In last week’s Trends Journal, we reported that both New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the “Big Apple” would be re-opening very soon.
While de Blasio stated the city would fully reopen by 1 July, Cuomo put in some caveats.
In our 4 May article, “NEW YORK: READY TO REOPEN. CALLS FOR MASS VAX,” we wrote:
The state will also allow dancing during catered events as long as the participants wear masks and maintain social distancing.
“To be clear: we will only be able to maintain this process if everyone gets the COVID vaccine… otherwise we risk going backward,” Cuomo said.
This past week, Governor Cuomo, who is under multiple investigations by the FBI; the U.S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn; and his own state assembly for covering up nursing home fatalities, sexual harassment, and using public funds to get his book deal completed, said that Broadway shows would have to wait until 14 September to raise their curtains.
According to a New York Times article published last Thursday, the real reason for the four-month delay is “gut-based: individually and collectively, they are trying to imagine when large numbers of people are likely to feel comfortable traveling to Times Square, funneling through cramped lobbies and walking down narrow aisles to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers.”
Broadway producers have stated that given the high costs of production, “there’s no way they can afford to reopen with social distancing.”
Confirming that political leaders shut down economies and mandated severe social restrictions without having any end game as to how to reopen, The New York Times article stated, “Every economic sector will have to figure out when and how to restart, and every individual will have to figure out when and how to re-emerge.”
Broadway, once a beacon of attraction that helped make New York City the most vibrant city in the world, is “home to 41 theaters [and] drew 14.6 million people who spent $1.8 billion on tickets in 2019.” The government lockdowns forced them all to close on 12 March 2020.
Reopening is going to be far more complicated than shutting down. One of the biggest challenges the industry faces is the tourist trade, which made up roughly two-thirds of Broadway’s audience.
Still not clear: Will theater-goers be required to wear masks during performances? Will theater owners make proof of vaccination a requirement to get in?
When asked about a potential vaccination requirement, Governor Cuomo’s response was: “Are you willing to go into an indoor theater and sit there for two hours next to a person who you don’t know if they are vaccinated or unvaccinated?”
The producers of The Phantom of the Opera have clarified that anyone wanting to see the show would have to provide proof of vaccination or a negative test result.
TRENDPOST: Interesting that the producers of The Phantom of the Opera are forcing proof of vaccination to attend, as the play is based on a plot about an evil abduction.
In keeping with “The Phantom,” a bill is currently being pushed through in New York State that requires health care providers who administer any vaccines to a person 19 years of age or older to report all such immunizations to the New York State Department of Health.
The database will thus identify noncompliant adults and further push for vaccine passports and systems of vaccine-based segregation.
