CMU School of Drama


Monday, October 04, 2021

Broadway's comeback brings back business

NPR: some of the biggest Broadway shows have reopened over the past few weeks. And this fall, more and more marquees will light up. It'll be the return of a billion-dollar industry in New York City, and it's not just theaters that are benefiting.

3 comments:

Jeremy Pitzer said...

I never thought about the other industries that were pulled down by Broadway and will now be reinvigorated by its reopening before reading this article. I think it gave me a clearer picture of how difficult it is to coordinate the opening and closing of an entire industry. The Economy is extremely interconnected, and the theater district is unquestionably the heart of NYC. I’m glad to see things improving but I’m worried about the dangers of it shutting down again. The reopening is very unstable, and I don’t want all these florists and everyone else to rehire a bunch of people just as the theaters close down again. It is a resilient industry in a resilient city, but I worry that too much on and off could wear it down past what it can survive. At the end of the day, I don’t think theater is going to disappear, but I’m worried that it will be ground down to nothing and we will have to rebuild all of it.

Natalie Lawton said...


I hadn’t actively thought about the fact that so many other industries were benefiting from broadway. I understood that New York City's economy is heavily dependent on the tourism industry that Broadway supports. I am thankful that our world is finally getting back to “normal” but I hesitate to say that it is the right time. Vaccines are finally getting implemented which is huge but hundreds of people are still dying every day. As we begin to reopen I am terrified that one day we will get the email that we are getting sent home and we are at square one again. It is hard to say what the right step forward from here is. We just have to continue being as safe as possible in hopes that we won’t trigger another shutdown. For now, I feel that the best thing to do is be thankful that all kinds of people are benefiting from Broadway and just live theatre again. Our industry is gaining its legs back and I am excited to see where we go from here.

Alexa Janoschka said...


I am personally very excited to see Broadway open back up. I don’t think I will be attending any shows anytime soon, but it is nice to see the return. Personally, I don’t see myself going into Broadway (or theater) but I will always be grateful for and continue to be thankful for theater and what it taught and continues to teach me. Broadway’s recovery has been a long one and we are only at the beginning stages of getting back to what we used to see. There are still many obstacles that the industry faces, and it will never go back to what it was, but I am excited to continue to see the growth of Broadway after hardest parts of the Pandemic. Hopefully more opportunities open up so people wanting to break into the industry start to pop up again. I know that I personally haven’t been in search of opportunities (I am still trying to balance work-life and going to CMU so my mind is not focused on adding more to my life). If I ever find myself in New York I will hopefully be able to catch a show and see the rebuilding of an amazing industry