Broadway's Covid Testing Process Is Stupid

OP Do you realize how closely actors work together? They are all exchanging droplets with each other. If they have a single positive COVID test then they will have several (including understudies and crew). It is an industry unusually susceptible to COVID. They are trying to avoid a major outbreak where they have to close the show out entirely. They MUST pause and cancel these shows. I am sure they don't want to do that.

These shows are probably all vaccinated and rapid testing every day. A positive test probably results in a second round of tests to be sure. Testing so frequently and doing eight shows a week is going to cut the notice window pretty short. Is it awkward after an audience is seated? Of course, but they have no choice but to shut it down.

FRIENDS did an exaggeration of actors enunciating, but if you have ever been in the front row of a play you will see that it does involve a lot of spitting and it only increases with singing! 🤪😂

Actors have a unique workplace. It must be nightmare trying to keep a COVID free work environment when the actors and crew work so closely everyday but are not operating in a bubble outside of work.

Fasten your seat belts, bitches.

[quote]OP Do you realize how closely actors work together?

OP is concerned with his own convenience, not the health and welfare of others.

[quote]It's going to be a bumpy winter

Certainly if London is any indication:

The leader of Westminster city council has said people’s decision to cancel plans in the Christmas period is having a “devastating” impact on hospitality and entertainment businesses in London’s West End.

"The situation is deteriorating daily for our theatres, restaurants and bars – widespread cancellations are having a devastating effect and I fear for many hospitality and creative jobs.

In Westminster we have 3,700 restaurants, clubs and bars – the largest number of any local authority – and it’s a sector that supports 80,000 jobs.

The curtain is coming down on production after production in the West End, and it is heart-breaking after theatreland had only just got going again."

As long as Covid is front page news, Democrats will be crushed electorally. Get vaccinated, boosterized & suck it up (even literally).

If the sports leagues can remain up and running (with infrequent postponements) then Broadway can.

OP you sound like some Broadway queens I know and love. You're as furious as a wet hen!

R7 I am not aware of any sports that requires opponents to talk/sing directly into each others faces for long periods of time or to kiss on each other. Are you?

Do you understand how Covid is spread or are you deliberately ignoring the science?

You understand that these are different industries with different requirements right?

From your snap conclusion it seems like you know nothing about sports or theater or covid. Please educate yourself.

Who got sick in Chicken And Biscuits? I hope it was not Norm Lewis.

This has to be some kind of insurance fraud scheme. Do the shows get payouts for canceling due to Covid?

working as a musician all I can say to OP is FUCK YOU

This is what understudies are for. Move the sick ones out and let the healthy ones play. Survival of the fittest. Time to get onboard, everyone!

It used to be said that the Dems were the mommy party & the GOP was the daddy party. It seems to still be the case.

I'm sorry your father didn't care whether you lived or died, R14.

The only logical reason to have the testing system set up this way is if producers are looking for opportunities to cancel shows- not continue with understudies, cancel completely. Is there money for them in doing that?

Well, why doesn't Broadway just close up for the holidays? I'm not trucking to NYC to sit in a theater and be told someone in the chorus is sick and I have to go home? What's gonna happen if a Rockette get sick? There are 6,000 people in the Radio city audience ~ five shows a day! We gotta live with it, folks.

R17 Hell No I am not living with anything, don't force your hand. I will wear my masks outside and inside for years to come.

If you're bitching about a Broadway show being cancelled for a covid diagnosis because you think it's an overreaction, you can fuck off.

A WET HEN!!!

R19 Don't get your titties in a twist. I am just saying we got to move on with out lives. As soldiers fall, many others will fill their space. The wheel keeps turning. If you can't keep up, move on out!

r21 is an asshole and sound sociopath-adjacent

^^^ sounds (before I'm "Oh, deared")

R15, that deserves a MARY.

Yesterday there were 18K new cases of Covid in NY and 144K nationally. There were 730K globally. 5.3 million people have died.

One of the primary roles of an evolved society is to place a high priority on the health and welfare of its population.

This pandemic is in the process of eclipsing the Spanish Flu, considered the most deadly pandemic in hundreds of years. That people casually deny what is happening, don’t get vaccinated, don’t wear masks and don’t social distance should be criminal.

1000 people in the US died yesterday from Covid. Let me ask you tough guys who think we should push ahead a question. If three commercial jets crashed every day this week killing 1000 a day, would you get on a plane? Do you think ANY planes would be flying?

Wake the fuck up. Covid is the leading cause of death in the US right now. To attempt to deny its severity or do everything in our power stop it’s proliferation, is anti American, unpatriotic, and foolishly selfish. I’m now convinced that sheer stupidity is a long term side effect of the virus. It’s the only explanation that so many of the 273 million people who have contracted it continue to be complete assholes.

