Deadline: Charlotte St. Martin couldn’t be blamed for bristling over that recent televised and widely quoted exchange between a reporter and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Asked by the reporter if Broadway’s decision to re-open on June 7 could serve as a “rule of thumb” for other New York City industries, Cuomo did some bristling of his own. “I wouldn’t use what Broadway thinks as a barometer of anything unless they’re in the public health business and have seen better numbers and models,” the governor said, dismissively.
5 comments:
Broadway's stance on reopening in June seems like an idea that is not consistent with the present state of NYC, as the city deals with the growing number of covid- 19 cases. This is also very clear by what the governor of New York has said about the reopening of Broadway in June, clearly pointing at how health officials and people on the front lines see it as a detrimental move in lieu of the current situation.
And it does not surprise me that that is what the Governor thinks. Broadway is a place where people from all parts of the world come to either perform or watch wonderful performances. This alone means that social distancing would not take place, endangering everyone present in the state, which is not something anyone wants for to happen. The nation has been on a lock down for the past month and any thing that jeopardizes the reopening of the nation safely would not be desirable for everyone.
I am personally upset that the extension of corona-virus closures of Broadway, essentially cut off Beetlejuice’s run. They were originally supposed to close on June 6th but now Broadway is closed until June 7th. This conversation was informative and also saddening. No one really wants to think that we may not see Broadway theatres re-open until 2021. I think one of the most important notes here is that unlike many other industries it costs a lot of money to get these shows back up, with only guesswork on whether or not audiences will come. The fact that most shows won't survive if shutdown for a second time just a few weeks later. It has to be such a calculated risk for those involved. I think the note on Cuomo’s comment was very important. The dismissive comment made by Cuomo was misleading and showed the broadway league to be making health decisions (it’s not). So the clarification was very important.
The article was very informative and clear, even though the main point of the article was about how Broadway League President do not know what will happen next and when it would be. There is too much information on the Internet about the entertainment industry through the Covid-19 crises, and most of them are not based on facts or numbers presented by the public health business. It is important for such president to clearly state what is and is not under their control and how much they are certain about the future. That being said, I, who’s obviously not “in the public health business and have seen better numbers and models,” think that reopening Broadway in a sustainable way would take longer than we think, considering “65% (of Broadway admissions are) made up of tourists both domestic and international.” Even after the spread settles down, it would take few more steps for people to start travelling internationally. I don’t know when I will be able to fly back to the states again, and I just have to say I miss the busy streets around Broadway so much.
It doesn't feel like Broadway will or should be opening on June 7th as planned. I feel really bad for everyone who's losing their jobs and steady incomes, but I think the best thing for everyone's safety is to extend certain precautions until we can be sure that it's okay to end them. I know this is really difficult for everyone, but I think that the most important thing is keeping everyone safe. It would make sense if theaters were the last things to open back up; there's almost no way of keeping everyone safe in a theater. It requires people sitting very closely together, not to mention the grueling tasks carried out by the actors and crew. All of this makes everyone so susceptible to getting sick and I just don't think it's worth it. I don't want to be extra controversial in this comment, but I'd rather have to rebuild the economic state of theatre after this pandemic than re-open prematurely and have MANY avoidable deaths. Maybe I'm feeling too cautious about all of this, but the situation just feels too fragile to re-open in June.
Thing with reopening the country and different businesses and venues is very muddy. It is hard to know how or when things are gonna happen. Its kinda the scariest part of this whole thing. Broadway opening on June 7th feels fien for right now, but still a little bit out of place considering New York has so many coronavirus cases. I hope that it will though, so that something feels like it is going abck to normal. Even when it does open, how are we to know if there will even be people who want to be an audience member at that point. It is hard to say how comfortable the human population will be with being near each other, or if people will be so hungry to return to normalcy they will be fine with being in close proximity. We won't know until it happens I guess! Cant wait until things are normal.
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