| As your posts amplify: the issue is that suddenly materializing audience. Forget hot tickets. Take a show like Jagged Little Pill, doing well enough, but discounted, certainly not packing people in on weeknights. It was on TDF when B'way closed. Where are the 8 houses, however many seats remain, that will allow the show to break even with traditional financing? Whatever concessions are made to actor safety, a musical requires 2 hours of vocals, the company singing into a closed space. No filtration system can guarantee risk-free attendance. And the discussions about cleaning are denial-centered in my opinion. Yes, fomites play a role in Covid. But only a smaller role. The virus is transmitted through aerosolized breath. No matter how clean surfaces are at half hour, within 15 minutes of opening a house, the environment is fouled by vaporized breath, whether from 1200 or 300. No HEPA air-cleansing system can eliminate that in an unmasked crowd. That's the reality check. Scrubbing seats and floors will not solve that sealed environment issue, the basis of theatergoing. So I easily accept a full year wait. |
