"Three hundred and eighty-seven days after Broadway went dark, a faint light started to glimmer on Saturday.
There were just two performers — one at a time — on a bare Broadway stage. But together they conjured up decades of theater lore, invoking the songs and shows and stars that once filled the grand houses in and around Times Square.
The 36-minute event, before a masked audience of 150 scattered across an auditorium with 1,700 seats, was the first such experiment since the coronavirus pandemic caused all 41 Broadway houses to close on March 12, 2020, and industry leaders are hoping it will be a promising step on what is sure to be a slow and bumpy road to eventual reopening."
I haven't seen any of them available for replay yet -- although I haven't looked very hard. If you follow NYPopsUp on IG and sign up to be alerted about their new posts, they'll send you notifications whenever a live performance is starting.
Last Friday night Justin Vivian Bond did a 30 minute show from Hudson that was pretty great.
These were glorious. Savion Glover tapped softly and then furiously as he "sang" (I'll put it in quotes because it was a combination of speaking and singing) lines from various showtunes. His delivery of "everything's ehhh in America" made me giggle, and I sat in awe watching his feet and his genius.Then Nathan Lane walked out. I was initially disappointed that he was doing a monologue, but it was so full of love, joy, and longing that my heart swelled. We were his character, and he (and his monologue writer) captured us pretty perfectly. I hope we get to see more of these pop up to tide us over until we have a real opening.
Good work as per usual, Mr. Paulson, and congrats to Lane and Glover for bringing a small sliver of live theatre back to New York City!
Looks like the St. James was awakened for a bit by the ghost of Max Bialystock- can you believe it's been 20 years since Lane opened The Producers in that very house?
Smooth, I apologize for the misunderstanding, I watched it live on IG. But, I do donate generously to Broadway Cares every December in honor of my lovely Uncle who passed away when I was a child of Aids complications.