The extension means that Broadway will be closed for more than a year by the time it reopens in 2021.
“With nearly 97,000 workers who rely on Broadway for their livelihood and an annual economic impact of $14.8 billion to the city, our membership is committed to re-opening as soon as conditions permit us to do so. We are working tirelessly with multiple partners on sustaining the industry once we raise our curtains again,” Broadway League president Charlotte St. Martin said in a statement.
New York was initially hit hard by the pandemic, with as many as 11,000 new cases a day in April, before a robust response led to a drop below 1,000 new cases a day for three months from June-September. In recent weeks, however, a number of zip codes in New York City and the state as a whole have seen spikes in new cases, leading state authorities to increase testing and tracing efforts in those locations. Still, none of the hot-spot zip codes identified by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo are in Broadway’s borough of Manhattan.
After closing all but essential businesses in March, New York state has slowly reopened, in a phased, data-driven approach, but movie theaters and other performance venues remain closed.
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
