“Every day is a miracle
Every day is an unpaid bill
You’ve got to sing for your supper
Love one another”
This is the message David Byrne of Talking Heads fame delivers with his cast in the Broadway musical American Utopia.
And for the nearly 20,000 workers striking the lights on the Great White Way, it’s more than just a message: it’s the new meaning behind all that they do after 343 days of a pandemic Broadway shut down.
Forty shows are expected to raise their curtains again by the end of the year, and over 700 performances have already gone off without a pandemic hitch since stages reopened on October 17, 2021. It’s mostly good news, but today’s masked, vaccinated Broadway scene is still posing challenges to the entertainment industry, and is a constant reminder of how much was quickly lost in that complicated time in between.
Audiences may be back in their velvet seats, but at some theaters, not for long. Chicken & Biscuits was set for a limited engagement on Broadway, but after a number of breakthrough COVID cases, the curtain will close —this time, permanently—on November 27.
“It’s awful,” Kenny Brock, a carpenter with Local 1 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), told Fortune about what his entertainment colleagues have been experiencing. “Investing so much into it, that’s very frustrating, and it’s something that we all face. I’ve been involved in shows that had scares since we’ve been back.”
For the past 25 years, Brock has been working on sets throughout Broadway’s theaters, following a lifelong dream. Most recently, he’s been filling in on the crew for The Lion King.
“I always wanted to move to New York and be a part of Broadway. I enjoy doing theater back home and always wanted to do that professionally ,” he explained. For him and his wife, who works in wardrobe, it’s a way of life that came to a screeching halt during the pandemic.
And that feeling of uncertainty still lives in the back of Brock’s mind, “because something like that could shut a show down again.”
On March 12, 2020, strict stay at home orders forced over 40 musicals and plays in New York City to shut down, and efforts to minimize the impact of the coronavirus also minimized opportunities for work, pay, and economic upkeep in the city.
“There was nothing there for a long time,” Brock recalled. “I went nine months without any work at all. We were on unemployment and waiting things out.” With their professional paths unclear, the couple even thought about changing industries.
It was the longest closure Broadway had ever seen.
“At that point nobody knew if anybody was going to go back to work or not,” Brock explained. The waiting wasn’t easy, for a multitude of reasons. “I remember watching Hamilton when it came out on Disney +. My wife and I watched it and I got pretty emotional watching it, just because we missed doing live theater so much.”
It was a loss felt across stages, television screens, and even social media posts. And all of it came with a personal reminder to every artist: Every day is an unpaid bill. You’ve got to sing for your supper.
So, quite literally, that’s what they did, or at least tried to do.
Many entertainment professionals moved to teaching online and working on additional projects outside of shows. Others dove into passion projects, started coaching up and comers, moved into other lines of work, and even tried to replicate the feeling of being onstage over Zoom with online shows and performances.
When entertainment opened back up, in November of 2020 Brock was lucky enough to get set up with Local 52, fellow members of IATSE who work in film and television. While the two union locals share a lot of the same skill sets and terminology, the feeling was not the same.
“I was very grateful for the time that I had in the film and TV world, but it’s not where my passion is,” he explained. He and others moved to teaching online and working on additional projects outside of the show. Some dove into passion projects, started coaching in their field, moved into other lines of work, and even tried to replicate the feeling of being onstage over Zoom with online shows and performances.
So when the opportunity to transition back into theater presented itself this September, Brock knew what he needed to do. And he’s doing it, but it looks a bit different than it did before.
“The social distancing, when I’m at Lion King, you are tested every day,” he said. Especially when kids on cast weren’t eligible for vaccination, everyone had to be extra careful. Cast and crew work to social distance, but the threat of another shutdown—be it due to finances or COVID cases—is real.
“It was pretty scary,” Brock recalled. “I wasn’t sure when and if my industry would ever come back.” But for now, he’s taking every day as a miracle.