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Brian Lehrer: It's the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. It was reopening night last night on Broadway. The crowds and the creators were emotional and euphoric. Here's Kristin Chenoweth breaking the fourth wall and addressing the vaccs and masks and standing o audience at Wicked.

Kristin Chenoweth: Okay, I have to say it, as I hold on to the [unintelligible 00:00:34] There's no place like home.

[applause]

Brian Lehrer: "There's no place like home," said Kristin Chenoweth at Wicked. All four top shows raised their curtains last night for the first time in 551 days, Wicked, Hamilton, The Lion King and Chicago. The reopening night audience at Hamilton was in for a surprise before the show. A welcome back speech by Lin-Manuel Miranda himself.

Lin-Manuel Miranda: I don't ever want to take life theater for granted ever again, do you? It's so sacred. This incredible company has been rehearsing, they've been rehearsing in their apartments, they've been rehearsing and keeping their bodies limber for a year and a half. They had their first rehearsal for an audience on Sunday night and they were missing something. They were missing the most important collaborator to have, and that's you.

Brian Lehrer: There it was, Lin-Manuel Miranda before the opening curtain of Hamilton last night. Notice in the spirit of Lin-Manuel's curtain speech, this segment is really mostly for our most important collaborators, to steal his phrase, and yes, that is you. We're opening the phones right now. If you have gone to a reopened Broadway show or if you are working on a reopened Broadway show, 646 435 7280. 646 435 7280.

Let me be clear about who we're inviting. This is for anyone who's been in the audience for the reopened shows so far to be sure, but definitely too, for any of you working those shows. Crew members, you get the spotlight here. If you want it for a minute, are you feeling happy? Are you feeling wary? Are you feeling safe? 646 435 7280. 646 435 7280. Actors, playwrights producers, you are, of course, welcome too, Kristin, Lin, anyone else, welcome on in, if you want to say a few words on the radio this morning, 646 435 7280. 646 435 7280. For you audience members, why did you go back early? What was it like for you last night or at one of the earlier shows? 646 435 7280.

This can be for anyone for whom opening night was last night, which was the ceremonial reopening night or if you went to or are working on one of the shows that opened before last night, Hadestown, Waitress, Springsteen on Broadway and Pass Over, I think I've got them all, all of which came back a little earlier, 646 435 7280. 646 435 7280. With us now, WNYC's Jennifer Vanasco, we usually just call her J, who is covering The Great White Way. Hi, J, thanks for doing the morning show thing with us.

Jennifer Vanasco: Hey, good morning, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: What shows have you been to so far?

Jennifer Vanasco: On Broadway, I've been to Pass Over and Hadestown. I've also been to some off-Broadway stuff. I went to Merry Wives, [unintelligible 00:04:09] The Public, really great play at hunter college theater by Richard Nelson, that kind of thing.

Brian Lehrer: Did it feel safe?

Jennifer Vanasco: When I was in the seats on Broadway, I felt very safe. They actually had-- at Hadestown, they had ushers in the aisle with very big signs. One woman was holding two signs that said masks up and they are as serious about mask wearing as they are about no cell phones. Just like if you're in a darkened theater, somebody has their cell phone and an usher will sprint across the aisle and shut that phone down, I saw ushers sprinting up the aisle and telling people, "Put your masks up." That was great. I must say an intermission. The women's bathroom lines are always crazy. These are old historic theaters.

That felt a little less safe to me. I think if you are somebody who's a camel and doesn't have to use the restroom during intermission if your show has an intermission, that might be the best. I must say, in the line I was in, there was the very crush line I was in and then an opposite line going the other way, where somebody else was crushed against me. That was a little worrisome, but they're doing all sorts of things to keep people safe.

Brian Lehrer: The crowds were supposed to wear masks, as you say, and they were supposed to show proof of vaccination. For kids under 12, who can't get vaccinated, they had shown negative COVID tests from the last few days. How was check-in?

