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Avery Sell, Jake Ryan Flynn, Analise Scarpaci, Jenn Gambatese, and Rob McClure in “Mrs. Doubtfire”
Broadway
Broadway in the Age of Omicron
Two producers and an actor on what it’s really been like By Diep Tran
OMICRON HAS SENT Broadway into a tailspin. Earlier this winter, every day saw news of productions closing temporarily or permanently. “The Music Man” starring Hugh Jackman paused performances after its leading man tested positive for COVID-19, and “Mrs. Doubtfire” announced it was shuttering for nine weeks. Other shows, meanwhile, closed permanently. But it doesn’t mean Broadway
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is going to shut down again. “No one’s going anywhere,” said Hunter Arnold, lead producer of “Hadestown” and an investor in “Dear Evan Hansen” and “Moulin Rouge!” “The safety protocols that are put in place here are absolutely top-of-the-line,” said actor Tony LePage, a swing in “Come From Away” on Broadway. According to him, a private company provided vaccine boosters and ongoing daily PCR testing for
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JOAN MARCUS
the cast and crew. Broadway has required all cast and crew to be fully vaccinated, and many shows are doing a minimum weekly PCR test, with some productions testing daily. Anyone who is not performing onstage is required to be masked. Audiences are also required to be masked and vaccinated. If Broadway performers do test positive, they are placed on paid sick leave and do not return to work until they test negative. Historically, Christmas week is the most lucrative time of year for Broadway. But during the 2021 holiday, of the 32 shows running on Broadway, 10 canceled performances, citing COVID-19 outbreaks among actors and crew members. According to reports from the Broadway League, Broadway grosses fell by 26%.
But many long-running musicals have reserve funds from their pre-pandemic profits and federal grants, giving them enough leeway to shutter for a few performances. Not every production is so lucky. A number of shows have closed, including “Thoughts of a Colored Man,” “Waitress,” “Chicken & Biscuits,” and “Jagged Little Pill.” “Mrs. Doubtfire” announced that it will take a nine-week pause, laying off 115 members of its cast and crew in the interim. Both “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Girl From the North Country,” meanwhile, have announced closings, with hopes to reopen in the spring. “Thoughts of a Colored Man” was scheduled for a limited run through March 13. The show was close to recouping its $5 million investment when omicron hit. “We were doing very well. And that virus came in, and it just ravaged our cast,” said producer Brian Moreland of the seven-person show. Moreland admits that if he knew that omicron was coming, he would have hired more understudies. The last two years have made understudies and swings more necessary than ever. “I would probably have seven men onstage performing and seven men backstage in the wings,” he said Moreland. “It is a crazy moment.” Despite this development, he believes that there won’t be many more coronavirus-induced closures in the future. “It looks like we might have gotten through the worst of it,” he said. “And I think that people are able to prepare for it now. You see that it’s coming, and you’re able to make adjustments to your casts.”
