Distant stage return rife with unknowns 

New York: Broadway stars who once lit up New York’s most bankable stages now face a reckoning over the future of the performing arts, in an industry that has bled money since the pandemic began.

Like essentially all other cultural institutions, New York’s famed musical theatre district shut down as the city became the US epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak in the spring. When the crisis took hold, performer Derrick Davis was set to play Martin Luther King Jr in I Dream, to be staged in North Carolina.

Suddenly, Davis — who has played major parts in The Lion King, and was the first black person in the title role on a national tour of The Phantom Of The Opera — was unemployed. As the weeks dragged on, “depression started to set in; the money started to fall through the sieve,” the 41-year-old said. 

With every postponement — New York actors are now hoping for a summer 2021 reopening — he pondered a return to an earlier career in real estate.

“I can’t sit and survive on hope,” Davis said. “Many of my friends have gotten on planes and gone home… saying that they may never come back.” For now, Davis is holding on, taking virtual university teaching gigs and honing his craft.

“There’s still that fire inside,” he said. “I’ve worked my life to get to this level. I can’t throw in the towel just yet.”

In its 2018-2019 season, Broadway grossed $1.83 billion, according to the Broadway League, a trade organization that says in normal times the industry supports nearly 97,000 local jobs.

The pandemic financial hit absorbed by the theatre district is severe, and industry leaders say they would lose money operating at a limited capacity — unlike museums, which have started opening in New York — meaning live theatre will likely be among the last sectors to return.