NEW YORK — Broadway has now been back for nine months. Well, back-ish.
After a 16-month COVID blackout, the Theater District began to tiptoe back last summer. Its return has come in fits and starts, with various virus variants raining on a parade of productions bold enough to brave the pandemic.
The reemergence of theater in New York has been thrilling for many. But it has also been uneven. Attendance dove in the winter, when omicron hit. Seemingly every show was scarred by large outbreaks. Playhouses collected dust.
But to take a stroll through Times Square now is to find it feeling, more than any other time in the pandemic, revitalized.
After the bumps, Broadway is embarking upon a high-wire spring season, with an explosion of new productions — 16 across five weeks — filling theaters.
“There are a lot of elements to the whole landscape of Broadway that feel different,” said Lilli Cooper, a performer in “POTUS,” pointing to pandemic precautions.
“But when you walk on stage, and you’re performing in the show every night, it really feels exactly how it’s always felt,” Cooper said. “And if anything, even more exciting, because audiences are so excited to be back.”
Intrepid theatergoers have ample options, as 35 shows run in Broadway’s 39 active theaters, up from fewer than 20 last winter.
Theater fans can take in Joaquina Kalukango’s prodigious performance in the lush if long historical New York musical “Paradise Square,” laugh their guts out at the flagrantly farcical “POTUS” and revel in the dark humor of the quasi-whodunit “Hangmen.”
Or they can chase the megastars: Hugh Jackman in the hot-selling revival of “The Music Man,” Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick bickering like the real-life couple they are in the revival of “Plaza Suite” or Daniel Craig taking on Shakespeare in “Macbeth.”
Some of the new shows were ready to appear pre-pandemic. “Plaza Suite” and a revival of “American Buffalo” were on the cusp of runs when the coronavirus curtain fell on March 12, 2020.
“Hangmen,” by the Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, was in previews when the pandemic hit New York two years ago. The play was thought to be permanently dead in March 2020, Broadway’s first victim. But it opened on April 21.
The current proliferation of plays and musicals on Broadway is not an enormous departure from a standard Midtown spring. Historically, a large number of Tony-hunting shows would land in time for nomination season.
But a busier-than-usual season ahead of this year’s Tony nomination announcements, scheduled for Monday, can appear a bit daunting given ongoing virus concerns.
There have been some striking flops. “The Little Prince,” high-flying but roundly panned, is closing Sunday after opening April 11. The musical was logging attendance below 30% capacity in the week entering May, according to box office returns.
Far stronger reviews were not enough to lift “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf,” and the revival is set to close May 22 after opening on April 20. It has played to half-full crowds.
But the broader picture is brighter. The Broadway League estimated at the end of April that attendance was around 80% of its pre-COVID clip.
“I am over the moon,” said Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League. “We’re not going to break any records. But we’ve got a lot of people back to work. We have a lot of great shows.”
It is hard to say what will happen as pent-up demand fades. But ticket sales have withstood the recent rise in coronavirus cases. A revival of “Funny Girl” is off to a torrid start despite mixed reviews. “Plaza Suite” is still packing houses. And shows of all stripes are soaking in standing ovations.
Many productions received extra seasoning thanks to the pandemic. And crowds taking in theater seem to add an extra electricity.
“Even if they’re masked, they still give you all of the energy,” said Kalukango. “I was a bit worried that masks kind of hide people’s emotions and make people a little more reserved. But they were fully in it.”
Tracy Letts, who wrote and stars in “The Minutes,” said his play about serious small-town dysfunction has improved after the cast was retooled — Armie Hammer, accused of rape, left during the virus gap, replaced by Noah Reid. The play was in previews when everything shut down.
“The truth is the production we opened a couple weeks ago is stronger than what we were going to open two years ago,” Letts said. “I have done some minor changes, shaping, fine-tuning. And yes, Noah makes a difference.”
But he notices something else: more giggles from audiences.
“I don’t know if it’s anything we’re doing,” Letts said. “I wonder if audiences are more ready to laugh.”
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