WEBVTT - Curtain Raises on Broadway

0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:04.160
<v Speaker 1>This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg

0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:08.039
<v Speaker 1>Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Well, it's been

0:00:08.039 --> 0:00:09.960
<v Speaker 1>a while since we checked in with her last I

0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:12.440
<v Speaker 1>think it was last fall, last October, when the lights

0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:16.119
<v Speaker 1>were still dark on Broadway in an unprecedented shutdown of

0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:20.480
<v Speaker 1>New York theater because of COVID nineteen. Well, Broadway is back, reopenings,

0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:23.680
<v Speaker 1>restarts new shows here with an update. Delighted to have

0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:25.799
<v Speaker 1>back with us, Charlotte st Martin, she's president of the

0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:28.600
<v Speaker 1>Broadway League. On the phone in New York City, Charlotte,

0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:30.640
<v Speaker 1>it is so good to have you back. How are

0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:34.920
<v Speaker 1>you well, I'm great. We're We've already had our first

0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:39.760
<v Speaker 1>official opening and we have two shows opening next week.

0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:42.920
<v Speaker 1>So we're back and we're getting ready to be back

0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:45.239
<v Speaker 1>in a big way. So tell us, though, because you

0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.760
<v Speaker 1>have been so wonderful and giving us several interviews during

0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:52.720
<v Speaker 1>the pandemic, especially in the dark days of the shutdown initially, uh,

0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:54.960
<v Speaker 1>and just kind of waiting for things to improve, and

0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:57.520
<v Speaker 1>it's taken obviously a long time. What has this year

0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:01.520
<v Speaker 1>been like. Well, so, certainly it's been a lot of

0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:06.559
<v Speaker 1>up and downs because Uh, we were doing so well

0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:10.399
<v Speaker 1>with the variants that are out there, and then all

0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:14.200
<v Speaker 1>of a sudden we got challenged with the delta variant.

0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:19.480
<v Speaker 1>But at the end of the day, we've waited the

0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:23.120
<v Speaker 1>right amount of time to make sure that we had

0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:27.840
<v Speaker 1>all the safety protocols and that we were prepared to

0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:31.680
<v Speaker 1>open so that we didn't have to open and close. Certainly,

0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:36.640
<v Speaker 1>everybody is ready for theater, and uh, many people were

0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:40.120
<v Speaker 1>hurt during this period, but the light at the end

0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:42.720
<v Speaker 1>of the tunnel is looking very bright at the moment.

0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:44.759
<v Speaker 1>All right, you said waited the right amount of time.

0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:47.760
<v Speaker 1>Tell me about the conversations you've had to have with

0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:52.240
<v Speaker 1>various parts of your industry, parts of the theater industry

0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.840
<v Speaker 1>to figure out and health officials, I'm guessing maybe unions

0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.560
<v Speaker 1>to figure out what would be the right time right

0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:04.559
<v Speaker 1>and well. First of all, Broadway operates with seventeen union

0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:10.440
<v Speaker 1>contracts that are held with fourteen different unions, and each

0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:15.200
<v Speaker 1>one has different types of interaction, whether it's hair and

0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:21.760
<v Speaker 1>wigs or makeup, or costumes or stage hands. So each

0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:24.160
<v Speaker 1>one of those unions we had to work with them

0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:28.680
<v Speaker 1>and develop the protocols that made them comfortable. So yes,

0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:32.160
<v Speaker 1>we've done all of that, and as I'm sure I

0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:37.160
<v Speaker 1>said to you, uh last October, we could not afford

0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:40.480
<v Speaker 1>with the cost structure that Broadway lives under to open

0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:45.000
<v Speaker 1>and then close and reopen and then close. So we

0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:49.800
<v Speaker 1>waited until enough people were vaccinated and we had all

0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:54.160
<v Speaker 1>of these protocols put in place that we felt we

0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:58.280
<v Speaker 1>could deliver h safety for the cast, crew and audience.

0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.320
<v Speaker 1>You know. That's what it's been interesting also about the

0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:03.720
<v Speaker 1>last year and a half. I feel like for certain industries,

0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.840
<v Speaker 1>your industry, the theater industry, certainly for the restaurant industry,

0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:11.040
<v Speaker 1>the layers have been peeled back. I think we thought, oh, wait,

0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:15.280
<v Speaker 1>you know, some of these successful shows or these successful restaurants,

0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:17.760
<v Speaker 1>you know, they'll be okay, they've made a lot of money,

0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:22.160
<v Speaker 1>but it's financially um everything needs to be kind of

0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:25.360
<v Speaker 1>going gangbusters for it to kind of keep going in

0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.640
<v Speaker 1>the future. Correctly, we've really gotten an ability to to

0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:32.240
<v Speaker 1>look into the business the financial structure of let's say,

0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:35.360
<v Speaker 1>the theater industry, and and it's everything. You know, people

0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:36.720
<v Speaker 1>have to be in the theaters, they need to be

0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:40.760
<v Speaker 1>full for it to be working. Well, that's correct. I mean,

0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:45.480
<v Speaker 1>when you think about it, they they're the best theatrical

0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:48.360
<v Speaker 1>employees in the world, but they're also the most expensive.

