The Theatre Will Never Recover from COVID.
It's an open secret that political ideology is killing American theatre. But no one wants to acknowledge another culprit in its demise: the industry's extreme response to COVID-19.
Karma can be cruel, but never wrong.
After 2 years of self-erasure from the public consciousness under the guise of saving people from COVID-19, America’s theatre industry finds itself in a lurch it can’t seem to shake.
Since theatres re-opened in August 2021, donations are down. Revenues are down. Roughly a third of the audience has not returned, and theatres across the nation are truncating seasons or shuttering altogether. This, as other forms of live entertainment—such as pop music and pro wrestling—continue to thrive.
In terms of winning back audiences, the theatre’s transformation from a space of magic and meaning into a blunt tool of sociopolitical revolution doesn’t help—but that is only one part of the problem. The other aspect is something no one in the industry will dare acknowledge.
The harsh truth is that the American theatre’s extreme overreaction to SARS-CoV2—an extension of the prolonged and histrionic anti-Trumpism which preceded it—inflicted profound, lasting damage. It exposed the industry as intellectually bankrupt; it exposed it as lacking in self-worth; it exposed it as spineless; it exposed a vicious totalitarian underbelly.
But ultimately, it exposed the institution as fundamentally unsalvageable.
THE DEATH OF REASON
Nothing better exemplifies the hubris and self-delusion endemic to the American theatre—and subsequently its reaction to the pandemic—than this 60-second excerpt of actor Billy Porter:
”As you all know, what the arts does is it cracks open your mind. And it creates critical thinkers out of us. We become leaders, and not followers—so why do you think that’s the first thing that fascists want to take away?…We know how to make the world a better place, because that’s what we were called here to do.”
These remarks were made in March 2023—three years after the theatre began cannibalizing itself by abandoning “critical thinking.”
During the COVID era, its “leaders” became fanatical followers of dogma which it mistook for science, inexcusably ignorant of the organized skepticism and debate which the scientific process demands.
If artists truly believed that they are “called here” to “make the world a better place,” as Mr. Porter claims, they would not have allowed the state to denigrate them as “non-essential”—especially not in New York, the headquarters of art and culture in the United States.
Artists who shrieked about Trumpian fascism for four years demanded that the state “take away” the arts, and the #Resistance was nowhere to be seen when the state began dictating that they cover their faces, dictating who was allowed to work, dictating private gatherings, or dictating that citizens inform on each other.
These nominal antifascists said nothing as the state imposed curfews, attempted mass surveillance (aka “contact tracing”), and even set up checkpoints for private citizens foolish enough to believe they could travel freely inside the “democracy” they keep telling us they wish to save.
Worse still, upon the theatre’s long overdue return, it then imposed fascistic mandates which violated bodily autonomy, did little to prevent outbreaks and show closures, but did much to normalize the demonization, dehumanization, segregation, and exclusion of a minority of the population—an unfathomable irony coming from the faction for whom defaming others as “Nazis” is as natural as drawing breath.
“We were living in a once in a century pandemic!” they cry.
Except we weren’t.
Authorities and the press embarked on a massive campaign to convince Americans that we were living through a repeat of the much deadlier Spanish Flu epidemic, pretending that there hadn’t been 100 years of advances in medicine and healthcare technology since, and pretending as if the Infection Fatality Rate of the illness was far higher than it actually was.
A rational and multipronged approach in lieu of cancelling society—ie focusing protection on the vulnerable, urging lifestyle improvements and proper nutrition, pursuing treatment protocols to help people stay out of the hospital, all in addition to making vaccines available—was considered murderous.
This fascinating research from the Brookings Institute suggests just how much Americans—especially Democrats (the “party of science”)—overestimated the true dangers of the virus, meaning that the theatre’s most loyal patrons have terrorized themselves out of attending it.
Yet industry leaders seem mystified as to why audiences are slow to return.
THE DEATH OF CURIOSITY
Curiosity is the cornerstone of the actor’s craft—indeed, it is the currency of any artist. Unfortunately incuriosity became a defining tenet of the Covidian fundamentalism which seized the American theatre industry:
They were incurious about the wisdom or efficacy of lockdowns; incurious about why prior pandemic preparedness protocols were abandoned; incurious about why masks transformed from virtually useless to essential survival tools; incurious about why immunity acquired from prior infection was dismissed despite the abundance of scientific literature indicating its robustness.
They never pondered why prominent politicians such as Lori Lightfoot and Nancy Pelosi and Gavin Newsom were permitted to violate the restrictions they imposed on everyone else.
They never wondered why certain protests were condemned or even banned, while politically expedient protests and riots which claimed dozens of lives were not only permitted, but endorsed by the public health establishment.
It never occurred to them to question why, long after the non-sterilizing vaccines were known not to prevent transmission, and long after CDC guidelines were updated to suggest that niggerizing unvaccinated individuals was pointless, the shots remained mandated for theatre workers for another year.
