Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Well, it's been
Speaker 1: a while since we checked in with her last I
Speaker 1: think it was last fall, last October, when the lights
Speaker 1: were still dark on Broadway in an unprecedented shutdown of
Speaker 1: New York theater because of COVID nineteen. Well, Broadway is back, reopenings,
Speaker 1: restarts new shows here with an update. Delighted to have
Speaker 1: back with us, Charlotte st Martin, she's president of the
Speaker 1: Broadway League. On the phone in New York City, Charlotte,
Speaker 1: it is so good to have you back. How are
Speaker 1: you well, I'm great. We're We've already had our first
Speaker 1: official opening and we have two shows opening next week.
Speaker 1: So we're back and we're getting ready to be back
Speaker 1: in a big way. So tell us, though, because you
Speaker 1: have been so wonderful and giving us several interviews during
Speaker 1: the pandemic, especially in the dark days of the shutdown initially, uh,
Speaker 1: and just kind of waiting for things to improve, and
Speaker 1: it's taken obviously a long time. What has this year
Speaker 1: been like. Well, so, certainly it's been a lot of
Speaker 1: up and downs because Uh, we were doing so well
Speaker 1: with the variants that are out there, and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden we got challenged with the delta variant.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, we've waited the
Speaker 1: right amount of time to make sure that we had
Speaker 1: all the safety protocols and that we were prepared to
Speaker 1: open so that we didn't have to open and close. Certainly,
Speaker 1: everybody is ready for theater, and uh, many people were
Speaker 1: hurt during this period, but the light at the end
Speaker 1: of the tunnel is looking very bright at the moment.
Speaker 1: All right, you said waited the right amount of time.
Speaker 1: Tell me about the conversations you've had to have with
Speaker 1: various parts of your industry, parts of the theater industry
Speaker 1: to figure out and health officials, I'm guessing maybe unions
Speaker 1: to figure out what would be the right time right
Speaker 1: and well. First of all, Broadway operates with seventeen union
Speaker 1: contracts that are held with fourteen different unions, and each
Speaker 1: one has different types of interaction, whether it's hair and
Speaker 1: wigs or makeup, or costumes or stage hands. So each
Speaker 1: one of those unions we had to work with them
Speaker 1: and develop the protocols that made them comfortable. So yes,
Speaker 1: we've done all of that, and as I'm sure I
Speaker 1: said to you, uh last October, we could not afford
Speaker 1: with the cost structure that Broadway lives under to open
Speaker 1: and then close and reopen and then close. So we
Speaker 1: waited until enough people were vaccinated and we had all
Speaker 1: of these protocols put in place that we felt we
Speaker 1: could deliver h safety for the cast, crew and audience.
Speaker 1: You know. That's what it's been interesting also about the
Speaker 1: last year and a half. I feel like for certain industries,
Speaker 1: your industry, the theater industry, certainly for the restaurant industry,
Speaker 1: the layers have been peeled back. I think we thought, oh, wait,
Speaker 1: you know, some of these successful shows or these successful restaurants,
Speaker 1: you know, they'll be okay, they've made a lot of money,
Speaker 1: but it's financially um everything needs to be kind of
Speaker 1: going gangbusters for it to kind of keep going in
Speaker 1: the future. Correctly, we've really gotten an ability to to
Speaker 1: look into the business the financial structure of let's say,
Speaker 1: the theater industry, and and it's everything. You know, people
Speaker 1: have to be in the theaters, they need to be
Speaker 1: full for it to be working. Well, that's correct. I mean,
Speaker 1: when you think about it, they they're the best theatrical
Speaker 1: employees in the world, but they're also the most expensive.
Speaker 1: And the rule of some has been we need the
Speaker 1: shows to be uh seventy full as an average, so
Speaker 1: shows need nine and some can get to break even
Speaker 1: and continue operating. It depends on the size of the show,
Speaker 1: the size of the cast, the costs of the various contracts.
Speaker 1: So uh it's it's a very uh they're very tight
Speaker 1: margins for Broadway unless you're a gang Busters hit, and
Speaker 1: those don't come along very often. You know. The You
Speaker 1: not only uh invest twelve to fifteen million dollars minimum
Speaker 1: for a new musical and two to five million dollars
Speaker 1: for a new play, but then you have the running
Speaker 1: costs every week. I mean a typical uh cost for
Speaker 1: the for a week of a big musical is at
Speaker 1: least a million dollars, So you've got to sell more
Speaker 1: tickets than a million dollars just to break even. So
Speaker 1: it's an exciting industry, but it also requires real investment
Speaker 1: and real revenue to keep it alive. As you've said,
Speaker 1: we've got about forty five seconds. Then we'll come back
Speaker 1: and continue the conversation. Some shows already up and running
Speaker 1: Bruce Springsteen, right, he's been already back since late June.
