When Could Broadway Re-Open? 'We're Probably Looking at September or Later'

Shortly after the Broadway League updated the terms of the Broadway shutdown last week (currently extended to June 7), Governor Cuomo made a statement of doubt regarding the timeline. Now, Broadway League President Charlotte St. Martin is clarifying the specifics of the evolving plan to re-open Broadway in a recent interview with Deadline.

St. Martin quickly explains that the June 7th date should be taken as a deadline for ticket returns/exchanges and not a projected end of the shutdown. "Every couple of days our guesstimates go further out," she says. "As late as two weeks ago we were thinking that with any luck we might be up by July and that a worst case scenario might be September. Now, the best guesses are that unless there's serious testing and information that we don't have now, we're probably looking at September or later. It really depends on the elected officials, and we know very well that Governor Cuomo will be the one to tell us when we can come back."

How quickly can Broadway spring back to action once officials give the word? About six weeks, according to Broadway League projections. "Sixteen shows were somewhere in rehearsals or somewhere in previews at the time of the shutdown, and there will be a lot of work for those shows. We don't know how many of those will actually make it - that will depend on how long we're out."

St Martin also reports that as many as 15 different task forces, in marketing, government relations, research and touring, are currently working to prepare Broadway's eventual return. Read the full interview with Deadline here.

While the lights of Broadway might be out longer than anticipated, we at BroadwayWorld look ahead to a theatre-filled future, and we'll be here in the meantime to provide you with the Broadway content you're missing!