It's Been One Year Since the Broadway Shutdown Began

March 12, 2020 is a date that will stick out in our memories for a long time. Concerns grew quickly over the coronavirus outbreak-- stars and fans stopped going to stage doors, matinees started to get cancelled-- and once the news of a full Broadway shutdown was announced, everything seemed to stop in its tracks.

Here we are, a year later, and while no official reopening date has been announced, we know that Broadway will one day make its triumphant and safe return, with important racial and gender equality matters addressed.

But because the theater community is resilient even in the darkest times, we've been able to see some amazing things happen, just for the sake of coming together when we're in need.

Let's look back on the past year and all of the good that has come out of it.

Share your favorite theater moment from last year with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram!

Stars in the House

Who knew when this first episode aired on March 16 that Stars in the House, hosted by Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley, would become the amazing show it is today? Since then, the show has welcomed numerous guest hosts, reunited casts of our favorite shows, and featured some important discussions on racial and gender equality. On top of all of this, the show has also managed to raise over $715,000 for the Actors Fund (as of 3/8/21).

Living Room Concerts

At the start of the shutdown, we had a blast working with Broadway stars for our Living Room Concert series. We partnered with stars like Kathryn Gallagher, Andrew Barth Feldman, and more to launch Living Room Concerts - performances direct to you from the living rooms of Broadway performers!

The Rosie O'Donnell Show Returns

Benefits for The Actors Fund continued as Rosie O'Donnell returned for one night only, speaking with her favorite Broadway stars, sharing live performances, and more. The novelty of being home at the time was refreshing, as it truly showed we were all in this together. It was a really moving show, with a ton of stars!

Laura Benanti's Sunshine Songs

By mid-March, Tony Award-winner Laura Benanti put out an ask to high school students across the country to share their performances with her. We saw so many talented students with incredible performances, some of which we rounded up here. This idea quickly grew to a Sunshine Concert series, which took "fan-submitted videos and cut them into 30-minute variety show performances which were then distributed to senior centers." Then that idea grew again into HBO Max's Homeschool Musical: Class of 2020, giving "students the opportunity to sing and dance like the stars they are, from the safety of their homes."

Creative Broadway Cast Reunions

Coming together through the power of video editing, we got to see many cast reunions happen virtually during the past year. From this Chorus Line video featuring stars like Jason Tam, Tony Yazbeck, Terrence Mann, Charlotte d'Amboise, and so many more, to others like a Legally Blonde reunion, a Dear Evan Hansen international reunion, and most recently a Mrs. Doubtfire reunion.

Sondheim's 90th Birthday Celebration

The stars came out to celebrate Stephen Sondheim's 90th Birthday with "Take Me To The World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration." The free online event, hosted by Raúl Esparza, took place on the exact 50th anniversary of the opening night of Sondheim's musical Company. Through the event, which featured Meryl Streep, Patti LuPone, and so many more Broadway stars, $400,000 was raised for ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty).

The growth and rise of advocacy and racial justice groups

Throughout 2020, we saw the extremely important growth of coalitions and groups calling for necessary change in the industry. Groups like Broadway Advocacy Coalition, Broadway for Racial Justice, Black Theatre Coalition, and Black Theatre United-- some of which have been here for years-- have grown more crucial and more urgent than ever if we want to see real change when theater returns.

The Inaugural Antonyo Awards

Broadway Black, the multimedia organization highlighting the achievements of Black theatre artists, hosted the inaugural Antonyo Awards, a celebration of the Black Broadway and Off-Broadway community. Winners included Chalia La Tour for her role in Slave Play, Jasmine Cephas-Jones for her role in Cyrano, Michael R. Jackson for the Book of A Strange Loop, Adrienne Warren for her role in Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, among many others. See the full list of winners here.

Next on Stage Competition

Inspired by your favorite network TV singing contests, we hosted our first-ever virtual singing and dancing competitions. We invited high school and college aged students to submit videos of themselves performing a song from the musical theatre canon and offered incredible prizes from sponsors like Broadway Records and LaDuca shoes!

