The Brave News

by Joaquin Medrano, Managing Editor

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause the country to be in a state of uncertainty, the main center for theatre around the world is not set to open until the Summer of 2021.

As many dates have been discussed about the future reopening of Broadway, the most proximate date would be somewhere between late-May and mid-June of 2021.

In recent data, according to Broadway League President Charlotte St. Martin, 97,000 people rely on a recent reopening of Broadway for their livelihood. On top of that, Broadway is one of New York’s top tourist attractions, bringing in nearly $15 billion to the city’s economy, which has caused a great number of losses for the state.

As much of the country shut downed on March 12th, Broadway was no exception as that was the last night a show was able to be performed.

After the ongoing fight to keep Broadway alive, this pandemic is a crucial and determining factor for the future. As theatre becomes more and more elaborate, prices keep going up, making the artform harder to maintain accessible for everyone.

The pandemic extremely caused a lot of setbacks in theatres around the globe as well, with people hardly going to see shows before the pandemic, and now having funds on the line of bankruptcy for many companies.

Since the closing of Broadway back in March, at least ten shows have closed during the pandemic, leaving many on pending status for recent reopening.

Recently, a great amount of local theater companies have taken the initiative of producing shows via Zoom or other streaming platforms to give people a escape from reality, escaping the disasters of the world, as the artform has done in history.

Many states are even allowed to have shows in person, depending the number of cases and widespread measures in the state.

Perhaps the next big show will be televised or performed live in a streaming platform, taking Broadway from the big stages to a more economically beneficial platform. 

But even if that was the reality, many people would be left with no jobs in the big city of New York. The possibility for a soon competition in Broadway is still very unlikely as many theatergoers would not change the experience of traveling to New York and seeing a show live, with everything the experience has to offer.

As of right now, a soon reopening is far from becoming a reality, but many platforms can use that to their benefit to offer a quick fix to the problem.

Broadway as a whole cannot go away as many people, especially the state of New York, would not allow for a possibility to happen. Only taking measures to make everything better can allow for luck to change in theatres around the globe.