0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:53.640
<v Speaker 1>And the rule of some has been we need the

0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:59.840
<v Speaker 1>shows to be uh seventy full as an average, so

0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:04.720
<v Speaker 1>shows need nine and some can get to break even

0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:09.040
<v Speaker 1>and continue operating. It depends on the size of the show,

0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:15.720
<v Speaker 1>the size of the cast, the costs of the various contracts.

0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:21.360
<v Speaker 1>So uh it's it's a very uh they're very tight

0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:26.159
<v Speaker 1>margins for Broadway unless you're a gang Busters hit, and

0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:29.600
<v Speaker 1>those don't come along very often. You know. The You

0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:34.960
<v Speaker 1>not only uh invest twelve to fifteen million dollars minimum

0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:38.560
<v Speaker 1>for a new musical and two to five million dollars

0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:41.560
<v Speaker 1>for a new play, but then you have the running

0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:44.880
<v Speaker 1>costs every week. I mean a typical uh cost for

0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:48.200
<v Speaker 1>the for a week of a big musical is at

0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:50.920
<v Speaker 1>least a million dollars, So you've got to sell more

0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:55.000
<v Speaker 1>tickets than a million dollars just to break even. So

0:04:55.160 --> 0:05:01.479
<v Speaker 1>it's an exciting industry, but it also requires real investment

0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:05.600
<v Speaker 1>and real revenue to keep it alive. As you've said,

0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:07.520
<v Speaker 1>we've got about forty five seconds. Then we'll come back

0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:10.520
<v Speaker 1>and continue the conversation. Some shows already up and running

0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:13.120
<v Speaker 1>Bruce Springsteen, right, he's been already back since late June.

0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:17.400
<v Speaker 1>What have we learned in the reopenings already that are

0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:21.960
<v Speaker 1>helping to kind of reopen theater much more fully. What

0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:26.039
<v Speaker 1>we've learned is that people want to be sitting next

0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:29.520
<v Speaker 1>to vaccinated people. And while they don't like mass, they

0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:33.520
<v Speaker 1>don't mind mass because what we have heard again and

0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:37.840
<v Speaker 1>again is that we want to know that we're going

0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:41.040
<v Speaker 1>to be in a room that's safe. So Charlotte UM

0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:43.400
<v Speaker 1>a bunch of shows coming back. We've already seen a

0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:46.799
<v Speaker 1>couple of rollouts. When it comes to Broadway in theater,

0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:49.360
<v Speaker 1>how do you do it safely? What's the mandate when

0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:54.960
<v Speaker 1>it comes to vaccines? Well, we have mandated that all

0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:59.640
<v Speaker 1>of our audience UH must show proof of vaccination and

0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:04.560
<v Speaker 1>we're masks during the shows until we make a different decision.

0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:08.240
<v Speaker 1>So we feel like we've got the audience taken care of.

0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:13.720
<v Speaker 1>Certainly for the cast and crew, their man mandatory vaccinations

0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:19.640
<v Speaker 1>for all employees, testing requirements weekly and pre employment. Each

0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:23.400
<v Speaker 1>of the shows has hired their own COVID safety management

0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.880
<v Speaker 1>manager to make sure that all of the protocols are

0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:31.320
<v Speaker 1>being UH being lived up to and then there's so

0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:36.560
<v Speaker 1>many additional things like the heating, ventilation and air conditioning standards,

0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:42.320
<v Speaker 1>the cleaning and disinfection practices, UH specific protocols based on

0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:48.000
<v Speaker 1>job because they would be different for an orchestra person

0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:53.640
<v Speaker 1>works in the orchestra versus a costume manager. So uh there.

0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:59.760
<v Speaker 1>We've spent eighteen months developing uh these safety protocols with

0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:03.440
<v Speaker 1>our unions, and we've worked closely together because we all

0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:08.040
<v Speaker 1>have the same goal, which is to have everyone's safe

0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:12.920
<v Speaker 1>that's in our care. And with the exciting UH September

0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:15.880
<v Speaker 1>that we have where so many shows are sold out

0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:19.120
<v Speaker 1>or close to sold out, we have to make sure Yeah,

0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:21.840
<v Speaker 1>that's what well, and that's well. Two questions I have

0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:25.240
<v Speaker 1>for you are in terms of protocols, because we've talked

0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.320
<v Speaker 1>about this with a lot of CEOs of companies. Are

0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:31.480
<v Speaker 1>people who run school educational systems, you know, who have

0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:35.160
<v Speaker 1>been replacing their ventilation systems. Is there a lot of

