New York’s Broadway theaters have begun reopening, the lights flickering on for White Way staples like Wicked and The Lion King and more recent hits like Hadestown and Come From Away. Eager to see how a vital industry would handle its resurrection, V.F. chief critic Richard Lawson and staff writer Chris Murphy, both lifelong theater fans, headed back to the boards this week after so much time away. These are their stories.
Richard Lawson: Maybe the strangest thing about going to see Come From Away on Tuesday evening—the show’s first performance since the shutdown and my first theatergoing adventure since Little Shop of Horrors in March 2020—was how normal it initially felt. There was the usual annoyance of waiting in a long line, snaking around onto 8th Avenue, and the mild panic that the show might somehow start before I was seated. There was the usual mix of elders and buzzing theater nerds and groups of young men with pristine haircuts (you know who I mean, Chris). Sure, I had to show ID and proof of vaccination as I entered the theater, but otherwise it felt like business as usual. I was oddly a little disappointed; I suppose I had expected to tearfully marvel, Emily Webb style, at all the things I had so foolishly taken for granted in my old life.
Turns out, I just had to wait a few minutes. Once the band walked out on the stage, there was a raucous standing ovation. Then another as the show’s creative team made a little speech. Then another when the actors took their places and, I believe, another after the conclusion of the first song. That celebratory energy continued throughout the hour and 40 minutes of the show, and concluded with an emotional speech from company member Joel Hatch about the beauty of theater’s communal experience, followed by a boozy toast to new company member James Seol, who replaced an actor who refused to get vaccinated.
It all had a grand and jolly sense of occasion to it, which is pretty much exactly what I had been looking for. There was, it must be said, also some uneasiness. Particularly about how much cheering and shouting there was—though we were all masked and vaxxed, I still found myself distracted with worry that everyone would come to bitterly regret all this happy particulate-spewing. But, that anxiety was often allayed by the palpably evident joy of the performers on stage. And, at times, by the vague parallels of the show’s story—about a tiny Newfoundland town that had to look after thousands of stranded airline passengers in the immediate aftermath of 9/11—and what we’ve all just been through. Watching people bear up and support one another during a sudden and scary period of stasis and then, shaky and undeniably changed, reenter regular life certainly had some resonance.
Chris, how did you feel being at that lovefest on Tuesday night? And how did it compare to the other shows you’ve managed to see since Broadway opened its doors again?
Chris Murphy: I have to agree, Richard. While I also found myself anxious about the amount of particles potentially flying around the Schoenfeld Theater, ultimately I was swept away in the magic of live theater and the sheer amount of energy in the room. At many times, Come From Away felt more like a Harry Styles concert than a Broadway show—I half expected someone to throw a bra on stage during the minutes-long standing ovation that happened before the show even began. Honestly, the audience was so riotous during the opening number that I truly couldn’t hear one note of the song and had no idea what was going on. But I didn’t care. The audience’s excitement at being back in a theater superseded what was happening on stage. The overly-enthusiastic audience was no accident. The theater was packed with die-hard Come From Away fans, musical theater-obsessives, and Nick and Diana Marson and Kevin Tuerff—three of the real-life inspirations for characters in the show, all of whom received a shout-out from Tony-winning director Christopher Ashley. The audience definitely would have given them their own standing ovation had they not already been on their feet from the last one.
Although the audience was such a vital part of the experience, the knowledge that the actors were finally returning to the stage was the most salient part of the night. Any theater kid remembers those special performances—maybe it was a talented senior’s last show, or the closing night of your high school’s incredibly well-reviewed production of Into the Woods—where the show was more about the actors’ relationship to each other on stage than their relationship to the people sitting in the audience, and last night was one of those nights. While Come From Away certainly isn’t my favorite musical, everyone on that stage seemed to be operating on a higher wavelength, allowing the show to really, for lack of a better word, sing. It wasn’t really about us; it was about them.
This was also true of the first performance of Hadestown on Thursday, September 2nd. You could see the actors like Eva Noblezada choking back tears on stage. Hadestown—which by my count had no less than six standing ovations during the show—ended with director Rachel Chavkin and creator Anaïs Mitchell handing bouquets of roses to all of the performers and delivering heartfelt speeches about the importance of live theater. The festivities continued after the show where the cast and band led a sing-a-long of the classic song “Lean On Me” from the balcony of the Walter Kerr theater, showering the audience members who chose to stick around with roses.
After experiencing the opening nights of Come From Away and Hadestown, I was struck by how emotional and grateful everyone was to be back on stage, but also worried about the future. Come From Away and Hadestown are both, in their own ways, about the resilience of the human spirit, and that message took on greater meaning when magnified by the resilience of the theater community. But what happens if, god forbid, Broadway goes dark again? Do we do this all over again? Can we do this all over again?
Richard Lawson: I can’t even begin to entertain the idea of another shutdown, but yes that is certainly a possibility—we might feel done with COVID, but it is certainly not done with us. Another worrisome thought, and perhaps a more complicated one, is whether or not Broadway can sustain this level of enthusiasm in the many months ahead, when theaters need to be operating at pretty high capacity to get back on their feet. Sure, all the friends and family at the party-like reopenings of shows like Come From Away and Hadestown were raring to go, but what about in a few weeks’ time, when the novelty has worn off and the industry has to rely on more than just the diehards to buy tickets?
The tourism industry is still recovering, and vaccination requirements might keep many potential autumn visitors away. (Probably for the best, really.) While briefly basking in the celebratory warmth of a Broadway reborn was nice, it did perhaps too easily help me (and maybe lots of people in that room) forget that there is a long road ahead, on which we might see plenty of shows hastily close again or never reopen. (If Company, which is set to play next door to Come From Away, doesn’t make its scheduled November 15 opening, I will be pretty crushed.)
I guess you have to be of two minds about the whole thing: glad to see some of these cherished spaces back up and running, while being ever careful not to view these reopenings as any kind of victory lap. We’re not out of the woods just yet. That said, what will you be most excited to see in the coming months, if you’re able to?
Chris Murphy: If anything happens to the Company revival before we get a chance to see it, I will personally bankroll an al fresco production. Something that I’ve loved about the reopening of Broadway is the way the fervor has extended beyond your more recent and high-brow fare. I’ve seen jaded New York theater goers tweeting about how excited they are to see Disney properties like The Lion King, and for a brief moment last week, the hottest ticket in town was literally Wicked. It’s hard to imagine that New York theatergoers—snobby as we can be—would be jumping to see these well-worn, more tourist-y attractions if we hadn’t been robbed of a year of attending the theater. I’m now excited to expand my horizons and go see shows I either haven’t seen in years (hello, Chicago) or had no interest in seeing before (looking at you, Moulin Rouge!) because I now know how quickly this can all disappear.
But you’re right, although the energy on Broadway right now is electric, there’s a long and uncertain road ahead. For every Hadestown or Come From Away, there’s a Mean Girls or a West Side Story which couldn’t get over the massive, unexpected hurdle that coronavirus presented and shuttered during the pandemic. I’m hopeful that perhaps the massively delayed Tonys which air on Sunday, September 26th and are hosted by theater legend Audra McDonald will continue to generate excitement and buzz for the entire industry—yes, even the plays!—and help keep butts in seats after the initial thrill of “Broadway Is Back!” has worn off. (Although the fact that it’s only available on Paramount+ doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.)
Yes, Broadway is back, but as we all know too well, it can go away in the blink of an eye. Perhaps, like a good actor, those who choose to attend the theater in this uncertain time should try to live in the moment, and not worry too much about the road ahead. Even if the electricity of reopening is bound to dim at some point, we’re lucky to even have the lights on.
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