It looks like Broadway might be back in the fall. On March 25, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city will open up a dedicated vaccination site on Broadway for theater workers, as well as a mobile site for Off-Broadway theaters.
“The show will go on, on Broadway and off-Broadway when we get to the fall,” de Blasio promised at a press conference, saying that the theater industry generates $15 billion a year for the city and 100,000 jobs. “Our theater community needs it. These are folks who have given their heart and soul to creativity, to making New York City great, to making Broadway, the envy of the world. They deserve it. They deserve the opportunity to come back and do what they love, but our city needs it too. It’s part of our identity. It’s part of who we are. It’s part of what people love about New York City here and all around the world.
How would that work? De Blasio said that vaccination sites specifically for the theater community will be set up in the next four weeks. One will be a standing site “right in the heart of the Theater District,” the other will be a mobile site serving Off-Broadway theaters. The sites will be staffed with theater artists.
The Mayor also promised pop-up testing sites specifically for theater professionals, and the city will also work with theaters on plans to manage crowds entering and exiting venues. “The City of New York, we’ll do the vaccinations, we’ll do the testing. We’ll help with the crowd management, working with the theaters. We’ll do everything in our power to bring Broadway and off-Broadway back strong,” said de Blasio.
Which theater workers are eligible for the vaccine?
The announcement doesn’t mean that theater workers are now a classification of people who are eligible for the vaccine. Instead, de Blasio said, the dedicated vaccination sites will serve theater workers who are eligible under current state guidelines—and all theater workers will be eligible soon, since President Joe Biden has directed that all states make vaccines available to all adults by May 1, so the city is anticipating an influx of people looking for appointments. “We want to make vaccination accessible to the Broadway community by putting the centers, putting actual vaccination efforts right in their community, run by members of the Broadway community,” said de Blasio.
The Mayor also called on New York State to issue “clear guidelines” for the theater industry “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,” he said. “We need clear delineation on how to keep workers and performers safe. We need a clear approach for identifying spectators, audiences who have been vaccinated.”
On March 29, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that all New York residents aged 30 and older can begin receiving the vaccine starting March 30, and residents 16 and older starting April 6— just in time as some venues prepare to reopen.
New York State recently opened up vaccine eligibility to public-facing, not-for-profit workers. According to Off-Broadway theater Ars Nova’s Managing Director Renee Blinkwolt, this means that workers at nonprofit theaters (including actors) are now eligible for vaccination. “Arts and culture orgs in NYC are being advised by the city to encourage their arts workers to get vaccinated, and to provide them employment letters to support their efforts to do so,” she wrote in a series of Facebook posts. Ars Nova, as well as other theaters around the city, have been providing employment letters to their artists.
Throughout the press conference, de Blasio emphasized the importance of getting the theater community vaccinated quickly in order to meet a prospective September reopening for Broadway. “That’s one of the things we’ve heard most from the Broadway leadership, they need answers now to be able to get the shows back as early as September,” he said. “The vaccination effort will start in April, so we’ll have plenty of time to reach a lot of folks in the Broadway community.”
How did members of the Broadway community respond to the announcement?
Tony winner André De Shields and actor Telly Leung also spoke at the press conference in support of the Mayor’s announcement.
“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,” said De Shields. “As you said, the show must go on. Broadway may be experiencing this moratorium on its performances, but our personal shows have gone on. We’re ready. We’ve stayed in shape. Our voices are strong. All we need is a stage.”
“I know that we all have a long way to go as a community, but I really do think that today is a really good first step in our healing,” said Leung. “We help heal the soul, and we help unpack all of the trauma from the last year, not just from the pandemic, but also with the racial and social wounds that have come up because of the pandemic, which have been felt very acutely by my AAPI community in recent days. Artists will be essential in how we heal from this and understand the world and each other better so that we are stronger and better equipped to deal with other challenges that come our way together.”
How will more vaccines affect the entertainment industry?
Beginning in April, theater venues will be able to reopen at 33% capacity, with a maximum of 100 audience members indoors and 200 audience members outdoors. And if all attendees present proof of a negative COVID-19 test prior to entry, that capacity can increase up to 150 people indoors and up to 500 people outdoors.
Meanwhile, a number of states have announced dates where all adults will be eligible to be vaccinated. On March 25, California announced that all residents 16 and up will be eligible to be vaccinated beginning April 15, a buoy for Hollywood and California screen actors.
Actors’ Equity Association, who had been advocating for theater actors to be prioritized in the vaccination efforts, applauded de Blasio’s announcement.
“Today’s announcement is an important recognition from the City of New York that a strong theatre industry means a healthy, strong economy,” said Mary McColl, executive director of Equity. “Mayor de Blasio clearly understands that we cannot socially distance in our work, making the availability of vaccines and testing critical for maintaining a safe workplace. We have been having conversations with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment about safety on a regular basis throughout the pandemic. It is clear that we were heard and the city is pushing forward-looking policy changes that will serve the entire theatrical community. We are grateful for the leadership of Mayor de Blasio.”
On April 1, the COVID Theatre Think Tank, a group of theater professionals around the country, will host an online “National Town Hall on Theatre & COVID.” The event will discuss what reopening might look like for theaters. White House Senior Advisor for the COVID-19 Response Andy Slavitt, infectious disease epidemiologist and economist Blythe Adamson, and CUNY Graduate School of Public Health professor Bruce Y. Lee are confirmed to speak. The webinar is free to attend and advance registration is required.