In a hopeful sign for performing arts organizations, music venues and theater producers seeking help to resume live, in-person programming, the federal government’s shuttered-venue subsidy program had $6 billion remaining after its first week accepting applications.Continue Reading
‘CHICAGO,’ ‘SIX,’ ‘PHANTOM’ LIMIT PERFORMANCES ON REOPENING
Some of the first Broadway shows to return in the fall will restart gradually.
Six , the pop concert musical that was poised to open when Broadway shut down in March 2020, is offering tickets for six performances a week after it returns on Sept. 17. Exceptions are its first full week of previews — when it’s scheduled for seven performances — and holiday weeks, when it will play seven or eight shows. Its limited performance schedule is through March, according to Ticketmaster, its primary ticket outlet.Continue Reading
CUOMO SAYS BROADWAY CAN REOPEN AT FULL CAPACITY SEPT. 14; RECOMMENDS INDUSTRY REQUIRE VACCINATION FOR ENTRY
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today that Broadway can resume performances at 100 percent capacity on Sept. 14 and recommends that Broadway require Covid-19 vaccinations for entry to theaters.
“The simplest formula: 100 percent vaccinated,” Cuomo said at a news conference. “The theaters are going to have to make those decisions.”Continue Reading
PRODUCERS WEIGH REDUCING PERFORMANCE WEEK FOR RESTART
As Broadway faces the unprecedented challenge of reopening after at least 18 dark months, producers have proposed cutting back the standard eight-performance week while demand for tickets ramps up.
“One of the ideas that’s being thrown around is instead of doing eight performances a week, doing four performances a week for a while as things get started again — and prorating everything,” said Carl Pasbjerg, the general manager of the musical Come From Away and the upcoming Music Man, starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster.Continue Reading
GOODBYE CAR & DRIVER: EQUITY LOOSENS RULES FOR VACCINATED WORKPLACES
Actors’ Equity Association says if everyone in a theater company has been vaccinated, a show may go on without adhering to the union’s pricey pandemic protocols.
“Vaccination will be a game changer for all of us,” Actors’ Equity Executive Director Mary McColl wrote to the membership Friday afternoon, while announcing guidelines for theaters and rehearsal spaces in which actors and stage managers are fully vaccinated. “Vaccines will not only add a significant layer of protection for each individual stage manager and actor, but also allow us to loosen some of the safety restrictions required in a pre-vaccine world.”
WEAR A MASK, AVOID THE INTERMISSION: LESSONS FROM THE COVID THINK TANK TOWN HALL
The rapid rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine has increased optimism about indoor theater swiftly reopening in the U.S. Infectious disease specialists Thursday afternoon said Covid 19-testing, enhanced theater ventilation and continued mask-wearing are also key to restarting the industry, which must be done gradually.
“I try to remind people, there’s not going to be one flip-the-switch moment in society,” Andy Slavitt, White House senior advisor on the coronavirus, told an audience of about 500 streaming live. “There will be a moving of the dial, step by step.”Continue Reading
ACTORS PAN THEIR UNION’S COVID PROTOCOLS
Actors’ Equity Association recently announced far-reaching health protocols that producers complained would prohibitively increase the cost of presenting theater and delay the industry’s restart after a year of being sidelined by Covid-19. This week, some 2,000 actors and stage managers signed a petition calling the procedures impractical and criticized their union’s leadership for inadequately communicating with members.
“Equity’s protocols from just over a week ago seem to be based on science from six months ago,” the actors wrote to Equity President Kate Shindle and Executive Director Mary McColl. “We are hopeful that the issue of realistic and detailed protocols to return to work can be prioritized so that funds can return to our union.”Continue Reading
‘REBECCA’ PRODUCER SENTENCED TO FIVE YEARS OF PROBATION IN CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CASE
Ben Sprecher, who has produced shows and managed theaters in New York since the early 1980s and is best-known for a Broadway musical that collapsed before it could open, was sentenced Thursday afternoon to five years of probation for possessing child pornography. He’ll be required to publicly register as a sex offender in any state in which he resides.
Judge J. Paul Oetken accepted the recommendation of the producer’s court-appointed lawyer, Martin S. Cohen of the Federal Defenders of New York. Citing the seriousness of the crime, the Justice Department had sought a prison term of 78 to 97 months. The U.S. Probation Department recommended a year and a day of incarceration.Continue Reading
MASKED AUDIENCES, CAR & DRIVERS FOR CAST: ACTORS’ EQUITY WANTS PRICEY PROTECTIONS BEFORE MEMBERS RETURN
EXCLUSIVE: For theater actors, a car and driver is generally a perquisite reserved for bankable stars.
In this pandemic, the labor union Actors’ Equity Association considers private transport a basic necessity.
“Mass-transit will not be used and if needed, dedicated transportation arrangements will be arranged by the employer,” Equity announced last week in a post on its website that details safety protocols for indoor productions with an audience. Equity, which represents actors and stage managers, lists just one “dedicated transportation arrangement” (presumably in addition to walking, biking and operating one’s own vehicle): a private car service with a driver who’s masked and gloved.Continue Reading
‘BOOK OF MORMON’S BLACK ACTORS PUSH TO CHANGE PORTRAYAL OF AFRICANS (EXCLUSIVE)
If and when The Book of Mormon resumes performances on Broadway, the take-no-prisoners musical will reconsider its mission.
In a video call last summer organized by lead producer Anne Garefino, co-writers Trey Parker and Matt Stone assured Black cast members that they were eager to take a fresh look at the 10-year-old blockbuster and were open to making changes, a person familiar with the conversation said. The call came in response to a letter from the actors — both original and current cast members — outlining their concerns regarding the musical, which is about inept Mormon missionaries in a Ugandan village ravaged by AIDS and civil war. Among other issues, the letter addresses the challenges of differentiating between racial stereotyping and satirical storytelling, especially in moments of the show when African characters are treated as “props and punchlines.”Continue Reading
