Industry Pro

The Tony Awards are on Sunday, and that feels really normal. Anyone who has walked through Times Square in the past week or so would also attest that the crush of tourists is also starting to feel normal. Box Offices across the country are starting to normalize, though I don’t know anyone wants to go so far as to call them normal quite yet.

As we hit the unofficial start of summer, overall the trends are looking up for Broadway and the broader theatre industry. That isn’t to say there aren’t ongoing challenges: ever-shifting health and safety protocols, continued reports of toxic work environments that need to be sorted, and a major shift in how audiences are buying tickets.

As awards season continues forward, there is a strong sense of normalcy within the industry - however, the announcement last week from both the Broadway League and at least one regional arts organization that mask mandates will continue into the summer is a strong reminder that we aren’t yet back to normal.

While governmental support over the past few years has helped companies stay afloat, with rising costs and additional pandemic related support no longer an option, the realities are starting to settle in.

Tony Awards season is officially underway! With the announcement yesterday of the nominations, BroadwayWorld will be bringing you continuous coverage, stories, and exclusive interviews leading up to the big night in June.

At the top of our Industry Trends section this week, we have a story about honey from the bees at the Vienna State Opera. Paired with our other story about implementing digital ticketing at venues, we can see this as two ways that companies can go about reducing the environmental harm that comes from producing large-scale live events.

The rising costs of production are putting a squeeze on many theatres - from Long Wharf to the Edinburgh fringe. While some of these costs are inflation related and are sure to come back down in the long term, it does leave the question of what theatres and producers can do as they try and recover from the past two years of challenges.

While all Broadway theatres will still require strict audience masking through at least the end of May, many will stop checking audience members vaccination status on April 30th. Regionally, news about new businesses and new performance spaces for companies, and on Broadway, Disney Theatrical brings a new wrinkle to ticketing.

Broadway companies announcing cancellations and temporary layoffs as they deal with a new COVID surge within the theatre industry. What this will ultimately mean as we approach the Tony eligibility cutoff date remains to be seen, but there is a tension in the air as many shows work hard to get open and protect their stars from catching the virus.

Survey data suggest that theatregoers want to see mitigation measures - such as vaccination requirements and masked audiences - remain in place for the foreseeable future. This survey data specifically comes from DC, but the Broadway League is also taking notice and mulling their own plan whether or not to extend these requirements past April 30th.

Last week, we got two different sets of data that started to make a case for the current state of the cultural economy - a report from the NEA laying out just how bad things got in the depths of 2020 (and hinting at some initial recovery in 2021) - and the first time The Broadway League reported individual show grosses since Broadway reopened.

New data points show that the theatre industry is once again at an inflection point - first, data backs up the anecdotal sense that the recovery from the pandemic shutdown has been uneven across the globe, and across different regions within countries. With pandemic response being handled on a local level, this uneven recovery is not surprising.

The announcement of the Tony Awards and the return of the BC/EFA Red Bucket campaign brought a huge sense of normalcy back to the theatre industry last week - unfortunately this week, we were also reminded how far the industry has to go in establishing the new normal with the release of Actors Equity Association’s latest Diversity and Inclusion report.

With many of the pandemic restrictions being lifted in New York City this week, that the Broadway COVID safety team will celebrate their 2,000th performance on Broadway Tuesday night highlights the new phase of normalcy that the industry has entered.

The geopolitical landscape shifted in a major way over the weekend, with Russia invading Ukraine in an unprovoked attack on their sovereignty. The resulting conflict has caused many arts organizations, including the Met Opera, to cut ties with artists and organizations that are connected to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Congratulations to Gulfshore Playhouse on becoming the 77th member of the League of Resident Theatre’s - a story we have under the regional section of this week’s newsletter. We also have the story of Hollywood retaining their return to work protocols to keep their sets as safe as possible, even as several states and municipalities roll back their own mandates.

Across the industry last week, two trends have begun to emerge more fully: the first being we continue to have more data on just how bleak things were for the industry over the past two years. The second is that more companies are ready to emerge from that darkness stronger than ever - with new spaces ready to open and new seasons being announced.

While the data from the early winter show that Broadway’s reopening didn’t go as planned, and the January closing announcements were an emotional blow after the Omicron surge, the slate of opening dates announced on Broadway for early to mid-April, have many in the industry starting to feel optimistic that this time a corner has truly been turned.

While we’ve thought we were looking at this turning point before, that doesn’t change the fact that the work to bring further equity to the industry remains ongoing, and as companies continue to chart their paths forward, many are working to build that equity into their recovery.

In New York, some governmental support may be renewed for the performing arts sector in the form of the New York City Musical and Theatrical Production Tax Credit. Meanwhile last week, members of the creative economy were in front of the House Small Business Committee to lobby for more support from a national level.

News of more closings - and planned reopenings - highlighted the Broadway news last week, and Broadway and many regions also announced an extension of mask mandates and vaccination requirements for audiences into the spring, serving as a reminder that the path to that final “new normal” will likely have a few more twists and turns before we arrive.

As the industry works to both emerge from the pandemic and deal with the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, responses are starting to differ based on region. Some Broadway producers are prioritizing their ongoing tours, others are pulling people from the tour to keep running on Broadway. In Chicago, no food and drink are allowed in the theatre.

While the next few weeks may be rough within the industry as we continue to grapple with another surge in the virus related both to the new variant and holiday travel, we remain in a much stronger position - new treatments are available for those that do contract the virus, and the number of people receiving vaccines and boosters continues to rise.

While the production shutdowns (and recent closing announcements) are an echo of March 2020, it is important to remember that across Broadway and across the country, there were many productions that were able to continue their holiday performance schedule without interruption, thanks to the health and safety protocols that theatres have in place.

The cancellations. The story in the industry of the last week or so has been reminiscent of March 2020, though as many observers and epidemiologists have reminded theatre fans - it isn’t as bad as that. The cancelled performances are a sign that testing programs are working.