Industry Pro

The return to Broadway videos have been rolling out over the past few weeks from various shows as they all get ready to welcome back audiences this fall - but the This is Broadway campaign from the League of Broadway Theatres is a beautiful love letter to the stage - and the League hopes it will encourage audiences to come back by reminding them of why they fell in love with the stage in the first place. With more Broadway shows set to welcome back audiences this week, we'll continue tracking developments of both audience and artists safety.

Many theatres feel that if they don’t press forward, then they’ll be sealing their own fate - that leaves many to be faced with seemingly impossible decisions: do we continue streaming and not bring anyone back in? Do we produce a hybrid season? Are our audiences ready to come back?

The last year and a half has had a lot of members of the theatre industry questioning what was meant by business as usual - and many of those questions have a lot of merit. While theatres have spent much of the pandemic trying to survive, they’ve also been spending time trying to not only answer those questions, but find the best path forward.

Despite recent headlines about the delta variant of COVID-19, more regions are preparing to move ahead with reopening plans. While this will certainly bring about some hesitation from audience members, most survey data indicates that with the proper safety plan, audiences are motivated to come and see the show.

With Pass Over moving into their space, another big step was taken on the Road to Reopening for Broadway in particular - along with the announcement of safety plans and procedures from the League and Unions.

Last week, AEA announced that they were opening up membership to anyone who had worked professionally in the American theatre, more productions in the UK were forced to cancel performances, and Steppenwolf announced new leadership.

The news felt like it made a distinct shift after the Fourth of July weekend, with more show openings, casting announcements, and season announcements being the focus, as opposed to ongoing issues related to the pandemic.

The news felt like it made a distinct shift after the Fourth of July weekend, with more show openings, casting announcements, and season announcements being the focus, as opposed to ongoing issues related to the pandemic.

As we hit the start of the second half of the year, the news stories over the last week really exemplify what we’ll be tracking throughout the fall: Sydney has had to re-enter lockdown, more regions are committing to reopening plans, and the Unions and Producers are working long hours to try and reach agreements to move the industry forward safely.

It was a big week in New York theatre as Bruce Springsteen opened a Broadway show for the first time in 15 months to a fully vaccinated crowd. While theatre has continued in various forms throughout the pandemic, seeing the return of a show to one of the major commercial centers of the industry was an important step from an economic and emotional standpoint.

While the UK has delayed their full reopening date by nearly a month, other regions across the globe continue to roll back many of the restrictions they had in place. However, the patchwork of rollbacks and differing approaches to live theatre has many arts administrators feeling stretched beyond reason.

While audiences may still be waiting a bit for the rest of their family to get vaccinated (particularly families with children), they are starting to make plans to see shows later this year - making now a great time to start marketing your productions.

With the UK only a few weeks away from their most recently proposed date of full capacity in theatres, a new variant has put those plans into limbo - and producers aren't happy about it. Stateside, more theatres continue to announce their season plans, and things are beginning to look a lot more solid than they did even two months ago.

As the calendar turns to June, we’re one step closer to Broadway reopening, fewer audience restrictions in the UK, and more theatre companies taking steps toward performing in the great outdoors. All of these are great signs for the industry, and increased arts funding are yet another sign that the days are starting to get a bit brighter.

In a week filled with another flurry of announcements, the CDC’s announcement loosening mask wearing guidelines for fully vaccinated individuals solidified the reopening timeline for many theatres. While this is causing adjustments to seating plans (towards higher capacity), planning for bringing back company members, and more - the news was more than welcome by most in the entertainment industry.

In a week filled with another flurry of announcements, the CDC’s announcement loosening mask wearing guidelines for fully vaccinated individuals solidified the reopening timeline for many theatres. While this is causing adjustments to seating plans (towards higher capacity), planning for bringing back company members, and more - the news was more than welcome by most in the entertainment industry.

On Wednesday, May 12th at 2pm Eastern, BroadwayWorld is teaming up with Axiom Medical to present a free webinar called Safely Taking the Stage - Best Proactive Strategies for Success. You can register for free here, but we also wanted to give you a quick preview of some of the topics that we’ll be focusing on during the discussion:

Solid plans are finally forming for the return of Broadway, and we are now within a week of West End theatres returning to performance. For the past few months, every time a new major production has opened, it has felt like a baby step towards normalcy.

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Reopening announcements continue to pour in from around the world, and even in New York last week a timeline has started to be narrowed in on the return of shows both on Broadway and off. More and more municipalities have given clearer guidance on the easing of their restrictions - and the weather is even starting to turn to temperatures that support outdoor events.

One thing is certain: the performing arts will be a changed industry as we come out of the other side of the pandemic. From changes in business model, to new budget priorities to deal with potential shortfalls, to a deeper understanding of the ways the industry has failed in DEI efforts in the past, there will be few, if any, institutions that come back as the same institution they were before. That isn't a guarantee that this change is going to be all for the positive, and no matter what, there will continue to be growing pains as groups across the industry grapple with the way things were, the way they want things to be, and the way things are. This week, we have stories of the new generation of leaders coming to the fore in the midst of this upheaval, stories of cities starting to get their performing arts industries open again, and a look at how the industry has shifted over the past year, and where it can go from here.

The pandemic has not only had a deep impact on the entertainment industry from a financial perspective, it has also brought into stark relief the inequalities that have existed just below the surface - and as more regions move toward reopening, more questions continue within the industry of how companies should function when they do reopen.

As vaccines continue to roll out across the country, the puzzle of how to safely reopen gains some clarity - but with that clarity come new questions. This week, we have coverage of new production guidelines from AEA as well as concerns over the feasibility of vaccine or negative test requirements of audiences.

With off-Broadway performances resuming at some venues in New York, mid-May openings in the UK, and performances already underway in Australia and some parts of Asia, things are steadily returning to a sense of normal in the performing arts industry.

With off-Broadway performances resuming at some venues in New York, mid-May openings in the UK, and performances already underway in Australia and some parts of Asia, things are steadily returning to a sense of normal in the performing arts industry.