Carry on. And have a great weekend.

[quote]we got to move on with out lives

So long as MAGAts refuse to get vaccinated, wear a mask, and do the minimal things asked to keep their friends, neighbors, co-workers and families safe, that's exactly what we're headed for: moving on without lives. Lots of 'em.

Which brings us to R6, somehow blaming the Democrats for Trump's total and complete failure to prevent Covid from escaping China, stop Covid before it overwhelmed the US, mitigate Covid once it had reached our shores, or do anything for the good of the nation. Coincidence that it's MAGAts refusing to get vaccinated? The GOP is a death cult, willing to kill their own for the sake of power.

The Dems and Biden will be blamed for the downturn in the economy and the continued presence of Covid. After all, wasn't the vaccine supposed to eradicate the virus? It must have all been a hoax. That's the message the Repubs will use during the midterm and the Dems, cowards that they are, will not fight back, except on MSNBC ( which no one watches). It will take a Democratic united front and they can't even agree on the day of the week. Led by the impotent Schumer , the Senate is a shitshow. So, look for a concerted effort to put the entire Covid thing on the Dems.

As more and more red counties disproportionately feel the devastating effects of COVID, I assume Republicans are going to pivot from "COVID is a hoax!" to "China created COVID in cahoots with the Dems to kill Trump supporters!!"

As a paying (highly) audience member, I do t care about the actors. They need to perform, and take the risk. I protect myself (double vax + booster + mask), they need to do their job.

[quote]As a paying (highly) audience member

Step aside, bitches! We have a "paying highly" audience member with something to say!

To the poster who used the airplane analogy, yes, I would get on a plane. Life is risk. I am fully vaxxed with booster, and I wear a mask in every public space. I'm going to live my life, and stopping doesn't solve anything.

To the poster who asked about "Chicken and Bisquits".... Thanks a lot. Now I'm really hungry.

R29, lamenting the demise of Roman gladiator games.

R17 The Rockettes just cancelled all four of their shows today. So I guess those 6,000 (X 4) audience members will be going back to their podunk towns or hanging out in the hotel today.

Oh dear! Not the Rockettes!

They refund your tickets - it's not like they pocket the money.

I get the impulse to say "fuck it they should perform" but when you step back you should realize that puts the cast/crew in a really unsafe and shitty position. I'm sure they would all love for the show to go on but it's a pandemic. We are lucky they reopened at all.

So they must all be taking the rapid result test before each performance I assume

Why not just send the positive actor home and have an understudy play?

I say this because, lets face it, breakthrough infections aren't usual for fully vaccinated people, and Covid isn't going away. It is going to be like the flu or the cold. To cancel entire performances over a single cast member's positive test just isn't feasible in the long term.

Radio City Christmas show has been cancelled. NYC is fucked!!!

Of course R31 completely missed my point with the airplane analogy. What I was saying, idiot, is if three domestic commercial jets crashed every day, the aviation industry would be shut down.

But we currently don’t live in a world where the common or greater good have any value.

One other thing that no one has mentioned in this thread is the audience. 6000 people at Radio City Music Hall is in itself a huge risk. There’s currently a big spike of a deadly pandemic, and the response is ‘I don’t care, I’m tired of it.’

[quote]I say this because, lets face it, breakthrough infections aren't usual for fully vaccinated people

And yet this week alone breakthrough infections hit fully vaccinated people from Moulin Rouge, Jagged Little Pill, Mrs. Doubtfire, MJ, Tina, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Ain’t Too Proud and Freestyle Love Supreme.

Who are the nuts buying tickets to see Bway shows now?

Mrs Doubtfire is worth sitting shoulder to shoulder with a thousand other people in a closed room in the middle of a pandemic????

R39: "Of course [R31] completely missed my point with the airplane analogy. What I was saying, idiot, is if three domestic commercial jets crashed every day, the aviation industry would be shut down. "

R31 was correctly pointing out that the analogy (plane crash to crew member getting covid) is wrong. A crew member getting covid isn't like a plane crashing. It's like a passenger or crew member on a flight getting covid. They don't cancel flights for that.

I meant unusual R40.

My bad

I really believe that people have been poisoned with something that reduces their reasoning skills. R42, the analogy is that 3 jets equal approximately 1000 people. 1000 people are currently dying a day from Covid. The analogy is if 1000 people a day died in air crashes the aviation industry would be shut down. The analogy as not faulty. You simply didn’t grasp its meaning. 1000 people dying a day from Covid is dismissed. If the cause was air disasters the response would be completely different..

Not "Jagged Little Pill"!! NOOOOOOOO!!!

[quote]If the sports leagues can remain up and running (with infrequent postponements) then Broadway can.

