People go by posters for Broadway exhibits in Times Square amid the coronavirus pandemic on March 30, 2021 in New York City.
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In spite of a string of cancellations, and at least two closed productions, Broadway will not be shutting down.
“At the current time, there are no plans to shut down Broadway,” stated Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League, the nationwide commerce affiliation for the theater trade.
Nine exhibits had been postponed on Tuesday, together with “The Lion King,” “Dear Evan Hansen,” “Ain’t Too Proud” and “Hadestown.” And lots of these theaters will stay darkish till after Christmas. St. Martin famous that 21 different performances are anticipated to run Tuesday night time.
“We have the strongest protocols in theater at this time and we are guaranteeing their adherence day by day,” she stated. “The posting of exhibits every day exhibits that the protocols work. We take a look at, and if the assessments are optimistic, the present would not go on and the forged and crew then are shielded from additional contact.”
St. Martin stated that the group’s epidemiologists are working to decide if there are any protocols that want to be up to date or modified.
Broadway has taken precautions to be sure that employees and viewers members are vaccinated and patrons are required to put on masks throughout performances. In many cases, the corporate members and employees who’ve examined optimistic have been asymptomatic or have shown only mild symptoms. But they are not allowed to return till they are thought of now not contagious.
In some situations, productions have been ready to proceed even if a forged member assessments optimistic for Covid-19, with understudies or swing gamers taking their place.
So far, “Jagged Little Pill” is the one musical that can shut for good amid New York’s omicron surge. It joins the comedic play “Chicken & Biscuits,” which closed completely on the finish of November due to coronavirus considerations.
The extremely infectious omicron variant has emerged as the dominant coronavirus strain and pushed the variety of new Covid-19 cases within the U.S. to its highest ranges in months. The rise in cases in New York has been notably pronounced, with the variety of new infections rising greater than 80% over the previous two weeks.