Plays, concerts and other performances can resume from next month in New York – albeit with greatly reduced capacity limits – said Governor Andrew M. Cuomo on Wednesday.
Mr Cuomo said at a news conference in Albany that arts, entertainment and event venues can reopen April 2 at 33 percent capacity, with a limit of 100 people indoors or 200 people outdoors and a requirement that all Participants wearing masks and masks must be socially distant. These limits would be increased – to 150 people indoors or 500 people outdoors – if all participants test negative before entering.
A handful of venues immediately said they were hosting live performances that, with few exceptions, have not taken place in New York since Broadway closed on March 12.
Producers Scott Rudin and Jane Rosenthal said they expected some of the earliest performances to take place with pop-up programs in Broadway theaters, as well as with programs in non-profit venues with flexible spaces, including the Apollo Theater, Park Avenue Armory, St. Ann’s Warehouse, the Shed, Harlem Stage, La MaMa and the National Black Theater.
“We can finally realize this community of audience and performers that we have longed for a year,” said Alex Poots, the Shed’s artistic director and managing director, who plans to start early on with indoor performances for audiences with limited capacity start April.
Broadway League president Charlotte St. Martin said the new rules will have no impact on commercial productions of Broadway plays and musicals that are expected to open after Labor Day.
“The financial model just doesn’t work for a traditional Broadway show,” she said. “How do we know? Because shows that bring that kind of presence close. “
Mr Cuomo announced his plan to ease restrictions as New York, along with New Jersey, added new coronavirus cases with the highest rates in the country last week: both reported 38 new cases per 100,000 people. (The nation as a whole has an average of 20 per 100,000 people.) And New York City is currently adding cases that have a per capita rate about three times that of Los Angeles County.
The union’s Actors’ Equity responded by asking Mr Cuomo to “prioritize vaccination of members of the arts sector”.
Many nonprofits welcomed the new rules as a sign of hope and as a first step towards recovery. “We have suffered immense losses and there is still a long way to go,” said Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of the public theater Corner of the worst crisis American theater has ever seen. “
Lincoln Center and Glimmerglass Festival have already announced plans to perform outdoors this year, and the new rules clarify how many people can attend.
“We welcome the new guidelines and want to serve as many people as possible on our campus,” said Isabel Sinistore, a Lincoln Center spokeswoman who plans to open 10 outdoor performance and rehearsal rooms on April 7th.
For many New York music venues, 33 percent capacity may still not be enough to economically reopen, cover the costs of running the venues and paying the performers.
“It doesn’t make financial sense to open the Blue Note with only 66 seats for shows,” said Steven Bensusan, president of the Blue Note Entertainment Group, whose flagship jazz club is in Greenwich Village.
Smaller music venues, which are among the eligible recipients of $ 15 billion in federal aid, have been eagerly awaiting permission to reopen. But even with vaccinations increasing and the recent rule change in New York, it may be months before the touring industry resumes, and even then the venues say they will need help.
The Blue Note, along with a few other jazz spots that serve food, had reopened for dinner performances last fall so they could put on some shows without breaking government regulations that are anything but “random” music had forbidden. (Some venues and musicians had filed lawsuits against these rules.) Then the city closed indoor dining again and some clubs didn’t reopen when it was allowed to resume last month.
Michael Swier, the owner of the Bowery Ballroom and Mercury Lounge, two of New York’s most iconic rock clubs, said the state’s ruling that venues require social distancing and the wearing of masks may result in actual capacity in many Clearing is much less.
“Given that social distancing is still part of the metric, we’re going back to about 20 percent capacity, which is unsustainable,” Swier said.
Several promoters and promoters said they are aiming to reopen with 100 percent capacity, which many hope can happen this summer.
However, some small nonprofits immediately showed interest. At Tank, a midtown Manhattan arts venue with a 98-seat theater, Meghan Finn, their art director, said within hours of the governor’s announcement she heard of comedians eager to resume the indoor performance.
“We will not miss the ability to use our space,” said Ms. Finn.
The Joyce Theater in Manhattan had expected to get the audience back to the live dance in September, but Linda Shelton, its executive director, said she and her team would have “hard work” to do in the coming days as they judge whether they are staging a short-term performance makes financial sense and can be carried out safely.
“We have a couple of things that we could come up with pretty quickly,” she said.
Leon Botstein, president of Bard College, home of the fishing center for the performing arts in Annandale-on-Hudson, which hosts a prestigious summer music festival, said the move was a “welcome first step”.
“One hundred is a good number to start with,” said Mr Botstein. “This is April’s number. Let’s hope the number will be bigger in June. “
A variety of nonprofit theaters said they found the news encouraging.
Signature Theater artistic director Paige Evans said she had already hired playwright Lynn Nottage and director Miranda Haymon to create a multimedia performance installation in the theater’s spacious lobby this summer, and the new rules should enable the audience to participate.
Rebecca Robertson, the founding president and executive producer of Park Avenue Armory, said she, too, is eager to make people feel welcome again. “It will be exciting to have a live audience that is responsive to the work,” she said.
Other organizations said the loose rules would allow them to envision new programs. El Museo del Barrio said it would try to develop outdoor works for parks, on streets or in borrowed spaces.
“Finally,” said Leonard Jacobs, interim executive director of the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning in southeast Queens, “we have good government guidance to take those first steps back to normal life.”
Ben Sisario and Matt Stevens contributed to the coverage.
