Robert DuSold

I wrote a blog in September about the impending opening of Broadway and tours. From my gut. I suppose it’s easier for me to be more analytical… I’m not working a gig. I have to commune with myself at this point to even want to.

I have a different perspective than most I suppose… from my galaxy far, far away at the moment, combined with almost 40 years in professional theater I have the freedom to say what I think. I’ve allowed myself to say what I want.

I recommend it.

It’s struck me more and more lately as I look back, that even when I was working in shows on Broadway and tours and regional theater I did indeed speak out and speak up then. Like starting when “Moonstruck” came out.

So here we go again. 12/28/2021

First, my blog post from 3 short months ago….

09/17/2021

Today, after the closure of the fourth Broadway show in two weeks, almost half of the skits not running in the past week due to cancellations, playwrights miraculously turning into professional actors overnight and jumping in their own show, and a musical being modified to suit a smaller cast…I’m asking myself if there’s anything to learn from how soon Broadway reopened, how it physically reopened and what kind of planning and thought went into it.

I took a look back at the interviews and righteous words of the players and found…

Well, I found a wholesale bargain basement run on talking out of posteriors for the most part.

Here’s the pre-Broadway opening narrative in March of this year:

No more ‘The Show Must Go On’

“Both The Broadway League and Actors’ Equity said safety is at the top of the list when it comes to a return, and they are working feverishly to enact plans and protocols for the industry to do so.

St. Martin said there are 44 task forces focused on everything from safety to marketing in re-opening Broadway, while Equity has worked on safety and sanitary protocols both for work during the pandemic as well as planning for its re-opening.

Shindle said that means significant change.

“Stage managers and actors have been unemployed in our industry for a year,” she said, “but even as we’re getting back to work, one of the things that’s most important to me is that we not get back to normal, or whatever normal was for our industry a year ago. We need a better normal, a new normal.

“In addition to COVID safety protocols, which I think everyone understands is a given as we get back to work, we have to change a fundamental narrative in our business, one that was born of good intentions but which is inherently problematic. And that is that no matter what, the show must go on.”

https://amp.app.com/amp/6659717002

The show must go on is “inherently problematic”.

And yet, that very narrative of “The Show Must Go On” is the lifeline professional theater is desperately holding onto.. at the cost of entire casts and crew, but mostly of understudies and standbys. And jobs.

Not to mention audiences.

So, what might have contributed to the disaster unfolding on Broadway is the blatant bullshit that was peddled before the reopening.

If you take a glance at your device of choice, you may well have seen a viral post of Hugh Jackman(now sick with COVID) praising understudies, and AEA pres Kate Shindle.. using 👏 a lot… and pretty much every professional actor slamming the head of the Broadway League and producers from the comfort of social media for some very dumb, inarticulate comments she made about understudies(that were mostly misinterpreted in my opinion as I’m not her).

Every one of those tributes to understudies and swings and standbys is in direct opposition to you know, the change. The “significant change”. The “moment” that’s been a theater phenomenon unto itself. The reckoning.

No more the show must go on.

Understudies, swings and standbys are indeed worthy of every accolade that can possibly be bestowed. For me…I’d say I’ve done all of those half of my career at least.. it was terrifying for the most part. It’s not performing as much as being so in your head that you’re on a very fraught autopilot… especially in new shows. Before a million people died in this country of a 🦠, it was mostly a benign opportunity to be judged by management. Even when you were thrown on in the worst circumstances.

Now, they are indeed saving the show. And risking their health. And stepping into sometimes dangerous situations onstage and backstage.

Is that worth it?

I’m at a loss as to why the toll this virus takes on all involved is being ignored… like families and vulnerable people, let alone theater workers.

Are they saving their job? Or are they saving the producer’s investment? 4 shows have already closed, and that’s after I’m sure insane contributions from swings and understudies.

Are they keeping the theatrical unions solvent while they risk so much?

Commercial theater is built on stars. Names. Even in the age of Cameron Mackintosh, when shows were the star of the show, I think that applies.

While all the outrage seems to be aimed at producers for the circumstances understudies and swings are in.. you know, not enough money, covering multiple roles, no rehearsal, no costumes, etc… I wonder why none of it is directed toward the union that agreed to and offered the reality that swings and standbys find themselves in.

Anyway, the other thing that I think is not working out so well at the moment is the narrative that audiences are to blame.

Several producers and industry peeps have publicly stated that audiences weren’t being “diligent enough” in stopping the spread of COVID. Get your shot! Get vaccinated and this will all be over. It’s on you people in the seats!

While I’m sure that’s pretty true, the truth of the cancellations and closures on Broadway is based on virus transmission between fully vaccinated people. We’d have to find that fucking bird or fish or the test tube in Wuhan to get to the heart of that argument, but I don’t think it’s wise to put out there when most shows aren’t near selling out.

I think what’s more damaging to Broadway at the moment is letting an audience sit there…literally.. and then cancel the show. Or finding out minutes before. That’s happened frequently enough that audiences are losing confidence in the considerable financial investment they’re making.

They may not be so willing to put up with that for too much longer I think.

Today, a friend wrote that he went to see a show at 54 Below last week and got an email this morning from them that said a musician had tested positive and he should go get tested. That would be great if anyone could actually find one.

I think it’s wonderful if you leave a theater with a magical, floating on air feeling.

But not Covid.

I’m surprised that transmission to audience members hasn’t been a thing.. if it does become a thing that ain’t good.

Part of the reality of commercial theater is the abyss many shows face in the months of January and February.. and that’s in the best of times. Business plummets then.

I guess I want to believe that the biggies in theater are doing more than just hoping at this point.

Ok, it’s time to say this isn’t working. It’s not working. And in the back of the heads of the two of you who will read this I bet you’re thinking …”but Omicron”. How could anyone be prepared for Omicron?

Not for nothing, but I knew the likelihood of transmission between vaccinated people was very real in September. And I’m not that smart.

Or maybe I am.

I’ve read a lot .. a lot…of posts on social media by very well meaning peeps that the protocols are working for theater and that’s why the shows have cancelled. To keep everyone safe.

If 4 shows have closed in the last 2 weeks ..for good.. I’m not sure how well that’s working in the big picture.

“For Love or Money”.. not only a great Joni Mitchell song but I think the heart of the conflict of professional theater.

The firmament of Tinsel Town
Is strung with tungsten stars
Lots of forty watt successes
He says where's my own shining hour
He's the well kept secret of the underground
He's in debt to the company store
Because his only channelled aspiration
Was getting back that girl he had before
He's got stacks and stacks of words that rhyme
Describing what it is to lose
He's got some just for laughs
He's got some for love
That mainline to his blues
Some to shed a little light on you and on me
Some to shed a little light on the human story

Vaguely she floats and lacelike
Blown in like a curtain on the night wind
She's nebulous and naked
He wonders where she's been
He grabs at the air because there's nothing there
Her evasiveness stings him
With long legs-long lonely legs
Bruised from banging into things
One day he was standing just outside her door
He was carrying an armload of bright balloons
She just laughed
She said she heard him knocking
And she teased him for the moon
Is one the moon dear clown
Tied to a string for me?
He tried but he could not get it down
For truth or for mystery
He tried but he could not get it down
For love or money

Money.