Broadway Sets Flexible Covid Guidelines & Drops Vaccine Mandate

In May, Broadway moved away from its Covid-19 vaccine mandate to a testing model. The testing model allows individual productions to test cast and crew members as often as they want.

President Joe Biden signed a congressional resolution on April 11, 2023 that signaled an end to the COVID-19 national emergency. The federal public health emergency ended May 11. 

The Equity Covid protocols agreement with The Broadway League expired in May. David Levy, Director Of Communications at Actors' Equity Association shared, "From the beginning it has always had an expiration date at which point it was renewed or changed. The reason that we let it expire in May is because we now have the new production contract governing the Broadway productions, and also the new LORT agreement governing the LORT on Broadway productions."

Both of these agreements include provisions for what the employers need to do in terms of keeping their employees safe in the event of any public health crisis.

Levy continued, "Everyone has taken what they’ve learned over the last three years and incorporated it into their ongoing way of doing business. It no longer requires a specific extra document that has to get looked at and revised every three to four months." 

Theatrical unions and Broadway prodcers had put a vaccine mandate in place for cast and crew members ahead of Broadway's reopening in fall 2021. Broadway dropped its vaccination requirement for audience members starting in April 30, 2022. 

The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Hollywood dropped its vaccine mandate on new film and television productions starting after May 12.