deblasiobroadway
(New York, NY/77WABC)-Broadway, shuttered by the viral Pandemic, is slated to reopen this Fall. NYC Mayor DeBaslio announced Thursday NYC hopes to re-open theaters, both on and off-Broadway, in September. He said “the vision is to bring shows back in September,” and “broadway needs to come back and we will move heaven and earth to bring Broadway back.” But the Mayor cautioned that the reopening hinges on a continued decline in the rate of the spread of Covid-19 and a continued increase in Covid-19 vaccinations.
NYC plans to have dedicated Covid-19 vaccination sites set up by April to ensure that all actors and others involved in Broadway receive their Covid-19 vaccinations. The city also plans to install pop-up COVID 19 testing locations near Broadway and to help theaters with crowd management.
Mayor DeBlasio was joined by Tony Award-winning Actors Andre DeShields and Telly Leung in making the announcement about the reopning. The Actors spoke about the significance of reopening Broadway:
Bringing theater back in NYC isn’t just bringing back over 100,000 jobs. As the great @Andre_DeShields put it, it’s the perfect metaphor for how much we’ve worked together this past year to bring our city back. #Broadway pic.twitter.com/SvOZgz2dLk
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) March 25, 2021
De Shields is an American actor, singer, dancer, director, and choreographer. His theatre credits include Warp, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Play On!, The Full Monty, Impressionism, and the title role in The Wiz. Telly Leung is an American actor, singer, and songwriter. He is currently playing the role of the titular character in the Broadway production of Aladdin. Leung is known for his work in musical theatre on Broadway and for his role as Wes, a member of the Dalton Academy Warblers on the Fox comedy-drama series Glee. In 2011, Leung starred in the Broadway revival of Godspell.
.@Andre_DeShields and @tellyleung spoke about the economical and cultural significance of Broadway during @NYCMayor's de Blasio's March 25 press conference concerning Broadway's reopening. https://t.co/RokJqrq2sC
— Playbill (@playbill) March 25, 2021
Mayor DeBlasio asked NY State to develop guidelines for the reopening. You can listen to his comment below:
DeBlasio said if NY State does not respond to the city’s request to develop guidelines for the reopening of Broadway, NYC will create their own guidelines which would then be submitted to NY State for approval.
Broadway, a $15 billion dollar industry, shuttered on March 12th of this year due to the coronavirus outbreak, marking only the second time in its long history that theatres went dark.
Following the attacks on Nine-Eleven, The Broadway League ordered Broadway shuttered following the events of Sept. 11, 2001, largely due to transportation issues, said then-president Jed Bernstein. The shutdown was short-lived. Then NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, on Sept. 13th, 2001, ordered theatres to re-open.
