Curtain Raises on Broadway

Broadway League. On the phone in New York City, Charlotte, it is so good to have you back. How are you well, I'm great. We're We've already had our first official opening and we have two shows opening next week. So we're back and we're getting ready to be back in a big way. So tell us, though, because you have been so wonderful and giving us several interviews during the pandemic, especially in the dark days of the shutdown initially, uh, and just kind of waiting for things to improve, and

it's taken obviously a long time. What has this year been like. Well, so, certainly it's been a lot of up and downs because Uh, we were doing so well with the variants that are out there, and then all of a sudden we got challenged with the delta variant. But at the end of the day, we've waited the right amount of time to make sure that we had all the safety protocols and that we were prepared to

open so that we didn't have to open and close. Certainly, everybody is ready for theater, and uh, many people were hurt during this period, but the light at the end of the tunnel is looking very bright at the moment. All right, you said waited the right amount of time. Tell me about the conversations you've had to have with various parts of your industry, parts of the theater industry to figure out and health officials, I'm guessing maybe unions to figure out what would be the right time right

and well. First of all, Broadway operates with seventeen union contracts that are held with fourteen different unions, and each one has different types of interaction, whether it's hair and wigs or makeup, or costumes or stage hands. So each one of those unions we had to work with them and develop the protocols that made them comfortable. So yes, we've done all of that, and as I'm sure I said to you, uh last October, we could not afford with the cost structure that Broadway lives under to open

and then close and reopen and then close. So we waited until enough people were vaccinated and we had all of these protocols put in place that we felt we could deliver h safety for the cast, crew and audience. You know. That's what it's been interesting also about the last year and a half. I feel like for certain industries, your industry, the theater industry, certainly for the restaurant industry,

the layers have been peeled back. I think we thought, oh, wait, you know, some of these successful shows or these successful restaurants, you know, they'll be okay, they've made a lot of money, but it's financially um everything needs to be kind of going gangbusters for it to kind of keep going in the future. Correctly, we've really gotten an ability to to look into the business the financial structure of let's say,

the theater industry, and and it's everything. You know, people have to be in the theaters, they need to be full for it to be working. Well, that's correct. I mean, when you think about it, they they're the best theatrical employees in the world, but they're also the most expensive. And the rule of some has been we need the shows to be uh seventy full as an average, so shows need nine and some can get to break even

and continue operating. It depends on the size of the show, the size of the cast, the costs of the various contracts. So uh it's it's a very uh they're very tight margins for Broadway unless you're a gang Busters hit, and those don't come along very often. You know. The You not only uh invest twelve to fifteen million dollars minimum for a new musical and two to five million dollars for a new play, but then you have the running

costs every week. I mean a typical uh cost for the for a week of a big musical is at least a million dollars, So you've got to sell more tickets than a million dollars just to break even. So it's an exciting industry, but it also requires real investment and real revenue to keep it alive. As you've said, we've got about forty five seconds. Then we'll come back and continue the conversation. Some shows already up and running Bruce Springsteen, right, he's been already back since late June.

What have we learned in the reopenings already that are helping to kind of reopen theater much more fully. What we've learned is that people want to be sitting next to vaccinated people. And while they don't like mass, they don't mind mass because what we have heard again and again is that we want to know that we're going to be in a room that's safe. So Charlotte UM a bunch of shows coming back. We've already seen a couple of rollouts. When it comes to Broadway in theater,

how do you do it safely? What's the mandate when it comes to vaccines? Well, we have mandated that all of our audience UH must show proof of vaccination and we're masks during the shows until we make a different decision. So we feel like we've got the audience taken care of. Certainly for the cast and crew, their man mandatory vaccinations

for all employees, testing requirements weekly and pre employment. Each of the shows has hired their own COVID safety management manager to make sure that all of the protocols are being UH being lived up to and then there's so many additional things like the heating, ventilation and air conditioning standards, the cleaning and disinfection practices, UH specific protocols based on job because they would be different for an orchestra person

works in the orchestra versus a costume manager. So uh there. We've spent eighteen months developing uh these safety protocols with our unions, and we've worked closely together because we all have the same goal, which is to have everyone's safe that's in our care. And with the exciting UH September that we have where so many shows are sold out or close to sold out, we have to make sure Yeah,

that's what well, and that's well. Two questions I have for you are in terms of protocols, because we've talked about this with a lot of CEOs of companies. Are people who run school educational systems, you know, who have been replacing their ventilation systems. Is there a lot of that going on or is it just maintenance and you know, increased maintenance when it comes to the existing systems. Well,

it totally depends upon the theater. I mean, we have forty one theaters and some of them are relatively new and some are over a hundred years old, and yet you know there's one theater that's over a hundred years old that is totally replaced their systems, so they all have new filter upgrades and constant assessment. And you know, we're living up to the standards that have been established by the CDC and we'll continue to do that. So tell us what's coming in the fall, and tell me

a little bit more. You just mentioned about ticket sales and what that you know, gives you an indication of how many people will be coming back to Broadway. Well, we have between September two and December thirty one, we have thirty four shows returning or opening. Um. Some of those were obviously playing when we shut down on March twelfth, and summer new like Passover that just opened a couple of weeks ago, and uh, we have many more new

shows opening. And as with everything else in the world, the Internet has made it easier for people to buy their tickets, so they don't buy as foreign advance as they used to. But right now September October looking very strong. Um, and we're very positive about the outlook at this point. Yeah,

it's pretty amazing. If you go to things like Broadway dot Com and you just get you know, run down of the listing, and as you said, some of the old favorites, whether it's Hamilton's Wicked, you know, the Lion King, or there's some new things coming out. Um, I am curious to just got about a minute left here. When it comes to this past year and a half, so much of real life often impacts what we see in terms of content, whether it's streaming content, network content, whether

it's podcasts, and certainly in theater. How has the last year and a half maybe impacted some of the shows that we might see ultimately on Broadway. Well, at this point we're glad that some shows had the opportunity to stream previously recorded sessions, like Hamilton's, But at this point we're not looking at streaming as a new way of doing business for Broadway. That doesn't mean it won't be in the future, but right now, there's really nothing that

replaces live theater. And that's what our that's what our theatergoers tell us. And and forgive me what have it? You know, what I really what I really meant is the pandemic and the situation of course, the injustice with George Floyd how did that impact maybe content that we'll see up on stage and we've just got about twenty five seconds. Well, we have ten shows that have announced and that are opening this fall and early next year that are written by black and bipoc playwrights. So that's

a major step forward. I mean, Broadways always had diversity in casting, or at least it's had it for a long time. But I think a lot of this was about, you know, adding more of the behind the scenes and the creatives for people of color. Well, looking forward to watching my next show. They're in Times Square and elsewhere. Hey listen, Thank you so much. Charlotte sat Martin, president of the Broadway League, on the phone in New York City,