'Like no other opening night ever': Broadway will be back, but here's what will change

Within the Broadway world, as a star dresser with decades of experience, Fran Curry is at the top of her field, working with the industry's biggest names and making magic happen onstage and off with deeply honed communication and organizational skills that allow her to navigate the high-stakes environments of theater's biggest, splashiest productions.

Outside of it, she said, she's invisible.

"They look at my resume and don’t see anything of value ... they’re like ‘you handle dirty laundry?’ They don’t get it. They don’t understand the personal skills it takes to do what we do and because of that, there is no place for us."

The challenges Curry and so many others are facing is why Broadway's re-opening is so vital, experts say.

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Broadway has been shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic since March 12, 2020, and the last year has been fraught with tensions and transformations as the industry struggles with what it means when, for the first time, the show doesn't go on.

When will Broadway re-open?

Everyone wants to know when Broadway will re-open. On paper, shows are suspended through May 30.

The consensus for a return right now is ... fall. Hopefully. At least for some shows.

What needs to happen for the curtains to rise again?

First, venues and other spaces need to be granted clearance to re-open from the leadership of New York — and it needs to be at a capacity that can sustain a Broadway show, officials said.

Once that clearance is given, it won't be like turning on a faucet, though.

"If the governor told us we could come back tomorrow, we couldn't be back," said Charlotte St. Martin, president of The Broadway League, the national trade association for Broadway theater owners and operators, as well as producers.

The quickest she anticipates shows returning is six weeks after the "all clear," and more likely three to four months for most.

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"We have to get everybody back to town," she said. "We have to see who’ve we lost. We have to make sure their costumes fit. We have to do rehearsals and tech, and for the longer-running shows there’s a lot of muscle memory — maybe they’ll be open in six to eight weeks. But a lot of the newer shows or the shows with a lot of new cast members, it’s like starting brand new. And that’s three to four months, and $3 million to $4 million that they have to spend just to get open.”

Some directors, choreographers, costume designers and other creative team members have multiple shows in their portfolios, so that may cause additional delays.

It's the money needed to open or re-open, and the cost of keeping a show up and running, that adds perhaps the most difficult part to the equation.

St. Martin said she foresees an opening with a "critical mass" of 15 or 20 shows, followed by a few more at a time. That will largely be determined by ticket sales and when shows can afford to open, she said.

Mounting an average musical — not the biggest and not the smallest — takes between $12 million and $15 million, with running costs of about a million dollars a week, she said.

With those costs, it's prohibitive to open or run with a reduced capacity.

"Thirty-three percent, 50 percent, 60 percent won’t do it," she said. "And people say, ‘Well how do you know?’ And I say that when the show has 33, 50 or 60 percent, they generally close very quickly and that kind of tells the story."

In addition to allowing for high capacities for audiences, vaccination is also needed to allow actors and others to work safely, said Kate Shindle, president of Actors' Equity Association, the union representing actors and stage manager.

"Our primary concern — although we like the audience very much, without them we wouldn't have work — is what happens on stage and backstage where we're not only in close quarters, but we literally go to work and kiss each other on the mouth. So making sure that people are safe throughout the building in addition to in the audience is critically important. And the vaccine is the superhighway to that."

Career on hold

Starting in 1997 with "Once Upon A Mattress," Curry, who is a member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, has parlayed her expertise on Broadway into work as a star dresser, collaborating on multiple shows with Tony Award winner Kelli O'Hara and most recently with "Frozen's" Elsas, Caissie Levy and Ciara Renee.

Helping to make Elsa's onstage ice dress change happen during "Let It Go" was incredible, she said. The move was met with a wall of sound from the audience that would have a physical effect on her some nights.

"Being a part of that Elsa quick change — while I will also have PTSD for the rest of my life because it was so dangerous — it was an honor to be a part of that moment. It’s very rare for a quick change to be such a pivotal moment. They’re supposed to be seamless. You’re not even supposed to understand what’s happening. But that was one of those quick changes that’s a feature. So to be part of such an iconic moment for such an iconic show, it was really cool."

