There may be no business like show business for up to a year
• Theatres and cinemas simply cannot exist when social distancing is still the main way to fight Covid-19
To reopen, or not to reopen with social distancing? That is the question haunting theatres and cinemas that were shuttered overnight by coronavirus lockdowns.
Theatrical impresario Cameron Mackintosh, the legendary British producer behind a half century of hit shows, from Cats to Hamilton, said it could be 2021 before the lights go back on in New York’s Broadway and London’s West End.
With British actor Stephen Fry warning that it could be as long as next April, Mackintosh said it will be impossible for theatres to open their doors again if social-distancing measures are still in force.
With some out-of-work actors and musicians on Broadway saying they are considering a change in career, French star Isabelle Adjani said on Tuesday that it will be curtains unless governments “declare a cultural emergency”.
“We are going to be the last to go back,” Mackintosh told BBC radio. “The truth is until social distancing doesn’t exist anymore, we can’t even plan to reopen.”
Commercial theatre depends on shows being at least twothirds full as a rule of thumb to keep ticking over. With people meant to sit up to 2m apart, that would mean at least two empty seats around each masked audience member, official French official guidelines recommended on Monday.
Such restrictions are socially and economically impossible, producers insisted. Even in Texas, whose governor Greg Abbott has been gung-ho about lifting restrictions, only a tiny number of cinemas have grabbed the chance to reopen at the weekend.
TEMPERATURE CHECKS
Few cinemagoers were tempted to brave the temperature checks at the door, with screening rooms allowed to be no more than a quarter full.
“We either reopen completely or we don’t at all. It’s black and white,” said French theatrical tycoon Jean-Marc Dumontet, who owns six Paris theatres.
People simply “will not want to go back to the theatre if they feel it is dangerous”.
Fry agreed, saying distancing restrictions go against the whole theatrical experience.
“The very quality that makes theatre so thrilling — the united presence of an audience clustered together to experience live performance — is what makes the enterprise so unsuited in a period of necessary social distancing,” he said.
Hollywood, too, is sceptical about a quick return to normal despite US President Donald Trump wanting US cinemas to reopen as soon as possible.
Studios have pushed back the release of most of their big budget “tent-pole” blockbusters until August or later, reluctant to risk them on a still jittery public.
Even so, some Czech cinemas will open next week and German industry body HDF Kino is lobbying for a July restart, saying the lockdown has already cost them €186m.
Some cinema chains in the UK — which has been hit much harder by the virus — also want to open in July, though neighbouring Ireland is not contemplating a return until mid-August.
While the outlook is bleak for live theatre, the major US chain
Cinemark believes cinemas can weather the storm — and any recession that might follow.
“Historically the exhibition industry has been recessionresilient and we believe it will rebound and benefit from pentup demand as home sheltering subsides and people seek a communal experience,” it said in a note to investors.
However, it warned that any return to normal “may span multiple months” because of “lingering social distancing” and consumer discomfort with public gatherings.
BAILOUT
Despite everything, Cinemark said many cinemas could still make a profit even when twothirds empty.
Theatres do not have that luxury. With dire warnings of venues going dark and shows closing forever, French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to announce a bailout for the country’s live entertainment sector on Wednesday.
In Britain, where theatre plays an even bigger role in the country’s cultural and economic life, the government has so far been silent despite a growing clamour for aid.
With little hope of state help on Broadway, the outlook is even bleaker.
“I think we’re all a bit hopeless,” violinist Maxim Moston, who is in the orchestra of the musical Moulin Rouge, said.
“I think a lot of people are thinking about other careers at this point.” /AFP