Off Broadway Theaters and Small Venues Pushing For Reopening Head to Court November 12

12 small independent NYC theater owners pushing for a reopening date have been assigned their day in court.

On Thursday, November 12, Attorney Jim Mermigis and a group of 12 Off Broadway theaters and comedy club owners will argue that by allowing small venues with enhanced air filtration systems to open at 25% capacity, countless artists and theater professionals will be able to go back to work - enabling venues to earn revenue, so they can begin paying rent to landlords also hit hard by the pandemic - a move they say will also provide customers for the thousands of retail stores, restaurants and garages that surround their venues.

When the city shut down on Monday, March 16, small theatres and venues were originally grouped with the restaurants and bars. However, when indoor dining at 25% resumed in NYC on September 30th the reopening of small entertainment venues was never addressed. They are still closed and an advisor for the Governor has referred to the suit filed by the small businesses on the verge of collapse as "frivolous."

"Governor Cuomo has led this city through one of its darkest periods," says Catherine Russell, owner of the Theater Center, and one of the organizers of the suit. "But his office is neglecting small venues. We've obviously slipped through the cracks when it comes to re-opening. In some capacity, all industries in New York City have reopened. But Off-Broadway and other small independent entertainment venues have been entirely forgotten. If churches, schools, restaurants, salons, stores, gyms and yes, even bowling alleys can open, why are the small theaters who have invested in air sanitizing upgrades, implemented every safety protocol, and have mandates requiring that people are masked the entire time they are in the venue still left without some sort of reopening schedule or tentative reopening date?"

The venues are asking the court to consider the following facts as they make their case:

• New York City's infection curve has been flat since June 13th
• No borough tests more than Manhattan. On October 28th alone, Manhattan tested 20,355 people and only 148 were positive.
• NY State has the second lowest positivity rate in the United States. Only Maine is lower.
• Manhattan's seven-day positivity average as reported by the New York State COVID testing dashboard is 1%, down from the 1.2% reported in our last edition.
• New York State reports the second-lowest positivity rate nationwide, 1.39%, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The Theater Center has installed 10 brand new cutting edge hospital grade air scrubbers (also used by NASA) providing bi polar ionization decontamination in its HVAC system which deactivate any germs in the air immediately. Additionally, they are utilizing MERV13 filters, have set up numerous hand sanitizing stations and will employ on-site Covid Compliance Officers to ensure that all safety protocols are in place and strictly followed by both staff and patrons.

The Broadway League has indicated that large Broadway houses will not re-open until June 2021, but these smaller Off-Broadway and comedy club venues are willing toinitially open at 25% capacity, hoping that number will increase as it becomes clear that the safety measures they've put in place are keeping their patrons protected and safe. "When you first learn to ride a bike, you need training wheels in order to feel safe," says Russell. "We think of our Off-Broadway venues as the 'training wheels' for Broadway audiences next summer."

Russell hopes that Off Broadway can serve as a model for the larger venues and Broadway houses as they reopen. She is the owner of the Theater Center in Times Square and along with Michael Sgouros of The Players Theater in Greenwich Village, is leading a growing number of small entertainment venues that have been asked to wait to re-open with no date in sight. Mr. Mermigis recently challenged Andrew Cuomo and New York State to bring indoor dining and gyms back to NYC, which has helped thousands return to work and signal some return to normalcy in a city that's now deemed one of the safest in the country.
Among the small venues that are pushing for the reopening date are:

• The Theater Center

• The Players Theater

• The Actors Temple Theatre

• Soho Playhouse

• The Gene Frankel Theater

• The Triad

• Broadway Comedy Club

• New York Comedy Club