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The surge in coronavirus instances is beginning to take an actual monetary toll on Broadway, simply because the trade is making an attempt to rebound from its prolonged shutdown.
The Broadway League, a commerce affiliation, mentioned on Tuesday that its theaters introduced in $22.5 million final week. That’s a 26 p.c drop from the $30.5 million in tickets offered the earlier week; within the week earlier than Christmas in 2019, whole grosses have been $40.1 million.
The drop in grosses is a mirrored image of the truth that a number of reveals have canceled performances when constructive coronavirus assessments pressured solid or crew members to quarantine and there weren’t sufficient understudies or substitute employees for the reveals to proceed.
Final weekend, about one-third of all reveals canceled some performances, and this week, a number of reveals determined to postpone performances till after Christmas, together with “Ain’t Too Proud,” “Aladdin,” “Pricey Evan Hansen,” “Hadestown,” “Hamilton,” “Harry Potter and the Cursed Baby,” “The Lion King, “MJ” and “Skeleton Crew.”
Plus, “Tina” canceled till Christmas evening; “Jagged Little Capsule” closed completely; “Mrs. Doubtfire” canceled Tuesday evening; and “Waitress” canceled Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
Attendance additionally dropped, given the cancellations: 184,227 folks noticed a Broadway present final week, down from 240,602 the earlier week.
The ensuing income drop is an actual concern for an trade the place most reveals, even earlier than the pandemic, fail financially. However the harm isn’t evenly dispersed — some reveals that keep open are benefiting by promoting tickets to folks scrambling for one thing to see after their first-choice present canceled. This yr the Broadway League is releasing solely mixture weekly grosses fairly than breaking them down for particular person productions, so it’s tough to see precisely how the monetary ramifications are unfolding.
5 different reveals cited the pandemic shutdown in deciding to not reopen this fall — the musicals “Frozen,” “Imply Women” and “West Facet Story” and the performs “Hangmen” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Two reveals cited the continued pandemic in deciding to shut for good after beginning (or restarting) performances this fall, then pausing due to constructive coronavirus assessments of their corporations: not solely “Jagged Little Capsule,” which introduced its closing Monday evening, but in addition the play “Rooster & Biscuits,” which closed final month.
The present disaster is coming on the worst potential time for the trade, as a result of the vacation season is historically probably the most profitable time of yr for Broadway, and plenty of reveals depend upon the vacations to make up for softer durations.
Charlotte St. Martin, the president of the Broadway League, mentioned she doesn’t envision the trade shutting down once more, regardless of what number of particular person reveals must pause. “I don’t think about a shutdown by us, until each present has folks with Covid,” she mentioned. “We’re going to maintain as many individuals employed as we are able to.”
And New York Mayor Invoice de Blasio, at a information convention on Tuesday, was equally shutdown-averse. “No extra shutdowns,” he mentioned. “We’ve been via them. They have been devastating. We will’t undergo it once more.”
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Supply- nytimes