There are plenty more questions that could’ve been raised: about the misapplication of PCR technology; about why two senior FDA officials resigned in protest after the approval of COVID boosters; about why an outlet such as the British Medical Journal felt compelled to criticize clinical trials for the vaccines.
But no questions were asked. None were allowed to be asked. Anyone who challenged Covidian orthodoxy was eviscerated. Even those who (mostly) followed the rules were destroyed.
No one dared question anything after that.
Consequently the American theatre insulated itself from any feedback which could have prompted a course correction.
Like all such totalitarian regimes, collapse is imminent.
WHY DID NO ONE STAND UP?
By the time the world shut down in March 2020, I had been tracking the progression of SARS-CoV2 for months.
I’d spent weeks stocking up on food and supplies. I’d stopped shaking hands at auditions. I’d been self-isolating. I annoyed friends and family with statistics and warnings. I manically sanitized everything from my keys to my groceries. I was mocked for masking and gloving on the subway. I was stunned and angered at everyone’s nonchalance.
I understand why the industry reacted the way that it did:
But as I watch the zombified husk of the industry I dedicated half of my life to shuffle along, a shell of its former self, I can’t help but ask even more questions:
Why was I seemingly the only artist capable of weighing the costs and benefits of Coronaphobia?
Why was I the only bleeding heart Liberal who understood that there’s much more to being alive than merely staying alive?
And why did so-called “Liberals,” self-proclaimed rejecters of authority, so zealously embrace authoritarianism?
But the one question which keeps me up at night:
Why did no one stand up for the industry?
Unless and until the American theatre honestly confronts this critical question, it will suffer the same fate as the tragic protagonists of old.
Only in this case, no tears will be shed by spectators of the demise.
This article is a classic. A complete, comprehensive and heartbroken acccount of how an institution destroyed itself.
As proof of your correlation, community theatres in the sane states, which didn't jump on the partisan bandwagon before the monstrosity and weren't forced to spend two years in hell during the monstrosity, are still thriving. For instance, the Gaslight Theatre in Enid is still going strong.
https://www.gaslighttheatre.org
you are my new hero! i said this from the beginning- you do not close down an entire economy every time there's a flu going around. i opened a theatrical costume shop in NYC in the early 80's and did big shows (Phantom, Jersey Boys, Mamma Mia, etc); also ballet, opera, Radio City, art installations- you name it. once a year starting in 1980, i went down to Charleston, SC as the costume director of the Spoleto Arts Festival, working with directors and performers from all over the world.
in all that time, i never got a flu shot or had a mammogram and no one ever questioned my ability or my right to do the good work in theater that gave my life meaning, based on my politics, my voting record or my lack of an absurd and unfounded belief in a fraudulent medical system.
likewise, no one ever questioned that theater was the most inclusive of all professions; the only thing that mattered was talent. and possibly endurance. i did work through fevers, flus, head colds and coughing spells.
in 2016, i closed my NY shop and began a long slow move to Charleston where i assumed i would continue my job at the Festival until i dropped dead sometime in the distant future (i'm a very fit, robust 70 year old and can still work most 20 somethings under the table).
overnight, the Arts changed. the Holocaust Museum in DC required vaccine passports for entry and somehow didn't notice the irony. Neil Young and Joni Mitchell quit Spotify in protest over Joe Rogan's 1st Amendment rights, forgetting their own rebellious trailblazing youth. Broadway wouldn't allow an unvaccinated person near a theater and the Met Opera went full on brownie points seeking commissar, requiring boosters for employment and attendance even before the certifiably insane Gov Hochul did!
here in Charleston, the Spoleto Festival decided to out brown nose even the Met, requiring 2 shots plus a booster after 5 months (5, not 6, just to make the ushers' lives hell), masking and a PHOTO ID, something that if you suggested might be a good idea for voting in a national election would get you branded a racist and perhaps fired from your job, but to attend a concert?- no problem. since the miracle vaccines weren't at that point approved for children, those pesky plague rats were not allowed, so much for encouraging in the young a passion for the Arts.
then there was the problem of black people, POC, african americans or whatever the evolving terminology is at the moment. black people down here do not trust the government one bit and many of them still are wearing masks but it's because they haven't been vaccinated; they feel that masks are a low risk, non-invasive thing they can do for a bit of protection that's non-invasive like submitting to a poison injection (shades of Tuskegee). they're wrong, of course, and it pains me to see them covering their faces but i'm a lot more tolerant of their mask wearing than i am of the terrified old white people who have had every booster and still won't go out unmasked. they're just bat shit crazy and next time this happens they will beg the government to trample on all our rights.
