New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that Broadway theaters featuring plays and musicals can reopen in New York City — at 100% capacity — on Sept. 14.
Tickets for all shows are on sale.
It’s a huge boost for New York City tourism, which has been devastated for more than a year now due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Broadway is a major attraction in Manhattan with many tourists coming to the city just to see shows, rather than including a Broadway production as an afterthought or as part of a vacation.
Broadway, home to 41 theaters, drew 14.6 million people who spent $1.8 billion on tickets in 2019, according to The New York Times.
The challenge will be whether the tourists come back, as visitors from outside New York City make up almost two-thirds of the nightly audiences of Broadway shows.
Some people were hesitant to come back knowing they will be in a completely full theater where one seat is practically on top of another.
Some also wondered why there is a four-month wait until September, meaning Broadway will miss the lucrative summer travel season.
But with as many as eight shows a week to fill — Broadway is traditionally dark on Mondays but has two shows a day on Wednesdays and Saturdays — producers need time to advertise and market. They need to reassemble and rehearse casts who have been out of work for more than a year. And they need to sort out and negotiate safety protocols.