The National Football League will postpone several games this weekend due to a surge in Covid-19 cases, a source told CNBC on Friday.

The expected move comes as the National Hockey League has said it will postpone the games of several teams for the same reason.

Fuck broadway. No one’s missing anything. I got a kick out of the one above - I pay highly! Who pays high prices now? When seats are reduced on every ticket site? Every single one - and you can choose your seats! Unless @$85 is a lot of money (it’s not! But i get some people are underachievers) Silly Broadway Queens!

I bet Patti will plow on. She's a trooper! She blew a tuba during Sweeney with a case of pleurisy. Covid won't stop her from that third Tony.

Yeah, I think Broadway's problems go deeper than the Plague. Have you seen the lineup this season? Pathetic. and also, what's with all these movie projects being made into HORRIBLE musicals? At least give it a good score, there has not been a single famous song from a Broadway musical in god knows when, so I say Bway is in a slump.

[quote] I bet Patti will plow on. She's a trooper!

I was nailed in another thread for not seeming to understand that it's trouper, not trooper.

Triple the ticket price, slash the number of available tickets in half, and spread out the crowd.

It's like packing cattle in a slaughterhouse (literally) in the theater nowadays.

R50 well she's built like a state trooper.

r52 = Betty Lynn

LCD Soundsystem, mid 20-show Brooklyn Steel residency, sez fuck them hipsters! Er.. Adults make their own choices!

Adults should make their own choices.

R31 do you eat at restaurants indoors? Wear a mask at the gym? Have sex?

Did we think that vaccinated people would not spread Covid? Is that what we thought?

So much for the 2021-22 season. Damn.

OP can go fuck himself with a COVID-infused dildo.

Audiences are vaxxed and masked, so they're not the ones at risk.

I feel terrible for actors right now. They spent 18 months locked out of their profession. The lucky ones were condemned to endless Zoom readings. And now the theatre community is back to square one.

It sucks.

the only show with a deep enough bench to soldier on like R21 is describing is Phantom. If Phantom starts losing performances, you know it's really bad.

R57 That's what the term "vaccine" meant for 60 years before November of 2020.

Fuck right off R9.

I can’t believe the Rockettes are throwing in the towel for the rest of 2021! I’m truly shocked. The dancers must be crushed even though they will have their health at the end of the day.

No sympathy for the assholes who are kvetching about having tickets for a canceled performance. The cast and crew are who I pity. They are putting themselves at risk and now facing unemployment again.

R44 I think smartphones short circuit the brain and it malfunctions after prolonged use.

OP is libertarian trash.

It's because most chorus bois are immuno-compromised.

Shithole China is cackling uncontrollably right now after annihilating the world economy with the Chinese plague. Well, fuck them.

Those "rare" breakthrough cases amongst a 100% inoculated group yet again.

[quote] Yesterday there were 18K new cases of Covid in NY and 144K nationally. There were 730K globally. 5.3 million people have died.

Okay, putting aside the 5.3 million who have died globally. Because those are primarily pre-vaccine deaths, or deaths in the unvaccinated. You can’t keep referring to that cumulative total when we’re entering a new era—not only have there been highly effective vaccines (highly effective at preventing severe illness and death, as well as even mild infections in the first 3 months after vaccination), but there’s now even a booster that’s at least 75% effective against Omicron.

How many people have died from OMICRON? It is incredibly contagious—but what will the IFR be?

It’s just disingenuous to keep mentioning how many *mostly unvaccinated* people have died. This is a different era of Covid, in more ways than one. There are ways to take it seriously without being dishonest.

Apparently an ensemble member of Company had food poisoning tonight (?) so they stopped the show 5 minutes in, then Patti came out and answered questions and sang for 20 minutes and then they sent everyone home.

[quote]That's what the term "vaccine" meant for 60 years before November of 2020.

You keep repeating that no matter how many times it's pointed out that the "flu vaccine" hasn't met your definition since it was introduce in the 1930s.

By the way, this year's flu vaccine looks to be a bust.

R11 here. I got sick of waiting for an answer so I googled around and tried to figure it out myself.

Broadway productions do, indeed, carry insurance against cancelation of shows due to communicable disease or fear of communicable disease. Multi-million dollar payouts were made by insurers after Cuomo closed theaters in 2020, and some shows successfully sued for payouts after the fact.

I used to work for a movie theater chain (kind of similar?) Anytime the value of a theater was being calculated for something, we always used the profit of tickets sold for 3/4 of seats as a baseline figure.

I wonder if the theaters are undersold and a positive Covid test is sometimes more profitable than an actual performance.