Jennifer Vanasco: Surprisingly fast and easy. Actually, I think it might have been easier and faster than I remember pre-COVID being. They've hired a lot more staff to do check-in and it goes very smoothly. They do it earlier before they would really let people in at the last minute, they open the house earlier, they do check your ID, they check your vaccination card, they check your bag and you might need to go through a metal detector, but it's very quick.

Brian Lehrer: I think I heard that the theaters give the ticket holders a check-in time, not just the curtain time, when they buy their tickets. Do you know if that's right?

Jennifer Vanasco: I haven't experienced that and haven't heard-- I heard that they were thinking about doing that. I don't know, there might be-- callers might know if they've experienced that in a show but I haven't.

Brian Lehrer: One thing we're not supposed to do in the time of COVID is yell a lot and project all those droplets when we're in places like full capacity and closed spaces like theaters. Maybe it doesn't matter if everyone is masked as Lin-Manuel referenced and vacced, that's the hope, but was there any guidance about being vocally reserved as an audience member?

Jennifer Vanasco: No. Not at all. Of course it's a theater and people were super excited. There was top of the lungs cheering for sure, during intermission and before the show, there's definitely people calling all the way across the theater saying, "Hey, good to see you. How are you? Good to see you." Yes, really nothing like that at all.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, again, this is for you, if you have been back to the theater yet or if you work in the theater, 646 435 7280, call in and tell us how you feel. I mean emotionally how you feel as well as if you feel safe going back to work or going back as an audience member. Tell us about your experience so far in the reopened theater district. This can be about off-Broadway too. 646 435 7280. 646 435 7280 and Jay in Bloomfield, you're going to be our first caller on this. Hi, Jay, you're on WNYC.

Jay: Hey, Brian, thanks for taking my call. I really appreciate it. I listen to you often and contributed a few times, so I appreciate the opportunity.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you. Thanks a lot. You've been to 2 shows, I see.

Jay: Yes, we were lucky to attend Pass Over, which was the first show back since the pandemic. I have to say that I think the energy and the audience reaction just before the show started was just phenomenal. It was just contagious. It was like nothing I've ever experienced before. People were on their feet. People were screaming in joy. It was just a visceral experience that I think I've never experienced before since I've attended shows over the years. We were thrilled to be back. The second show I saw was Hadestown and it was a very similar experience.

People just, super enthusiastic. I think you had mentioned that we should talk a little bit about the process. The process was actually quite well-managed. There was a little bit of a line just to get through to show your ID, to show your proof of vaccination. Overall, I would say everything went smoothly and not a person seemed to be unhappy about having to present that information and having to go through that process. We were just all so collectively thrilled to be back in the theater and still to experience that.

[crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: How safe or unsafe did you feel or how much was that in the back of your mind as you were watching the show or afterwards?

Jay: Well, I think it's always a little bit in the back of my mind, but certainly, I have no issue wearing a mask. I have no issue being around people who are wearing masks and certainly just the thought that the requirement of having to come in with vaccination and there being some form of verification of that, made me feel quite comfortable. I think in general, I'm 6 foot 4, so there's always a limited amount of space for me to sit in some of the older theaters, so there's a little bit of discomfort maybe sitting next to somebody that I don't necessarily know very well or know their history, but certainly, just the fact that we were all in their masked up--

Brian Lehrer: It's good and you're breathing on them more than they're breathing on you anyway if you're 6 foot 4. Jay, thank you very much for checking in. We really appreciate it. Call us again. Noelia, am I saying your name right, or is it Noelia? In Brooklyn, you're on WNYC.

Noelia: Noelia.

Brian Lehrer: Hi, there.

Noelia: Yes, Noel. Hi. I love your show. Thank you for taking my call. I went to see Passover also and I went with a friend and just like the other caller, it felt really, really safe. The line was not long at all, it moved really smoothly and it was very, very emotional to be there after so long of not being in the theater. It was great that everyone was vaccinated, so it felt safe. It was a great show, a wonderful experience.

Brian Lehrer: Do you have plans already to go to another one?

