Joel Grey Pens Essay on the Struggle of Life Without Theatre and Looks Ahead to the Great Works that Will Come

Broadway fans everywhere continue to feel a void in the absence of live theatre, and Joel Grey is no exception. The Tony winner has written an opinion piece, featured in the New York Times, in which he admits to his struggle with the today's reality.

"To non-theater lovers, lamenting the closing of Broadway in the face of so much widespread suffering may seem, at best, frivolous," he writes. "But for many of us, this tragedy has been made that much more devastating by having to face the nightmare without the laughter, tears and sense of community that a night in the theater delivers."

Grey goes on to compare the trauma caused by this health crisis to that of the Vietnam War, AIDS epidemic, and the September 11th attacks. He writes: "The theater provides a fundamental way in which we process pain and learn to heal. And now, in this moment of such great loss and confusion, where do we go?"

"I'm taking comfort in the thought that at hundreds - maybe thousands - of desks around the world right now, great playwrights with too much free time on their hands are unleashing their wisdom, their fury and their boundless compassion upon the challenges we face," Grey concludes. "We may just have to wait a little longer than usual for the relief and understanding that all of that important work will provide. And when that important work arrives, I'll be ready."

Click here to read his full piece at the New York Times.

Joel Grey, best known for his Tony- and Academy Award-winning performance as the Emcee in Cabaret, is the multi-award-nominated director of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish and a co-director of the Tony Award-winning production of The Normal Heart. Other Broadway credits include George M, Chicago, Wicked, and Anything Goes. Joel is also an internationally exhibited photographer with five published books, and his work is part of the permanent collection of The Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.