CULTURE
Only Intermission
Amber Liu
I had planned to spend my spring break watching as many Broadway shows as I could, and I never thought the then-downplayed threat of COVID-19 would change that. Before 2020, the longest time that Broadway closed was in 1919. It wasn’t due to their pandemic, but because of worker strikes that went on for a month. Now we are over 200 days past March 12, when statewide measures shut down Broadway theaters and gatherings of over 500 people. They still have not been lifted. So what has The Great White Way done to adapt? Attempts to replicate the same live experience online to maintain income for 97,000 Broadway workers—and to appease theater audiences—have resulted in virtual gatherings. The most notable example is the release of the live taping of “Hamilton” on Disney+, which on its first weekend resulted in over 500,000 mobile downloads of the app and many more online downloads. Fans who did not have the resources to see these shows in person were elated. Broadway has also begun to host different online performances and fundraisers that have raised millions of dollars for workers’ compensations, and the increase in online presence has introduced fans to shows they may not have heard
of. Since April, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s program “The Show Must Go On” has released a live taping of a musical for 48 hours for free, with donations going to theater employees affected by the pandemic. This has unfortunately not been enough for some productions. Shows such as “Frozen,” “Beetlejuice” and “Hangmen” will remain closed for good. Recently, John Gore Productions laid off a hundred workers. Refunds had to be issued by productions nationwide, and actors’ attempts to perform live streams have faced the challenge of copyright claims and legalities. As of now, Broadway will remain suspended until January 3, 2021. However, experts have said that even reducing theater capacities by half will not generate enough income for shows to survive. In anticipation of this, Broadway has taken the initiative to innovate. Over the summer, director Michael Arden presented an outdoor moving live performance called “American Dream Society,” an invite-only experience where audience members were asked to drive along a certain path, with each stop showcasing a different scene of the play. Most recently, the upcoming show “Diana: A New 27