Speaker 1: What have we learned in the reopenings already that are
Speaker 1: helping to kind of reopen theater much more fully. What
Speaker 1: we've learned is that people want to be sitting next
Speaker 1: to vaccinated people. And while they don't like mass, they
Speaker 1: don't mind mass because what we have heard again and
Speaker 1: again is that we want to know that we're going
Speaker 1: to be in a room that's safe. So Charlotte UM
Speaker 1: a bunch of shows coming back. We've already seen a
Speaker 1: couple of rollouts. When it comes to Broadway in theater,
Speaker 1: how do you do it safely? What's the mandate when
Speaker 1: it comes to vaccines? Well, we have mandated that all
Speaker 1: of our audience UH must show proof of vaccination and
Speaker 1: we're masks during the shows until we make a different decision.
Speaker 1: So we feel like we've got the audience taken care of.
Speaker 1: Certainly for the cast and crew, their man mandatory vaccinations
Speaker 1: for all employees, testing requirements weekly and pre employment. Each
Speaker 1: of the shows has hired their own COVID safety management
Speaker 1: manager to make sure that all of the protocols are
Speaker 1: being UH being lived up to and then there's so
Speaker 1: many additional things like the heating, ventilation and air conditioning standards,
Speaker 1: the cleaning and disinfection practices, UH specific protocols based on
Speaker 1: job because they would be different for an orchestra person
Speaker 1: works in the orchestra versus a costume manager. So uh there.
Speaker 1: We've spent eighteen months developing uh these safety protocols with
Speaker 1: our unions, and we've worked closely together because we all
Speaker 1: have the same goal, which is to have everyone's safe
Speaker 1: that's in our care. And with the exciting UH September
Speaker 1: that we have where so many shows are sold out
Speaker 1: or close to sold out, we have to make sure Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what well, and that's well. Two questions I have
Speaker 1: for you are in terms of protocols, because we've talked
Speaker 1: about this with a lot of CEOs of companies. Are
Speaker 1: people who run school educational systems, you know, who have
Speaker 1: been replacing their ventilation systems. Is there a lot of
Speaker 1: that going on or is it just maintenance and you know,
Speaker 1: increased maintenance when it comes to the existing systems. Well,
Speaker 1: it totally depends upon the theater. I mean, we have
Speaker 1: forty one theaters and some of them are relatively new
Speaker 1: and some are over a hundred years old, and yet
Speaker 1: you know there's one theater that's over a hundred years
Speaker 1: old that is totally replaced their systems, so they all
Speaker 1: have new filter upgrades and constant assessment. And you know,
Speaker 1: we're living up to the standards that have been established
Speaker 1: by the CDC and we'll continue to do that. So
Speaker 1: tell us what's coming in the fall, and tell me
Speaker 1: a little bit more. You just mentioned about ticket sales
Speaker 1: and what that you know, gives you an indication of
Speaker 1: how many people will be coming back to Broadway. Well,
Speaker 1: we have between September two and December thirty one, we
Speaker 1: have thirty four shows returning or opening. Um. Some of
Speaker 1: those were obviously playing when we shut down on March twelfth,
Speaker 1: and summer new like Passover that just opened a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, and uh, we have many more new
Speaker 1: shows opening. And as with everything else in the world,
Speaker 1: the Internet has made it easier for people to buy
Speaker 1: their tickets, so they don't buy as foreign advance as
Speaker 1: they used to. But right now September October looking very strong. Um,
Speaker 1: and we're very positive about the outlook at this point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's pretty amazing. If you go to things like Broadway
Speaker 1: dot Com and you just get you know, run down
Speaker 1: of the listing, and as you said, some of the
Speaker 1: old favorites, whether it's Hamilton's Wicked, you know, the Lion King,
Speaker 1: or there's some new things coming out. Um, I am
Speaker 1: curious to just got about a minute left here. When
Speaker 1: it comes to this past year and a half, so
Speaker 1: much of real life often impacts what we see in
Speaker 1: terms of content, whether it's streaming content, network content, whether
Speaker 1: it's podcasts, and certainly in theater. How has the last
Speaker 1: year and a half maybe impacted some of the shows
Speaker 1: that we might see ultimately on Broadway. Well, at this
Speaker 1: point we're glad that some shows had the opportunity to
Speaker 1: stream previously recorded sessions, like Hamilton's, But at this point
Speaker 1: we're not looking at streaming as a new way of
Speaker 1: doing business for Broadway. That doesn't mean it won't be
Speaker 1: in the future, but right now, there's really nothing that
Speaker 1: replaces live theater. And that's what our that's what our
Speaker 1: theatergoers tell us. And and forgive me what have it?
Speaker 1: You know, what I really what I really meant is
Speaker 1: the pandemic and the situation of course, the injustice with
Speaker 1: George Floyd how did that impact maybe content that we'll
Speaker 1: see up on stage and we've just got about twenty
Speaker 1: five seconds. Well, we have ten shows that have announced
Speaker 1: and that are opening this fall and early next year
Speaker 1: that are written by black and bipoc playwrights. So that's
Speaker 1: a major step forward. I mean, Broadways always had diversity
Speaker 1: in casting, or at least it's had it for a
Speaker 1: long time. But I think a lot of this was about,
Speaker 1: you know, adding more of the behind the scenes and
Speaker 1: the creatives for people of color. Well, looking forward to
Speaker 1: watching my next show. They're in Times Square and elsewhere.
Speaker 1: Hey listen, Thank you so much. Charlotte sat Martin, president
Speaker 1: of the Broadway League, on the phone in New York City,