R68, how am I being dishonest? There were days in June when there were fewer than 10K cases a day. Yesterday with vastly more people vaccinated there we 163K new cases. 1600 people died yesterday. We’re in the midst of a surge. You know who’s being dishonest? You. And don’t say that the lower case counts in May were due to warm weather. By August, when people became lazy, cases went back up above 100K a day.

"Shithole China is cackling uncontrollably right now"

They have too many problems to be laughing.

[quote]I feel terrible for actors right now.

I don't. It's a stupid industry full of stupid, shallow, vapid, narcissists. The less of them the better.

The musicians, however, I really feel bad for. You know, because...they actually contribute something profound to the world and have talent.

R60 Yes, this is true. The majority of the population appears to have lost its memory about the function and nature of vaccinations. The meaning was apparently revised during the pandemic. Same goes for what used to constitute an actual "case" in medical classifications. Merely testing positive wasn't enough to classify a condition as a case. Other factors were needed to gain that classification status. Now someone can test positive for Covid (even if it's a false positive) and that immediately gets added to the "number of cases are rising" media fear porn. I also recall that a few years ago there was a lot of screeching going around about overuse and over-reliance on antibacterial soaps to clean and to wash hands, warnings about creating a "super bug" resistant to antibacterial remedies. But as of March 2020, it's okay to use as much as you want! It's okay now!

The fear porn being used by the media and the government agencies is out of control. It's repellent how it's nudging many people into becoming easily malleable fools. I say this as someone who has had the Covid shots and booster, who wears a mask to protect myself and others because yes, it's a best practice for the general health and wellbeing of large populations. I've also had many childhood vaccinations, so no this isn't an anti-vaxx screed. People need to regain coherence and discernment and not slurp up all the manufactured fear the media is dishing out. This goes for anything the media dishes out, not just Covid mania.

[quote]a few years ago there was a lot of screeching going around about overuse and over-reliance on antibacterial soaps to clean and to wash hands, warnings about creating a "super bug" resistant to antibacterial remedies. But as of March 2020, it's okay to use as much as you want! It's okay now!

Nobody credible has said to use antibacterial soap in the fight against covid.

Agree with R75.

R76, there are judges around the country dismantling mask and vaccine requirements. There are national public figures chanting that our civil liberties are being eroded by COVID mandates. But your conclusion is that we’re being coerced by fear mongers?

I was reading about Polio the other day, and I actually saved the following to my phone, because it shows how starkly the perceived value of a life has changed in the past 60 years:

‘ So let’s think about this: The nation saw about 58,000 polio cases in 1952, the worst year for the disease in American history. Around 21,000 people were paralyzed, some permanently. There were 3,145 deaths.

So far, 615,000 people have died from COVID-19.

It’s astonishing that the U.S. conducted a mass vaccination program for a disease that killed two or three thousand patients a year, yet struggles to get enough people to take shots for a disease that killed 21,000 people in one week.’

R77 - Never indicated that antibacterial soap was being recommended by credible people. In the early days of Covid 2020, you couldn't read an article or go anywhere without someone urging you to wash your hands frequently and suggest you carry around a little spray bottle of disinfectant I was pointing out that this was a stark reversal to the recommendations of prior years to ease up on the use of such antibacterials.

R79 - What the judges are doing around the country to dismantle mandates doesn't change the context of my post regarding the media manipulation. They're churning out a Weapons of Mass Destruction-style cycle of manufactured fear. Seems a lot of people are becoming comfortable living life while in a high anxiety/paranoid state of mind, which is a tragic, limited way to approach life, but whatever.

R80, reading that remarkably weak response to my post has me thinking that you’re not a hired hand. If that’s the case, WAKE UP.,if you are a lobbyist/spinner, how sad that these are the talking points you’re left with.

I was at a Wegman’s in a red county in PA yesterday. Everyone was wearing a mask. Science and politics may from time to time intersect, but they are two completely different disciplines, with science utilizing facts and politics playing on emotion.

Of course your writing is rife with ‘opinions’ and indignant emotional defense. But millions of people dead are about science and not opinions. So, really, just shut the fuck up.

R80 The gaslighting is nuts. This is why no one takes the legitimate media seriously anymore.

Two things can be true at the same time.

The world desperately needs to address the mental health stresses that COVID has inflicted on the world.

Also,

R76/80 can fuck himself with a fire extinguisher loaded with COVID-infused spittle.

All of you, and the world are broken.. and unfortunately I guess that includes me.

We’re fucked.

R37 maybe this has been answered but there's a shortage of understudies.

There is no way in hell that there is a shortage of actors.

"The show would go on... but there just aren't any slightly talented actors in New York looking for work."

R61 Don't get mad at me because you are an idiot who didn't think your very flighty and ill-advised commentary!

I'm assuming this is where all of the very witty "Producers" jokes last week were coming from.