Plays, concerts and other performances could resume in New York from next month – but with a sharply reduced capacity limit – Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Wednesday.
Mr. Speaking at a news conference in Albany, Cuomo said art, entertainment and event venues could reopen on April 2 with 33 percent capacity, with a limit of 100 people inside or 200 people outside, and a requirement that all participants wear masks and be socially distanced. These limits will be increased – up to 150 people indoors or 500 people outdoors – if all participants are negative before entering.
A handful of locals immediately said they would start holding live performances, which, with a handful of exceptions, have not occurred in New York since Broadway shut down on March 12th.
Producers Scott Rudin and Jane Rosenthal said they expected some of the earliest performances with pop-up shows in Broadway theaters, as well as with programming at non-profit venues with flexible spaces, including the Apollo Theater, the Park Avenue Armory, St. Ann’s Warehouse, The Shed, Harlem Stage, La MaMa and the National Black Theater.
“The community of the audience and the performing artist, whom we have longed for for a year, we can finally realize,” said Alex Poots, the artistic director and CEO of Shed, who plans to perform indoors for audiences with limited capacity. April.
According to Charlotte St. Martin, the president of the Broadway League, the new rules will not affect commercial productions of Broadway plays and musicals.
“For a traditional Broadway show, the financial model just doesn’t work,” she said. “How do we know that? Because shows that make that kind of attendance close. ”
Mr. Cuomo announced his plan to ease restrictions as New York, along with New Jersey, added new cases of coronavirus at the highest rate in the country over the past week: both reported 38 new cases per 100,000 people. (The country as a whole averages 20 per 100,000 people.) And the city of New York is currently adding business at a rate per capita that is about three times that of Los Angeles County.
The trade union Actors’ Equity has appealed to Mr. Cuomo to give priority to vaccinating members of the arts sector. ‘
Many non-profit leaders welcomed the new rules as a sign of hope and a first step towards recovery. “We have suffered huge losses and there is a way to go,” said Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of the Public Theater, “but this policy change indicates that we have a corner of the worst crisis the American theater has ever experienced. ”
Lincoln Center and the Glimmerglass Festival have already planned to perform outdoors this year, and the new rules explain how many people can attend.
“We welcome the new guidelines and want to serve as many people on our campus as are safe,” said Isabel Sinistore, a spokeswoman for Lincoln Center, planning to open ten performance and rehearsal rooms on April 7.
For many New York music venues, it may not be enough to repeat 33 percent to make the reopening economically feasible, giving the cost of running the venue and paying artists.
“It does not make financial sense for the Blue Note to open with only 66 seats for performances,” said Steven Bensusan, president of the Blue Note Entertainment Group, whose flagship jazz club is in Greenwich Village.
Smaller music venues, which are among the eligible recipients of $ 15 billion in federal aid, are anxiously awaiting permission to reopen. But even with the rising vaccination rates and the latest rule change in New York, it could still take months before the tour industry resumes, and even then locals say they need help.
The Blue Note, along with a few other jazz spots serving food, reopened last fall for dinner performances, allowing them to put on some shows without creating obstacles with state regulations imposing a “Accidental” music. (Some locals and musicians have filed lawsuits to challenge these rules.) Then the city closed down indoor eateries, and some clubs did not reopen when it was allowed last month.
Michael Swier, owner of the Bowery Ballroom and Mercury Lounge, two of New York’s most famous rock clubs, said the state’s order for local people to distance themselves and wear masks means that the actual capacity in many spaces can be much lower. be.
“Since social distance is still part of the benchmark, it brings us back to about 20 percent capacity, which is unsustainable,” he said. Heavily said.
Several promoters and venue operators have said they will try to reopen with 100 percent capacity, which many hope can happen this summer.
But some small organizations immediately showed interest. At the Tank, an art venue in Midtown Manhattan with a 98-seat theater, Meghan Finn, its artistic director, said that within hours of the governor’s announcement, she began hearing about comedians eager to perform indoors. resume.
“The ability to use our space is not something we will abandon,” she said. Finn said.
The Joyce Theater in Manhattan expected the public to dance live again in September, but Linda Shelton, its executive director, said she and her team would have to do ‘hard work’ in the coming days as they judged whether the performance takes place. a short-term achievement is financially meaningful and can be done safely.
“We have a few things we can offer pretty quickly,” she said.
Leon Botstein, president of Bard College, home of the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts in Annandale-on-Hudson, where every summer is a respected music festival, calls the move a ‘welcome first step’.
“One hundred is a good starting number,” he said. Botstein said. “It’s April’s number. Let’s hope that June’s number is greater. ”
A variety of non-profit theaters have said they find the news encouraging.
Paige Evans, the artistic director of Signature Theater, said that all summer she has commissioned playwright Lynn Nottage and director Miranda Haymon to create a multimedia performance installation in the theater’s spacious foyer, and that the new rules will allow the public to attend the audience. .
Rebecca Robertson, the founding member and executive producer of the Park Avenue Armory, said she is also eager to welcome people back. “Having a live audience that responds to the work is going to be exciting,” she said.
Other organizations said the relaxed rules allowed them to propose new programming. El Museo del Barrio said it seeks to develop outdoor work for parks, on streets or in borrowed spaces.
“Finally,” said Leonard Jacobs, interim executive director of the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning in southeast Queens, “we have good guidance from the state to help us take the first steps back to normal. life.’
Ben Sisario and Matt Stevens reported.