Noelia: Yes, I was looking on [unintelligible 00:11:08] to see what else is coming up that I may be able to afford, so yes, I just cannot wait.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you. Thank you very much for checking in. Let's do one more in this first set. Mercedes in Forest Hills, you're on WNYC. Hi, Mercedes.

Mercedes: Hi, Brian. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. Where'd you go?

Mercedes: I went to see-- Well, I started with Springsteen, of course, couldn't miss that, and then I went to the title of show outdoors at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and I saw Merry Wives also of course outdoors at the Delacorte. Just a couple of weeks ago, I went to see Hadestown finally indoors and I almost missed it because I thought I had tickets for the evening show and at 2:10 I found out that they were actually for three o'clock. I had to sprint to-- from Forest Hills to 47th street, that was quite a sprint and I made it just in the nick of time because there's four different layers of check-ins when you get to the theater.

First they check your vaccine and ID, then they check your bag, then you go through the metal detectors, then they check your ticket. Then I had to sprint upstairs to the balcony where I was sitting and I just barely sat down and suddenly the audience broke into applause and I realized it wasn't for me. It was because the actors had come on stage, André De Shields had just walked in and everybody broke into applause. It does still feel a little bit risky, Broadway theaters, you're crushed against one another in the seats.

It's very crowded, and getting up and down from the balcony, there was no social distancing going up and down those stairs, but we have to try to get back to some normal. I'm double vaccinated. I just got my booster yesterday. It's just a way to get back to some kind of normal, and you have to weigh the risks.

Brian Lehrer: Absolutely. Mercedes, thank you very much for your call. By the way, I'm glad they weren't sarcastically applauding for you like, "Okay, hey, lady, thanks for not holding up the curtain any more than you did."

Mercedes: No, I was just very lucky.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. You know what, I'm going to add one more caller to this set, because it's not every day we get a call from Montgomery, Alabama, but Greg in Montgomery is there. Hi, Greg, you were just in New York and you saw a show?

Greg: Yes, Brian, big fan. I was in New York last week. I lived in New York for years, but I'm from Montgomery, and I'm now back at my job. Me and my friend were in Pass Over on Friday night and she had never been to New York before from Berkeley. I got to be a tour guide for her, and we got to go to see Pass Over on Friday night. It was a great show. For some reason, there was a big block of seats that were empty in the middle, so we actually got really good seats very close to the front. It was a great evening in the theater and it was just great to be back there. The only thing I could say is that we missed our Lyft right after the play.

Brian Lehrer: Should we consider you an example and I hear you, that you used to live here, but should we consider you an example and the people you brought of the tourism industry starting to return, that you came and you brought people from out of town to do New York via Broadway?

Greg: I would hope so. It was great to be back and it's been three years since I've been in New York and I've only heard the fantasy stories of what life is like. It was fantastic to be there and feel like everything was almost normal except for all those box restaurants on the sidewalks.

Brian Lehrer: Greg, thank you so much for checking in. We really appreciate your call. Come back and see us again. We continue with our news and culture editor J Vanasco. I'm going to keep taking your phone calls, if you've been to a Broadway show yet or if you work on Broadway-- We don't have any workers calling in yet. I'm shocked. 646 435 7280. Come on crew, call in and tell us how you're being treated. Tell us how the hiatus was, and if you got enough government benefits to tide you over until you could go back to your real job or whatever you want to say. 646 435 7280, 646 435 7280. J, I'm sure you have so much to say-

Jennifer Vanasco: So much.

Brian Lehrer: -after that set of calls.

Jennifer Vanasco: One thing I wanted to say, it was so great to hear Greg from Alabama. Of course there's been such a huge drop in tourism and two thirds of Broadway's audience do tend to be tourists. 15% international tourists usually and of course, we're really not getting any international travelers. Those numbers aren't expected to recover until 2024. The theaters are really relying on local people in the metro area and really in the northeast to come out and make up that difference. Charlotte Martin of the Broadway League has said that theaters need to reach 75% capacity in order to keep running because they're so expensive. Shows are really really, really expensive.