0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:38.080
<v Speaker 1>that going on or is it just maintenance and you know,

0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:42.520
<v Speaker 1>increased maintenance when it comes to the existing systems. Well,

0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:45.920
<v Speaker 1>it totally depends upon the theater. I mean, we have

0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:50.000
<v Speaker 1>forty one theaters and some of them are relatively new

0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:52.760
<v Speaker 1>and some are over a hundred years old, and yet

0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:55.480
<v Speaker 1>you know there's one theater that's over a hundred years

0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:59.160
<v Speaker 1>old that is totally replaced their systems, so they all

0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:05.160
<v Speaker 1>have new filter upgrades and constant assessment. And you know,

0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:08.960
<v Speaker 1>we're living up to the standards that have been established

0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:14.160
<v Speaker 1>by the CDC and we'll continue to do that. So

0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:16.160
<v Speaker 1>tell us what's coming in the fall, and tell me

0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:18.760
<v Speaker 1>a little bit more. You just mentioned about ticket sales

0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:21.840
<v Speaker 1>and what that you know, gives you an indication of

0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:25.840
<v Speaker 1>how many people will be coming back to Broadway. Well,

0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:32.160
<v Speaker 1>we have between September two and December thirty one, we

0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:36.880
<v Speaker 1>have thirty four shows returning or opening. Um. Some of

0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:40.439
<v Speaker 1>those were obviously playing when we shut down on March twelfth,

0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:44.800
<v Speaker 1>and summer new like Passover that just opened a couple

0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:48.559
<v Speaker 1>of weeks ago, and uh, we have many more new

0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:53.439
<v Speaker 1>shows opening. And as with everything else in the world,

0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:56.560
<v Speaker 1>the Internet has made it easier for people to buy

0:08:56.600 --> 0:09:00.480
<v Speaker 1>their tickets, so they don't buy as foreign advance as

0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:06.240
<v Speaker 1>they used to. But right now September October looking very strong. Um,

0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:12.880
<v Speaker 1>and we're very positive about the outlook at this point. Yeah,

0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:14.920
<v Speaker 1>it's pretty amazing. If you go to things like Broadway

0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:16.640
<v Speaker 1>dot Com and you just get you know, run down

0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:18.520
<v Speaker 1>of the listing, and as you said, some of the

0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:21.680
<v Speaker 1>old favorites, whether it's Hamilton's Wicked, you know, the Lion King,

0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:24.400
<v Speaker 1>or there's some new things coming out. Um, I am

0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:26.920
<v Speaker 1>curious to just got about a minute left here. When

0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:28.920
<v Speaker 1>it comes to this past year and a half, so

0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:32.760
<v Speaker 1>much of real life often impacts what we see in

0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:37.240
<v Speaker 1>terms of content, whether it's streaming content, network content, whether

0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:40.880
<v Speaker 1>it's podcasts, and certainly in theater. How has the last

0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:42.839
<v Speaker 1>year and a half maybe impacted some of the shows

0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:47.800
<v Speaker 1>that we might see ultimately on Broadway. Well, at this

0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:51.920
<v Speaker 1>point we're glad that some shows had the opportunity to

0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:58.679
<v Speaker 1>stream previously recorded sessions, like Hamilton's, But at this point

0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:02.040
<v Speaker 1>we're not looking at streaming as a new way of

0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.120
<v Speaker 1>doing business for Broadway. That doesn't mean it won't be

0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:08.920
<v Speaker 1>in the future, but right now, there's really nothing that

0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:13.800
<v Speaker 1>replaces live theater. And that's what our that's what our

0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:17.160
<v Speaker 1>theatergoers tell us. And and forgive me what have it?

0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:20.120
<v Speaker 1>You know, what I really what I really meant is

0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:23.880
<v Speaker 1>the pandemic and the situation of course, the injustice with

0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:27.000
<v Speaker 1>George Floyd how did that impact maybe content that we'll

0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:28.800
<v Speaker 1>see up on stage and we've just got about twenty

0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:33.720
<v Speaker 1>five seconds. Well, we have ten shows that have announced

0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:37.520
<v Speaker 1>and that are opening this fall and early next year

0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:43.200
<v Speaker 1>that are written by black and bipoc playwrights. So that's

0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:47.840
<v Speaker 1>a major step forward. I mean, Broadways always had diversity

0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:50.400
<v Speaker 1>in casting, or at least it's had it for a

0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.800
<v Speaker 1>long time. But I think a lot of this was about,

0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:58.120
<v Speaker 1>you know, adding more of the behind the scenes and

0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:01.920
<v Speaker 1>the creatives for people of color. Well, looking forward to

0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:06.320
<v Speaker 1>watching my next show. They're in Times Square and elsewhere.

0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:08.720
<v Speaker 1>Hey listen, Thank you so much. Charlotte sat Martin, president

0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:10.959
<v Speaker 1>of the Broadway League, on the phone in New York City,