By Rianna Brown
Broadway has been a staple in musical theatre since 1750 and has brought joy to millions of people. Whether the people watching and listening are people who go to every show they can or are people interested in only one show, there is no denying that Broadway is loved. Broadway is such an important part of musical theatre but like everything else, there is some stigma surrounding Broadway, sometimes the stigma is against shows that haven’t been able to make it to Broadway. On the other hand, there is some stigma about the shows that do manage to make it to. Even with those stigmas around Broadway, it's rare for someone to want it to close because of it. So imagine the disappointment when Broadway closed due to the Coronavirus.
On February 11,20202 the first coronavirus case in the United States was confirmed and on March 11, 2020, an usher for the broadway show “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” tested positive for Coronavirus. Then on March 12, 2020, Broadway closed all of its shows, also called “going dark”. With all the shows closing many actors were losing their paying jobs.
In comes, the Actors Fund made to help struggling actors during this odd time. Although the Actors Fund has been around since 1882, it is definitely helping a lot more now with how many shows are closed and how many people are unemployed. The Actors Fund's mission statement is "The Actors Fund fosters stability and resiliency, and provides a safety net for performing arts and entertainment professionals over their lifespan." While it is called the Actors Fund they help all professionals in theater, film, music, television, dance, and dance. Currently one of the more popular contributors helping to raise money for the Actors Fund is the live stream "Broadway Jackbox." Which is hosted and produced by Andrew Barth Feldman and co-produced by Alex Boniello. The live streams that they make have famous people from Broadway, and musical theater communities playing games online made by the company Jackbox, hence the name Broadway Jackbox. You can donate, join, or buy tickets to an event here.
While it’s a good thing we have the Actors Fund to help entertainment professionals, we have sadly lost some of the brilliant minds from Broadway. We lost the Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally. McNally was so revered for his works “Kiss of the Spider Woman” (1993), “Ragtime” (1998), “Love! Valour! Compassion!” (1995), and “Master Class” (1996), which all earned him Tony Awards. McNally passed away on March 24, 2020, at age 81 due to complications with Coronavirus. Sadly another Broadway star, Nick Cordero passed away after battling Coronavirus for three months, his time battling COVID was documented much more than McNally’s as his Cordero’s wife had been chronicling his experience. During his three months stay at the hospital put in a medically induced coma and had his leg amputated. Cordero had been nominated for a Tony Award for his role in “Bullets Over Broadway” and appeared in small-screen and big-screen roles in his life. Both McNally and Cordero’s left their spouses and Cordero’s 1-year-old son when they passed. Broadway will miss these two amazing people.
On a much lighter note, some Broadway shows have announced their reopening schedule, sort of. It has been announced that all Broadway productions will be closed until January 3, 2021, that date has yet to change so there have been multiple shows that have started to sell tickets for dates after the first week of January 2021. It is possible that after booking the show they may have to cancel due to Coronavirus but you would get a refund if that happens.
Here is a link to Coronavirus information:
Here are links to other articles about Broadway Stars lost to Coronavirus:
Here is the link to the Actors Fund website:
Here are links to other articles about the closing and reopening of broadway:
https://broadwaynews.com/2020/07/19/broadway-and-off-broadway-theaters-not-allowed-to-reopen-under-phase-4/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/new-york-city-cant-rebound-without-broadway-and-broadways-road-back-is-uncertain/2020/09/07/f3933444-e939-11ea-970a-64c73a1c2392_story.html
And here is the link to buy tickets to Broadway Shows that are reopening:
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