but here's the Festival, bending over backwards to apologize, placate, make amends to black people. most of the programing was planned specifically to attract a black audience EXCEPT for the unvaccinated black people who were discriminated against. needless to say, when you prohibit vast swaths of your potential ticket buyers from buying tickets, you don't sell that many tickets and you don't have much audience. and in a town where you could go into any restaurant or store without showing proof of compliance, one organization asking for papers seems a bit much.
i lost my job after 40 years. no one loved the Festival or worked harder for it than i did; i had structured my entire life around it. i moved here because of it. not a single person who i had worked with for decades had the decency to call to see how i was managing after being betrayed by the thing i had loved most in all the world. had i died, they would have held a memorial for me and my co-workers would have said nice things. had i retired, they would have thrown a party and i'd have complimentary tickets for the rest of my life. as things stand, i cannot forgive them. i leave town when the Festival is in season or, at the very least, avoid "their" neighborhood. i'm no longer at all sure why we live here.
each Broadway producer was given (thank the tax payers) $10 million dollars per show and the Festival probably got a covid grant as well. i'm sure those "gifts" came with public health directives.
does no one remember what happens to the Arts when Stalin whispers in Shostakovich's ear "make it more bombastic?"
now, it seems playwrights have 1000 Stalins looking over their shoulders: you need more characters of color, more transpeople, your play has to be about climate change or social justice, you have to apologize... for everything. it doesn't matter what story you are moved to tell, the politburo needs you to write THIS story lecturing THIS message. with all those masters, how can anyone write anything that isn't pure crap? the audience isn't stupid- they know when they're being scolded.
the backstage crews are demoralized. my boyfriend, recently back from 2 1/2 months in Chicago for an out of town trial of a Broadway hopeful show (no one ever asked about his vaccination status; they just assumed incorrectly), endured many screw ups with his travel, his lodging and his per diem thanks to the two (not one) assistants to the company manager who were obviously hired to give underrepresented groups a turn at theater. there are extra crew on every show now who don't do anything, but make the diversity police happy. and then there's K+K Reset, the HR grifters hired to insure that racism, sexism and transism are everywhere on Broadway. how much money does a show have to make to cover all the increased and unnecessary costs of satisfying the dual gods of covid and DEI?
and what about the unions? they have only one purpose- to protect the labor of their members. suddenly, their job is to protect only the labor of their vaccinated members and to act as an enforcement arm of bad public health policy. during the filming of Diana, the Musical, with the crew virtually imprisoned in hotel rooms, a long time house head was fired for going out to get a coffee one morning! what universe are we in? i didn't think a house head could be fired for anything short of murdering the leading lady!!
i know costume and set designers. composers and playwrights who can't get hired for anything simply because they are white. it's just not enough to be gay anymore. one set designer is considering "coming out" as female identifying in the hopes that he'll be more marketable.
but there's something even more fundamental that will kill theater. at it's heart, what makes theater different- maybe even better- than every other profession is this one simple rule: THE SHOW MUST GO ON. the leading man drops dead right before curtain (how many boosters did he have?). no problem. the understudy is ready. everyone works towards one imperative- nothing short of nuclear annihilation keeps that curtain from going up.
i don't know how things are now, but for a while at least, every show had a couple of covid officers who could shut down a show for 10 days 5 minutes before curtain if a PCR test came back positive. think about this for a minute: Marian Seldes appeared in 1809 consecutive performances of Deathtrap. her understudy NEVER went on. is it conceivable that Ms. Seldes was never under the weather in all that time? that she never had a cough or a sniffle? no, but she went on anyway and none of her co-stars protested that she was "GOING TO KILL US WITH YOUR GERMS!!!!" her fellow actors had some faith in their own resilience. the current crop of weaklings got 10 out of 12s canceled and argue over whether the women's chorus should from now on be called the "skirts" or the "heels" and the men's chorus be referred to as the "slacks" or the "flats!"
then ponder this: to attend theater is to sit in a large enclosed room in the dark with a whole bunch of people you don't know. how many of them are sick? who harbors a deadly pathogen? you're there in the midst of a 1000 or so people of unknown health status. the person next to you might not have washed their hands for two choruses of "happy birthday" when they left the toilet. the guy directly behind you may not have had the latest flu shot. but you take it on faith that your species has survived this long and that contact with other people while sharing an experience is something that humans have done for centuries without ill effect.
i'm old enough to remember the pre-cell phone announcements of yore. the voice would encourage the audience to unwrap their cough drops and lozenges before the show started and to have them ready. it was assumed that at sometime during the show, someone in that large crowd was going to cough or sneeze and the greatest fear was not the potentially lethal cough but rather the irritating sound of crinkling paper. now try to imagine a post covid audience which has been taught to see every other person there as a potential threat. if someone clears their throat or blows their nose during that 2 1/2 hour period, would the deaths resulting from the ensuing stampede be counted as covid deaths?