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But Curry said her job entails much more than costumes.

"As a star dresser, my whole job is to create an environment suitable for an artist to do their best work," she said. "That means I’m constantly assessing the needs of my artist through their words, their voice tone, their body language. It’s about communicating and it’s about knowing what somebody needs before they even know they need it."

"Frozen" has announced that it will not re-open when Broadway returns, leaving the future even less certain for Curry and the cast and crew. "Mean Girls," "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Hangmen" also have announced closings, while a slew of other shows remain in flux with rescheduling.

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Curry currently hand-crafts jewelry, which she sells on her website, girlfranjewelry.com, and takes part in "Broadway Undressed," which offers virtual backstage tours with Broadway dressers ("we know all the secrets," she said). Learn more at broadwaydressers.com.

She could not afford to keep her apartment in the city, and has moved away until the industry returns.

"I'm surfing this nightmare," she said. "And I’m surfing it well, but I’ve been blessed. It’s heartbreaking to listen to what so many people are going through."

No more 'The Show Must Go On'

Both The Broadway League and Actors' Equity said safety is at the top of the list when it comes to a return, and they are working feverishly to enact plans and protocols for the industry to do so.

St. Martin said there are 44 task forces focused on everything from safety to marketing in re-opening Broadway, while Equity has worked on safety and sanitary protocols both for work during the pandemic as well as planning for its re-opening.

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Shindle said that means significant change.

"Stage managers and actors have been unemployed in our industry for a year," she said, "but even as we're getting back to work, one of the things that’s most important to me is that we not get back to normal, or whatever normal was for our industry a year ago. We need a better normal, a new normal.

"In addition to COVID safety protocols, which I think everyone understands is a given as we get back to work, we have to change a fundamental narrative in our business, one that was born of good intentions but which is inherently problematic. And that is that no matter what, the show must go on."

It's different, Shindle said, post-COVID to work sick or injured.

"We've all heard these fables of people who worked when they were so sick that they were running off-stage and throwing up in a bucket in the wings," she said. "And you know, even pre-COVID that wasn't great and we work really hard to get understudies and subs for a reason. But post-COVID it looks entirely different, so people have to have the workplace protections and the coverage to be able to stay home if they are sick. It creates a safer workplace for everyone, including them."

Safe workplaces

Especially as venues around the country that typically offer Equity contracts get the okay to open, Shindle said the union is relying on the expertise of specialists to give its members the green light.

"The thing that is really challenging is that there's this question of when people feel like it's safe enough to go back to work versus when (former Occupational Safety and Health Administration chief) Dr. (David) Michaels, the epidemiologist we've been working with, can provide that reassurance based on data," Shindle said. "Like almost everyone else in our industry, I have not had a paycheck in a year and there is no one who wants us to get back to work more than I do. But we can't send people into unsafe environments."

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The inability to return to work has led to some frictions among those who have seen their livelihoods remain out of reach.

"We have been doing really intense and difficult work trying to keep people safe from something that it's almost impossible to stay safe from, and it's come at a great cost and I can understand why people are frustrated," Shindle said.

"It is a disease that, even if it doesn't kill you, can cause intense lung damage, for example. And how does that affect the rest of a singer or dancer or actor's career? That's been a big consideration for us."

Safety must extend to all members of the union, Shindle said.

They've known "for quite some time that it's not fair to designate workplaces safe enough for young, healthy people and leave behind those members of our union who are older or have underlying conditions. While it is intensely frustrating, it also has just felt like the right thing to do," Shindle said.

St. Martin said The Broadway League goes beyond sympathizing with those out of work.

"It's been heartbreaking," she said. "We know they’re suffering. We know what people are going through. Our members are going through the same thing. Most of them are not wealthy. They've raised their money. They’ve worked. They’ve mortgaged their homes. They've done everything possible to mount these passion projects called shows. And yes, there are a few wealthy ones, but remember four out of five shows don’t recoup. What I know and I've known from day one is if we get Broadway back up, we will take care of the labor problems, the insurance problems, the income problems — and that's what we worked on."

