Broadway Revival: Fall 2021

Image courtesy townandcountrymag.com

By Caroline Morris

Lights, camera, action! Broadway is back on… hopefully.

On March 25, 2021, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio held a press conference about the future of the Big Apple. The first topic: reopening Broadway.

The theaters of New York City have been shut down since March 12, 2020. Now, more than a year later, de Blasio is prepping the city and declared, “It’s time to raise the curtain and bring Broadway back.”

De Blasio put a strong emphasis on the need to lay the groundwork for safety measures so that Broadway theaters can reopen in a COVID-19 friendly manner. He outlined his four pronged plan for the next four weeks after the press conference.

The first step is setting up a “dedicated COVID-19 vaccination site on Broadway for the theater industry.” This site is to be put in the heart of the theater district and to be worked by those in the theater community. The second step is another vaccination location, this one a “mobile unit for off-Broadway”

Step three will be “pop-up COVID testing sites by theaters” on and off-Broadway, as a safety precaution to make sure performers, crew, and audiences test negative for the virus before attending any shows.

Lastly, de Blasio and his team are “developing plans to manage crowds before and after shows.”

In outlining these steps, de Blasio also put pressure on the state of New York for help, as many of the necessary steps require state action.

“So I’m calling upon the state to please, quickly, issue clear guidance for theater workers in terms of mask usage, in terms of how we use proof of vaccination or proof of negative testing to help ensure that everyone can work and that crowds can come back in the fall,” de Blasio said.

The mayor also addressed the importance of Broadway and the theater district as a part of New York City. 

De Blasio highlighted both the economic and cultural significance of the theater community. There are 100,000 jobs in the theatre industry in the city, and it has an economic impact of 15 billion dollars a year.

But Broadway and other theaters are a crucial part of the cultural identity of New York City. This community is one of the city’s most influential and defining characteristics.

De Blasio made it clear that, especially in response to the pandemic,  “the hope that comes from live performance” is absolutely crucial.

Those in the theater industry “deserve the opportunity to come back and do what they love, but our city needs it too,” de Blasio said.

This promise and call to action to have Broadway open again by September was supported by Broadway stars André De Shields of The Wiz  and Telly Leung of Aladdin.

De Shields commented on the current state of New York City.

“New York is on its way back but it will not completely arrive until, not only Broadway, but all theater across this great city has returned,” he said.

In the same interview, the star also gave his take on why reviving the theater scene is so important.

“What’s important about the return of the theater are the stories that we love to share. That’s the power of our profession, because we know that through our storytelling we can transform individual lives.”

Leung echoed this sentiment soon thereafter, claiming: “[Artists] help heal the soul.”

Hopefully, these actors will get to take to the stage once more by the fall. According to De Shields, they’ll be ready when the time comes: 

“We’ve stayed in shape, our voices are strong, all we need is a stage.”