The Context of This Year's Tony Awards
Last Sunday, the seats of New York’s Winter Garden Theatre filled with beautiful and immensely talented people as the 74th annual Tony Awards kicked off. As all of America’s favorite grown-up theatre kids sat in the same room, they cheered on elaborate musical numbers, flowery speeches, and the wins and accomplishments of their peers. It seemed to be the Tonys as usual except for one blatant difference: this was the first Tony Awards in 27 months. While COVID-19 has affected every industry in some way, the Broadway industry has suffered immeasurably and come to a full stop, unlike other enterprises that have found ways to adapt and continue.
September 26’s Tony Awards ran almost directly parallel to the reopening of all Broadway stages after former Governor Andrew Cuomo closed all 41 of its theatres abruptly on March 12, 2020. This immediate closure had drastic macroeconomic influence not only on the shows and theatres themselves but the businesses, like restaurants and hotels, that relied on the hustle of musicalgoers. In the 2019 to 2020 season, Broadway grossed $300 million in ticket sales, a depressing number compared to the $1.83 billion of the season prior. That is not just a number. The closure of Broadway left 100,000 artists out of work immediately, igniting a crisis not just in New York, but the entire arts industry.
Performing artists already function with the uncertainty of where their next paycheck will come from, as they typically book relatively short gigs on a regular basis in hopes that it will keep them afloat. Actors, dancers, musicians, and practically anyone signed to a talent industry knows this to be true. Some may even enjoy their career more because of that constant variation and unpredictability, but adding in the variable of COVID takes the fun out of this aspect. Performers also sometimes book jobs far in advance, and, like with these Broadway performers, when a gig you’ve relied on as your rent for the next several months falls right through, the repercussions are terrifying.
The fall-through of Broadway performers jobs and of performers nationwide ignited a Great Depression era-like crisis in which artists were forced to scrap to keep themselves afloat. Most turned to industries that were already hit, like the restaurant industry, but because many artists either hold degrees in their art concentration or skipped formal education altogether, the job openings for artists were that much more slim. Many artists turned to rely on $600 weekly federal unemployment checks as well as additional assistance by state checks, but those two combined would unlikely cover NYC rent and any bills, let alone all the other burdensome costs of life. Once actors got the all-clear to return to rehearsals for fall debuts, this pressure slowly relieved itself but only after more than a year of suffering.
Even as other entertainment enterprises, like the NBA, returned to action well before Broadway did, they did so with the risk of their own “actors” falling ill as collateral damage for their corporate success. The Broadway League was not eager to do so, especially considering Broadway is in the middle of the most populous city in the country. This decision is logical, absolutely, but largely unaware of the disastrous effects Broadway’s closure has had on its employees.
Art is the backbone of American culture. In all its forms, art has served as a pillar of creative expression and realism in a sea of political strife throughout all of history. Broadway’s artists were stripped of their creative outlet at an instant, and while perhaps not one individual is to blame for this, we as a nation must value their pain. We cannot allow ourselves to get caught up in the barbarism of sports and politics at the expense of young artists that have sacrificed everything for a minimally lucrative career. As Broadway returns with the kickoff of the Tonys, let us remember the cost of such a return.
By Annie Levy