A more inclusive future

Another component to a safer workplace is a focus on inclusivity, Shindle said.

"Safe workplaces include the eradication of harassment and discrimination of all kinds, particularly harassment against (Black, Indigenous and people of color) people, disabled people, women," she said. "It's not a new topic, but we've all had time to consider these issues in a way that we didn't have the time to do it before."

Key to that goal will be groups like Black Theatre United, which has stated it was "galvanized into being" by this summer's protests over police brutality.

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“As members of the Black theatre community, we stand together to help protect Black people, Black talent and Black lives of all shapes and orientations in theatre and communities across the country. Our voices are united to empower our community through activism in the pursuit of justice and equality for the betterment of all humanity," Black Theatre United says on its website, blacktheatreunited.com.

Shindle said the union is "proactively" looking for ways be inclusive, "whether it's making sure that Black actors have appropriate hair and makeup personnel, or any of a number of other issues that have made people really feel like second-class citizens in their own industry. That's just not acceptable."

The Actors Fund

Another facet of the theater world that has been fundamentally changed by the pandemic has been The Actors Fund.

The organization's assistance encompasses anyone who works in the arts and entertainment industry and includes direct financial assistance, healthcare and health insurance guidance, career counseling, low-income housing and a retirement home in New Jersey.

"We’re looking at a crisis right now and the way that The Actors Fund is responding to the pandemic is going to change the way we operate for a long time because as people are spending through resources right now, their recovery is going to take probably three, four, five years for people to get back on their feet — and this is transforming how we help people," said Joseph Benincasa, Actors Fund president and CEO.

The Actors Fund COVID-19 Emergency Financial Assistance program has distributed more than $20 million to more than 15,700 professionals since the start of the pandemic.

Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell, chairman of The Actors Fund board, said the previous work of the organization has almost felt like a preview period to the pandemic and the work it is doing to assist those in the arts world who are in need.

"It feels like those 138 years before last year have been in preparation for this moment. It feels like this is why we were born. This is what we’ve been preparing for."

Arts funding needed

This week's passage of the American Rescue Plan Act includes provisions that Equity and The Broadway League have pressed for to not only provide relief for their members, but to help get Broadway back up and running.

Increased tax credits under the Affordable Care Act, COBRA and other health care subsidies; extended unemployment through Labor Day; and relief checks will help members in need, Equity says, and $135 million each for the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities for supplemental COVID relief grants will help theater survive.

Equity also is seeking a one-time $9 billion allotment for the National Endowment for the Arts to help the arts reopen, as well as $331 million ($1 per capita) in regular annual funding, with specific funding aimed at helping workers from marginalized groups get paths to entry in the industry.

Broadway has an annual economic impact of $14.8 billion to the city, according to The Broadway League, and has a ripple effect on the restaurant industry, hotels, tourism and more, Shindle and St. Martin said.

However, the impact can often seem overlooked.

"We all feel forgotten. We don’t exist," Curry said. "Especially in a city like New York, to actually hear on the news that we make more money for the city and employ more people (than most other industries) and still we don’t matter. We’re still invisible to them. It blows my mind."

That's why it's important to keep the arts visible, Shindle said.

"The more you talk about the arts as the economic engine that it is rather than the frivolity, not only the more accurate it is, but also the more we can reframe that conversation in in people’s minds," she said.

When Broadway returns

One thing everyone can agree on: Broadway will persevere, will adapt, will be back — and it will be glorious.

No matter when that is, Curry said she will move heaven and earth to be there.

"I hope, that if I don’t have a job, that I am able to come home and be at some show's first show," she said. "I need to be a part of that. If I’m not backstage, I want to be in the house for one of these shows when they come back because I want to see it. I want to be a part. I want to hear that audience because it’s going to be like no other opening night ever in the history of Broadway."

Ilana Keller is an award-winning journalist and lifelong New Jersey resident who loves Broadway and really bad puns. She highlights arts advocacy and education, theater fundraisers and more through her column, "Sightlines." Reach out on Twitter: @ilanakeller; [email protected]

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: 'Like no other opening night ever': Broadway will be back, but here's what will change

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