7 Predictions For When Broadway Comes Back. Part II

By Ken Davenport

Welcome back, readers, and prepare ye for four more predictions for post-Covid Broadway.

In case you missed it, my first four projections went up here a wee 24 hours ago. And I emailed some of you Early Adopters the remaining four last night.

For those of you not on that list (which you can get here), here are four MORE things that will change when Broadway comes out of its coronavirus cave.

4. Streaming will still be a thing.

Not only is streaming not going away, but it will expand even when we don’t need it like we do now.

I’m not talking about the umpteen livestreams that are poppin’ up like podcasts or blogs did a few years ago. No, no. Most of those will disappear like . . . well, like the many podcasts and blogs that lie dormant in the internet graveyard.

I’m talking about full on productions, filmed for posterity and (hopefully) profit.

This shutdown has proven how fragile our economic model is. We (and when I say we, I mean all sides of the aisle from Producers to Artists) are going to need an insurance policy in the future, just in case . . . just in case . . .

I think that’s a cue for my 5th prediction.

5. Broadway will shut down again.

At some point in the next few decades, we will go through this again. We’ll be effin’ better at it then, for sure, but this will not be the last time a pandemic put our backs against the wall.

Remember when we never shut down for snowstorms? And then a few years ago, we just did. And now, we close up shop about once a year for a storm of some sort (and for good reason, I might add – as nothing is more important than safety).

The virus dam has broken on Broadway and around the country, and I predict we’ll go through another contagious storm during my lifetime.

(I say this NOT to be alarmist, by the way. I say it so that we’ll prepare for it. And yes, capturing our performances is one way.)

6. Remember all those corporations that came into town?

Here is the thing about big business . . . they come when they smell money, and they run when they don’t. Broadway’s boom brought a lot of boys to our yard. But they don’t like to sweat like a startup. That’s why I’d bet that we’ll see fewer corporate players on Broadway when we come back.

And that’s not such a bad thing.

Fewer bucks from boardrooms means more room for the independent TheaterMaker. And that, my friends is what we need to get us back to where we were before and beyond.

As Cameron Macintosh said, “It is my instinct that the theatre has always survived on mavericks – people with a passion for the theatre who go their own way.”

So get ready, because our depression may lead to our renaissance.

Which leads me to . . . my seventh and final prediction (for now anyway). And, you know what? If I only got this next one right, I’d gladly be wrong about the other six, because it’s that important.

7. Black Lives will matter on Broadway.

Yes, I say this because it should happen. Yes, I say this to put it in the universe to will it to happen. But I also predict that it will happen because of what I’m seeing start to happen.

And this beginning is because of the honest and courageous work of the organizations that are rising to this challenge, or who have been born from it. Broadway Advocacy Coalition (if you haven’t attended one of their forums, you simply must), Black Theatre United, Black Theatre Coalition, Black Theatre Network and all those orgs (including those led by students (!) at universities), the theater owes you a debt that we can only repay through our action.

I’ve pledged to take action. And I encourage all TheaterMakers to do the same. Because we just can’t let up, even when the Covid crisis is over.

Those are my predictions . . . what are yours? Do you see big changes, small changes, any changes coming to Broadway post-Covid? Put ’em in the comments below.

Oh, and if you want to hear the predictions of people much smarter than I am, you should come to this.

7 Predictions For When Broadway Comes Back. Part I

The Challenge of Creating Theater during Covid-19. Quite Literally.