Broadway can come back – by stealing tricks from local theaters

On April 8, a reporter in Albany asked Governor Cuomo about the cancellation of the recent Broadway show until June 7 and what the plan meant for the country at large. The governor replied, “I will not use what Broadway thinks is any barometer unless they are in the public health business and have seen better numbers and models.”

Meow!

Cuomo, as he often did when he was elegant, was completely misunderstood. A pencil date in the Broadway League is not a very strict comeback, but a method of managing travel plans and cash flow as the situation continues to develop. In a way, it becomes less responsible for canceling shows throughout January, unless you have DeLorean traveling with time. (Broadway is currently closed until September 6).

Cuomo’s turning tone is worrying. Broadway is the source of tourism life for New York City, the largest metropolitan city in the country. You can’t have serious talk about reopening restaurants and hotels without including Broadway, which drives thousands of people into the business every day. Absent only 41 theaters, Times Square is little more than a few big screen TVs and H&M. Cuomo then dumped the theater into Phase 4 which was not clear, which shrugged, and the plan was reopened, with all the encouragement and wisdom to complete Second Avenue Subway.

He was part of a growing trend of professional scolding, which when the world began to reduce locking of coronavirus for crippling weeks, preferred to question and curse rather than productive ideas of spitball. A sad story in The Atlantic about London’s West End doubts whether the theater has any attraction in the near future, asking, “When do we want to sit in a room full of strangers again?”

Alright, get me a mask – I’ll be there in 15 minutes!

Instead of blasting theater as a trivial and frivolous thing during a crisis, shouldn’t we praise companies that creatively adjust to our new reality now? In our lock-up weeks, we not only flatten the curves, we also fatten our knowledge. We now know that a 6 foot distance is good, so is a mask; outside the room is relatively safe. Why can’t the theater use that info to develop responsibly?

Inventive theater in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, already exists. They have devised a sound and innovative plan to begin production in August.

The Barrington Stage Company, a major regional theater where Tony Award-winning musical, “The 25th Putnam County Spelling Bee” begins, counteracts the trend of postponing the season to 2021 and continuing the show. His offer will include small dramas, such as “The Price” by Arthur Miller, and intimate concerts such as performances by 92-year-old cabaret star Marilyn Maye. They will be shown in the main stage theater BSC with a third capacity, or outside the room, with lots of hand sanitizer and without channels.

“It should feel like a big party, very relaxed,” said old artistic director Julianne Boyd told Berkshire Edge. “All the performances that we do are in one round, 80 minutes or more, so there is no break, no long lines in the lobby for bathrooms or drinks.”

Frankly, that sounds great even when we’re not socializing.

A study in April in China examined the source of 318 coronavirus outbreaks. While most occur indoors or public transportation, only one happens in the open air, which only involves two cases. The growing consensus is that transmission in parks or on the sidewalks is relatively low.

Knowing this, The Cabaret’s artistic director in Indianapolis, Ind., Told the Indianapolis Star that he turned the aisle near his theater into a Paris-like cafe venue with stage lights and suspended lamps. The space usually meant for trash cans and parking will be a “casual night club” with singers and solo singers, said CEO Shannon Forsell.

Meanwhile, some places in Florida are investing in technology that was not previously used to make the theater cleaner than before.

Cocoa Village Playhouse in Brevard County has purchased a device that fully fills its auditorium with disinfecting fog. “This is incredible,” executive director Anastacia Hawkins-Smith told Florida Today. “You can obscure the whole theater in 10 minutes.”

He also used an infrared thermometer to check the temperature of the audience before the performance. Cocoa Village’s production of the musical “Into The Woods” aims to start the show again on May 28th.

Indeed, building and running Broadway has more logistical challenges than your average theater – mainly because of its size, cost, and density – but New York is filled with theater with different shapes and styles, and space for adaptation. If one small theater in New York can safely reinvent itself, it doesn’t have to wait for “Evil” to do it. The Broadway and off-Broadway industries will definitely watch such brave theaters in Florida, Massachusetts and Indiana to see if their experiments are successful, and what strategies they can steal from them.

And so it should be, because the show must always take place.

Johnny Oleksinski is The Post’s entertainment critic.