New York Defendants Must Respond By November 20 to Off-Broadway Theatres Pushing to Reopen

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, earlier this month, a group of 12 Off Broadway theaters and comedy club owners went to court arguing that small venues with enhanced air filtration systems should be allowed to open at 25% capacity.

On Tuesday, the court confirmed that the New York defendants must respond to the theaters, TheaterandLaw.com reports. The defendants are expected to also explain why it should not issue a preliminary injunction to stop the government from enforcing the shut own of small venue theaters in New York. They are required to provide their response by November 20, 2020.

Among the small venues pushing to reopen are The Theater Center, The Players Theater, The Actors Temple Theatre, Soho Playhouse, The Gene Frankel Theater, The Triad, Broadway Comedy Club, and New York Comedy Club.

The theaters have argued that the small venue theater industry generates $1.3 billion in total economic output, employs over 8400 full-time individuals and pays more than $512 million in wages. They believe that it is unfair that restaurants, gyms, bowling alleys and casinos have been allowed to open, as well as Saturday Night Live being allowed to resume production.

"When you first learn to ride a bike, you need training wheels in order to feel safe," said Catherine Russell, owner of the Theater Center. "We think of our Off-Broadway venues as the 'training wheels' for Broadway audiences next summer."

Read more on TheaterandLaw.com and the original story on BroadwayWorld.