For millions of people around the world, nothing says “New York” more than the theater district. Together with London’s West End, Broadway is rightly seen as the global standard for live stage productions.
That’s not going to change any time soon, but whenever live performances are able to resume it will take the theater industry time to recover from The Year of Corona.
Broadway will come back, but change is on the way
Significantly, the recovery process could actually benefit locals and international aficionados, Lively McCabe Entertainment’s Michael Barra told Fortune magazine.
Barra’s predictions include consolidated performers’ unions and more Broadway-style content available online (think Disney+’s production of Hamilton). Barra also said the theater industry will become less centralized on traditional hot spots as industry patrons and professionals -actors, producers, musicians, directors – become less willing to migrate to New York or London and focus rather on creating quality performance opportunities in previously off-the-beaten-track locations
For New Yorkers, who previously accounted for just 35 percent of theater audiences, decreased global travel and a years-long period of economic recovery is likely to mean that local theaters will choose to shutter some big-name, long-running musicals in favor of plays and shows that locals have yet to see.
In order to reach out to local audiences, Barra said theaters are likely to shutter… some of the biggest shows of recent years in order to re-start with fresh content.
“[Local theaters] long-running musical productions, which may have exhausted their tristate audiences, in favor of recently opened musicals, star-vehicle plays, and special limited-run and concert events,” he said.
There is no question that New York is full of surprises, but this is one it would be hard to imagine all on one’s own.
Known as “Drunk Shakespeare,” the premise is that one actor begins his evening with five shots of whiskey, and then, with presumably no time to sober up, begins to perform in a real Shakespearean play.
I imagine that for purists this might smack of sacrilege, but for the rest of us with senses of humor, this could turn out to be a pretty fun evening. Among the other strange elements patrons can expect are a hidden library on the 4th floor of a building on 43rd and 8th Avenue which has more than 15,000 books; a mysterious bartender who serves his drinks through and opening in a 10-foot high bookcase which is made completely of black books; one-hundred valuable novels buried for all time in an amber fluid in front of a king’s throne; and more…
The troupe of actors bringing this fascinating premise to life is known as the “Drunk Shakespeare Society.” They perform nightly at the Roy Arias Stages in Midtown Manhattan, a performance space made to look very much like a library. When the cocktails have been served out the actual “Drunk Shakespeare” performance begins, in close proximity to the audience. A somewhat truncated version of Macbeth ensues. Each evening a different actor, playing a different role, is required to become inebriated and then perform his lines as convincingly as possible.
Due to the drinking atmosphere, the audience is less inhibited, and easily become part of the action. There are two audience members who get special attention, as they have spent extra for the privilege of sitting on royal thrones. These special patrons have purchased the rights to champagne, caviar, and the right to tell the drinker to drink some more, why don’t you?
The show opened in November, 2014, and does not show signs of abating. Performances take place every night of the week but Tuesday. Friday nights have two shows, and Saturday evenings there are three to choose from.
Are you ready for something really different, and uniquely New York? Try the 13th Street Repertory Company, located at 50 West 13th Street between Fifth and the Avenue of the Americas. At this bastion of contemporary theater new artists are welcome to come and find their individual voices.
The company performs as many as seven shows each week, including theater for children in addition to its trademark “New Works Reading” series.
Especially enduring has been the play “Line,” written by Israel Horovitz and first performed at the 13th Street Repertory 32 years ago. The show is still performed weekly, making “Line” the longest running off-off-Broadway play in history.
You may not think of Brooklyn as a cultural capital. But in fact, the borough south of Manhattan has many delightful cultural attractions, often with fewer crowds and lower prices than their counterparts across the bridge.
The Brooklyn Academy of Music, or BAM as it is usually known, is a flourishing urban arts center that offers a wide-ranging repertoire of theater, opera, dance, music, literature, film, and the visual arts to Brooklyn. BAM’s current programming can be seen on their website: www.bam.org