It's hopeful, as all the other callers were saying, I was probably in the house with them at Pass Over, the energy is just delirious with people really doing standing ovations every time a new character is introduced, a lot of set changes at the end of the show is just so-- I think if you were a little on the fence about going, then just that wave of people, of happy people energy really might make a really spectacular evening.

Brian Lehrer: On the economics, Greg from Montgomery noted that empty block of seats in the middle so they were able to move down. Were the shows last night sold out, if you know, and how's attendance been generally, if you know, for the plays that have already been running?

Jennifer Vanasco: As you probably know, usually the Broadway League releases figures every Monday about box office grosses. They're not releasing those this year. They've said stuff about like, "Well, plays are staggered. It's not the same." Also, there's reduced shows for a lot of shows, not everybody is doing eight shows a week. So we don't know. I do know that Waitress, that the night it opened, they did make an announcement that Waitress itself had broken all the previous Broadway records for single performance ticket sales, they made almost $200,000 in ticket sales.

Besides that, when I was at Pass Over, I too saw empty seats. When I was at Hadestown, I didn't see a single one. I'm sure that last night, I think the odds are very good that every seat was filled last night. [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Last night they would have been sold out, all the people who wanted to be part of that history--

Jennifer Vanasco: Exactly. It was hard to know if it will continue that way.

Brian Lehrer: There's the tourism being down still element, that's important for Broadway, as you just pointed out. Also, I was thinking the US Open tennis tournament that just ended in Queens reported around a 20% decline in audience from what I read for Arthur Ashe stadium compared to 2019, the last year before the pandemic. They also had the same rules. Full capacity but with a vaccine requirement to get in. I imagine the decline must in part be a function of a percentage of the population who would otherwise go, still not being confident in the safety of it and maybe also since a quarter of people are still declining the vaccine, they're not eligible. That's reflected maybe. We'll see how any of these things go over time.

I guess we'll find out if there's a notable rate of breakthrough infections too in the coming days from all this and I guess there's no point in speculating. We'll just see.

Jennifer Vanasco: I think that's right. I think there's really no way to know. I will say that so far, none of the Broadway shows that have opened have had a close day because of COVID. Waitress did have an actor out in the ensemble for the first show. She was replaced by an understudy Merry Wives of Windsor this summer had to cancel a few performances because of COVID but for the most part, the theaters at least haven't been canceling performances for that reason, but I must say so many of my friends are avid theater goers, and I'd say probably a good 30% to 40% of them feel like I'm not quite ready. Let's see how the Delta [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Not quite yet. All right, we're going to take a break and now we do have some crew members coming in. Zoe in Long Island city, we see you. Janet in Gutenberg, New Jersey, we see you. Elaine in Norwalk, Connecticut. Boy, the crew works from all over the Metro area. We're going to take all three of you when we come back. Brian Lehrer on WNYC, as we talk about Broadway ceremonial reopening last night.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC, as we're talking about the return of Broadway, including four big plays and last night's ceremonial reopening and taking calls from audience members and crew members, and with WNYC news and culture editor, J Vanasco, who goes to a lot of plays and you hear her talk about them on the radio. Zoe in Long Island city, you're on WNYC. Hi, Zoe.

Zoe: Hi, I'm thrilled to be here and believe me, for all of us who work on Broadway, it's been a very long haul, as you can imagine. Everything was shut down. 90% of my business is from Broadway shows. I have an outside studio where I build properties and also the weird costumes like you might see on SNL or 30 Rock, that kind of thing, but Hamilton is my big show.

Brian Lehrer: You get a credit in the Hamilton playbill, right?

Zoe: Yes, I am the final credit in those tiny credits in the back. I'm one of three studios that works on the show and this has been a great time, the last few weeks, because I work on every production around the world of Hamilton. I've been getting reorders from all of the national tours because one of the things that I do are all of the documents. People don't realize. They say, "What documents?" Every single piece of paper, map, whatever, that's in the show, I produce. In fact, when I do a tour, I do 7,000 because I'm doing six months' worth because we're not going to do them every week.

