means that technically, the 2019-2020 Broadway theatrical season has come to an end. It’s over. If you’re itching to experience some live theater, your options are now limited to whichever of your theater school cousins are available to perform the entire soundtrack to Waitress over a Zoom call. I’ll be honest, it’s probably not going to take much convincing. If anything, you might find yourself ending the call with, “Of course I’d love to hear you do all the Sutton Foster parts of Anything Goes, but would you look at that, my WiFi is being sketchy….“.

There is a chance that the people in charge could extend the 2019-2020 Broadway season into the summer, in the event everything is back to normal by June 7. But sources tell Deadline that it will be a logistical nightmare to get things going back up and running by then, and that generally people on the inside have accepted that the season ended on March 11. The Broadway League released the following statement:

“Our top priority continues to be the health and well-being of Broadway theatregoers and the thousands of people who work in the theatre industry every day, including actors, musicians, stagehands, ushers, and many other dedicated professionals. Broadway will always be at the very heart of the Big Apple, and we join with artists, theatre professionals, and fans in looking forward to the time when we can once again experience live theatre together.”

Anyone with tickets for shows from now until June 7 have been given instructions about refunds and exchanges.

This extension also means theater award season is getting a COVID-19 revamp as well. The Drama Desk Awards announced earlier today that they will announce winners online on May 31. Only shows that opened prior to the March 12 shutdown will be eligible for awards. There were 15 Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals and plays scheduled to open after March 12, so they won’t be considered for awards. The Tonys have been postponed for the time being. It’s really too bad that all those plays and musicals won’t be seen right now. If only there was a way that they could premiere on social media or something. Sadly, I have a feeling they’d open and close on the same day. You just can’t compete with the crowd-pleasing quarantine performances provided seven days a week by Kristin Chenoweth.

Pic: Instagram

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