Hamilton on Disney Plus

With 2020 showing us that anything can happen, Hamilton made its screen debut on Disney Plus over the summer. Although the film was initially set for a theater release in 2021, Lin-Manuel Miranda surprised fans all over the world by tweeting out that instead, it would be released on Disney Plus "THIS July 3."

Miscast2020

Remember how we said the theater community finds a way? That continued on throughout the year as popular events were made virtual, including Miscast2020! Which performance was your favorite? We're also looking forward to Miscast2021, which was recently announced for May 16, 2021, with a plan to be virtual again.

Times Square Campaigns

Tony Nominations Announced

The Tony Awards ceremony for 2020 was not able to happen due to the shutdown, which pushed things back until we received the nominations in October. Among those nominated include stars from Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Jagged Little Pill, and Moulin Rouge! The Broadway League and the American Theater Wing revealed that the delayed Tony Awards ceremony will be scheduled "in coordination with the reopening of Broadway," and that the voting will take place from March 1 to March 15.

BroadwayWorld Events

We've also launched this year our BroadwayWorld Events site, which has now aired tens of thousands of Pay-Per-View streams, supporting a variety of artists and venues. We've loved connecting with fans of The Seth Concert Series, 54 Below, The Space in Las Vegas, and many more!

Macy's Thanksgiving Parade

Traditions were upheld: the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was not without its usual Broadway performances as Hamilton, Ain't Too Proud, Jagged Little Pill, and Mean Girls performed.

The Prom Adaptation Arrived on Netflix

Even in 2020, there's still time to dance! The film adaptation of The Prom came to Netflix in December. Starring Jo Ellen Pellman, Ariana DeBose, Meryl Streep, James Corden, Andrew Rannells, Nicole Kidman, Keegan Michael-Key, and more, it was exciting to see numbers like Unruly Heart, Love Thy Neighbor, The Lady's Improving, and more on the big screen.

Best of Broadway NBC Event

Stage Mag

Dr. Seuss' The Grinch Musical

Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical

The rat of all of our dreams jumped from TikTok collab to big-time virtual production in January! The show starred multiple big-name Broadway stars like Tituss Burgess, Wayne Brady, Andrew Barth Feldman, Ashley Park, Kevin Chamberlin, Mary Testa, André De Shields, Priscilla Lopez, and Adam Lambert. Joined by a great ensemble, orchestra, and back-up dancers made up of the queens from Six, the show ended up becoming the biggest fundraiser in Actors Fund history, raising over $2,000,000!

Broadway Performs at the Inauguration (Virtually)

Not only did inaugural poet laureate Amanda Gorman sneak some Hamilton references into her poem, stars from across the country including Laura Benanti, Jessie Mueller, Peppermint, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Keala Settle, James Monroe Iglehart, and many more joined Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley for a surprise performance on the night of the Inauguration during that evening's concert.

Stage Door

Yet another new feature of BroadwayWorld, Stage Door allows you to book custom video shoutouts, classes, and masterclasses from theater's biggest stars. We're all missing the excitement of meeting our favorite theater stars at the Stage Door while Broadway remains shut down, so we've partnered with some great names in the theater community. Plus, unlike other virtual experience platforms, 100% of BroadwayWorld Stage Door's prices go to the artists

The Bridgerton TikTok Musical

It's been so fun to see all of the creativity to come out of the TikTok app, especially from the theater community and all of the incredibly written songs and scores for shows like Ratatouille and Bridgerton! We've even seen Broadway stars get in on the action, adding their own duets to these popular songs by writers Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear.

Cinderella on Disney Plus

Recently, another movie musical has become available to stream-- Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella! Originally a tv movie special in 1997, the film stars Brandy in the title role and Whitney Houston as "Fairy Godmother" alongside Whoopi Goldberg, Victor Garber, Natalie Desselle Reid, Bernadette Peters, Paolo Montalban, Jason Alexander, and Veanne Cox. We even spoke to Prince Charming himself, Paolo, about the impact of the film.

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