There was just nothing during this whole time. The PUA, the Pandemic Unemployment, was the first time in 45 years in New York that I qualified because I'm self-employed and that helped pay for the studio because I got no break on my commercial rent and insurance. Even though I had no work, I had to pay that rent, which would have killed me. It would have totally put me under without stimulus payment.

Brian Lehrer: That special category of unemployment insurance, PUA, you would have never qualified before for, because you're self-employed, you run your own business, but in this case you did and it saved you during this hiatus and now you can work again.

Zoe: It absolutely did. I've done one commercial in the last month, which was great. Actually, yesterday, I spent all day working on Hamilton Broadway because I had to replenish some of the documents and I've sent out little batches of documents to all the tours that were getting short on anything so they wouldn't run out. They just send the orders in.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you so much for checking in. All right. Folks, when you go to see Hamilton, look for that final credit in the tiny print at the bottom of the credits in the playbill and you'll see the name Zoe and you'll know it's Zoe in Long Island city who called our show. Here's Jenna in Guttenberg, New Jersey. Hi, Jenna, you're on WNYC.

Jenna: Hi, good morning. I am so glad you're doing this segment. I called to say that both my husband and I work in live performance, New York city. I'm a stage manager and event producer. He's a stagehand with [unintelligible 00:24:21] When the shutdown happened, it was a pretty big deal for our family and the unemployment assistance really carried us through. Now we're so excited that shows are starting back up and he couldn't call in today because he was on a load in at the Golden. That's good news.

Brian Lehrer: What does that mean, a load in, for people not in the biz. What's he doing actually?

Jenna: Sure. This was the time when they're actually bringing in the set pieces, hanging in the lights, focusing, making sure everything is ready in the grid overhead and getting ready before the actors come into the theater for their tech rehearsals before opening.

Brian Lehrer: That is great. Congratulations to both of you. Jenna, some industries are having worker shortages. Not everybody wants to go back to restaurants, retail, correctional facilities, we'll see about teachers. Is the theater experiencing anything like that as far as you know or do you know any former colleagues who declined to return?

Jenna: There's certainly some colleagues who were concerned about the conditions in which they're going back to work. I think as the vaccine continues to grow in the community and the vaccine mandates for people attending shows have happened, that's really encouraged folks to go back to work because they don't have to worry quite as much about their own personal safety. I applaud that decision by the city.

Brian Lehrer: Jenna, thank you for checking in. One more in this set. Elaine in Norwalk, you're on WNYC. Hi, Elaine.

Elaine: Hi, good morning. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. What do you do?

Elaine: I am a projection designer and I designed the projections for Wicked on Broadway and all over the world and was able to attend an invited dress on Sunday but also went to Pass Over on Saturday. I actually had a two show weekend for the first time in an extraordinarily long time.

Brian Lehrer: How did it feel?

Elaine: Extremely emotional and in listening to your previous two callers who also work in the business of live performance, they covered a lot of the things. I think one thing that my husband and I were talking about, we also both work in live entertainment and our careers fell off a cliff a year and a half ago, is that right now, it feels like we're coming out of the bunker and seeing the post-apocalyptic world and seeing what theaters are still standing and what coworkers are still in the business. A lot of young people had to leave and give up their dream of working in live performance. A lot of people who were approaching retirement opted to go out at that point. We could potentially, like you said, we have a worker shortage. It could [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: You think you do have a worker shortage?

Elaine: We do, we do. Essentially, there is a worker shortage because some people aren't returning, again, because they couldn't hang out and wait for it to restore and we didn't have that kind of finances. Others chose to retire a little bit early. Then also people who for their own reasons don't want to return to work. There is a worker shortage, and I think there is a potential, but it's going to affect our unions, which at a time where unions are needing to fight to be relevant. They are extremely relevant and important to an industry like ours, especially an industry where a lot of people are self-employed. [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: When you say it might affect the unions, it might not affect the ability to put on shows for the audience, but it might affect the unions in a particular way?

