American theater business: An industry is on the brink

The relief had even made it onto the theater posters: "We're back" was written last September on those for the "Lehman Trilogy", which went on a pandemic break of one and a half years with the entire Broadway in March 2020 after only four performances.

The lights on the Great White Way went out longer than at any time in Broadway history.

Only the “Ghost Lights” – lightbulbs set up on a lonely stage – held something against the darkness of the orphaned theatres.

"We're back" was the motto with great joy and great expectations when the theaters reopened in September 2021.

"Lehman Trilogy" was perhaps the piece that brought most forcefully to the stage what was missing in acting.

Sam Mendes staged the parable about the rise and fall of the Lehman Brothers, the three cotton merchants who emigrated from Germany to Alabama, whose name was to become synonymous with the financial crisis a good 150 years later, as an Old Testament financial fable in the designer's office at the Nederlander Theater on Broadway.

In New York, the play achieved a similar triumph as it had in London, and was a celebration of the theater and its reopening.

A financial disaster

The desire for theater was also evident in the excited crowds in front of the entrance. That stewards now ran through the rows with large signs demanding that masks be compulsory, that the queues in front of the theaters were even longer because vaccination certificates had to be checked, that the ushers not only called it the “playbill”, as was usual The program booklet was handed, but the pandemic rules were pointed out, could not dampen the mood. It was a departure into the new old theatrical life – which, on Broadway, as elsewhere in the United States, was not to last for very long.

At the latest with the appearance of the omicron variant, it has been questioned again since December of last year.

While initially only individual performances were canceled due to breakthrough infections in the ensemble (shortly before Christmas, for example, the eagerly awaited musical "Moulin Rouge!" was even canceled at the beginning of the performance when positive test results became known), the new version meant a break for other productions into the coming summer (such as Aaron Sorkin's stage adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird").

It was particularly hard on shows that ended prematurely, such as Diana, The Musical, which only performed 33 times after its premiere.

Not least a financial disaster for the producers.

The hopes are now on spring

Despite the sometimes significantly reduced ticket prices, the occupancy rate of the open theaters fell to a meager 62 percent at the beginning of January.

And that with only 27 shows offered in the 41 theaters of Broadway - currently only nineteen are still running.

The development is exemplary for theater life across the country.

And even in those productions that survived the latest wave reasonably unscathed, there was no escaping the pandemic issue.

For example, in the production of Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol at the Ford Theater in Washington DC, which, like many other American theaters, shows "A Christmas Carol" as a pre-Christmas tradition.

In 2020, many of these productions were canceled, as were those at the Ford Theater.

Last December's production made explicit reference to this, when leading actor Craig Wallace expressed his joy at being able to perform this play in front of an audience again in this difficult year.

It became communal when the audience was asked to sing "Merry Christmas".

Then one or the other could be observed who obviously wished they had read a little less about aerosols and adjusted their masks.

At the end of the production, the topic was the pandemic again: Conjuring up the Christmas spirit, donations were asked for the Theater Washington Taking Care Fund, which would also have gotten some of the actors on stage through the crisis.

The appeal had an impact: more than $22,000 was raised just from the performances of the "Christmas Carol".

This is still sorely needed help for actors who in the United States are usually only hired for individual productions and have to make ends meet without any reliable income.

And also for the American theater business as a whole, which, unlike in Germany, for example, has to get by in most cases without state support.

It's an entire industry that is now seeing its livelihood threatened once again.

Hopes are now pinned on spring when, at least on the American East Coast, the omicron wave will probably be over.

Some productions then resume their performances, while others are just getting started.

These include a production that has already been discussed in advance as a possible drama highlight of the Broadway season: "Macbeth", with Daniel Craig in his first role after "James Bond".

And so we can only hope that at least Shakespeare's Scottish witches can drive the

off the stage for a long time.