With COVID cancellations on the rise, how confident are Broadway ticket buyers?
Jane lives just outside Baltimore, MD. Among the many holiday traditions her family partakes in is traveling to NYC to see a show. Before COVID, her family did it for the past 12 years since she was 10-yeard old.
This year, having all been vaccinated and feeling safe enough to make the trek to 42nd St, Jane and her family took to the train into NYC with tickets in hand to see Moulin Rouge on Thursday evening, December 16th.
Excited, feeling relieved to be in a safe environment, ready to see a show she had been waiting basically two years for, Jane was more than ready for the curtain to rise.
Then, right when the show felt like it was supposed to start, an announcement came that the performance had been canceled due to a late-in-the-day positive COVID test.
Feeling heartbroken, Jane and her family went back to their hotel and then left NYC this morning. Due to conflicts in schedules, this was the only day that the family to gather for this trip during the holiday season. While Jane certainly understands why the show was canceled and agrees that health and safety come first, she can’t help but feel disappointed.
“Do you think you’ll buy a ticket for a Broadway show in the near future?”, I asked.
“I don’t think so. Not in the near future,” she said. “Yes, we can get refunds if shows cancel but you can’t refund travel expenses once you’re already in the city. It seems like it’s too much of a gamble of funds to make those types of trips if the show is going to cancel that day, or that performance.”
Jane makes a good point. While there is little to nothing that productions can do with the spread of COVID and how they have to cancel shows at the last minute, the other edge of the sword is that ticket buyers’ confidence has to be waning right now. And the biggest problem of all is that I don’t know there is a solution to any of this. Testing has to happen when it can happen, results can only be known when they’re available, and the process has to remind the process to keep everyone safe.
When these things flare up or there’s a positive test, the protocols in place call for the most immediate action possible. So unless there is something we don’t know about what Actors’ Equity, The Broadway League, or any other entity’s process, this type of testing/reporting/action plan is going to remain.
At the same time, these entities can’t be upset with the lack of ticket sales if buyers just don’t trust that these shows will actually perform.