Elaine: In the sense that if we can't put together a union crew for a show, it's going to make it hard to argue that unions should still get hired, if we suffer a worker shortage.

Brian Lehrer: Still should have jurisdiction.

Elaine: Also the strength of our unions right now, our unions have been extraordinary in supporting us through this very difficult time with health insurance and other kinds of support. If that continues, the finances of the union suffer as well. If a union is based upon live performance and it's based upon the dues contributed by their membership and the membership is not working, it's only a matter of time before the unions suffer irreparable damage.

Brian Lehrer: Elaine, thank you so much for your call. I really, really appreciate it. Jennifer Vanasco, WNYC and Gothamist Arts and Economics of Culture editor, you want to comment on some of the economics in that last call or any of those calls?

Jennifer Vanasco: Yes, I'm so glad that the callers brought up such great points and some of them I want to follow up on. I think that's right, that people think of theater and they often just think of what they actually see on the stage, the actors, maybe the musicians, but of course it is a whole ecosystem. As we heard, there's tons of people who build props, who do sets to make properties, and then there's all these people behind those people. There's people who contribute specialized fabrics and sequence to the costume shops.

When I did some reporting on costume shops earlier this year, I talked to one young woman who had a very specialized job. It took a long time to train her in that job and she said that she was definitely leaving. That she was training to do something else. She thought it might come back, but the pandemic made her feel like this kind of work was unsteady, and she wanted to have something that was steadier. People have said that Broadway lost at least 3,000 jobs during the pandemic.

A lot of my neighbors in Washington Heights were out of work for a long time, people were really scrambling trying to work at Trader Joe's, at Starbucks, picking up little gigs where they could. I do think that it's so great that it's back and that people are getting work again, but even so, it's not necessarily going to make up for the 18 months of debt a lot of people and businesses find themselves in now.

Brian Lehrer: The stat that I've seen them cite, I guess it's coming from the Broadway League or a group like that, is that the shutdown of Broadway put 97,000 people out of work.

Jennifer Vanasco: Right. Yes, I've seen that too.

Brian Lehrer: Can you talk about the hardship, as you've reported on it, amplify a little bit from those last callers, the hardships that the workers in one of New York's iconic industries have gone through?

Jennifer Vanasco: I've heard so many heartbreaking stories, people who decided they had to go back to Iowa or wherever they're from and live with their parents, especially-- One of the callers pointed out young people. At one point, I had a conversation with somebody and I said, "Who are you worried about losing?" They said it's not going to be-- and I actually thought it was going to be older people, for some reason. I was told that I was completely wrong, that it was the young people who came here to live their dream and maybe didn't have established careers yet, and we're living with a lot of roommates and really just wouldn't be able to afford it and maybe couldn't make a strong enough argument to their parents when they were told, "You just have to come home. You need to come back, get a job, we'll take care of you. Come home."

Brian Lehrer: Right. We're not paying your rent to live in New York and not work.

Jennifer Vanasco: Exactly.

Brian Lehrer: Last question. Were they selling any unique reopening souvenirs at any of the shows you've seen?

Jennifer Vanasco: At Hadestown, I saw a really wonderful-- There's a scene in the show, there's Parsippany, a goddess who's [unintelligible 00:32:24] Hades. She gets a little bit drunk trying to deal with life in Hades, which is not the easiest. She has this silver cup, a tin cup kind of, and everybody is raising these tin cups and they sell those at Hadestown, which I thought was great.

Brian Lehrer: As we wrap this up, folks, last night was an example, I think, of how society is trying to find ways to live with the virus, rather than shut down over it. That's exactly what vaccines and masks are for and make possible, and if Broadway turns out to be safe, which the early indications are that it is, even without social distancing, even before capacity, that'll be why and it's amazing to me that the people who protested the shutdowns are now protesting the tools to make the shutdowns unnecessary during Delta, masks and vaccines to get together indoors in groups, but that's another show. Jennifer Vanasco, WNYC Arts and Culture Editor, thank you so much.

Jennifer Vanasco: Thanks so much, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC, much more to come.

 

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