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[title]Broadway loves a showstopper, but not like this. As you know, Hurricane Sandy shut down theater in this town—Broadway, Off and Off-Off—on Sunday, Monday and today. Whether you are cast, crew, audience or media, you may be stranded in your neighborhood without power or mass transit to get where you need to be. Performances have been canceled and first previews and opening nights have been postponed. When all's said and done, revenue loses across the city's stages could be in the millions of dollars. Wherever you are and whatever your connection to the stage, we wish you safety and a speedy return to normalcy.
For ticketholders, here’s the decision: Do I get a refund or try to catch the next performance? When is the next performance, anyway? Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of The Broadway League, released this statement yesterday: “As a result of the suspension of public transportation by government authorities and other safety precautions implemented on behalf of Hurricane Sandy, evening performances will be cancelled tomorrow night, Tuesday, October 30. We expect normal operations to resume Wednesday morning." That means, if all goes well, Wednesday matinees (usually at 2pm) will be on at most Broadway theaters. However, be sure to check with the box office or online before you head out.
Disney has announced that for Mary Poppins, Newsies and The Lion King, the normal performance week is scheduled to resume on Thursday. The week's remaining performances for the three shows are:
Wednesday CANCELED
Thursday 7:00
Friday 8:00
Saturday 2:00 and 8:00
Sunday 1:00 and 6:30
(Dark on Wednesday)
Thursday 7:30
Friday 8:00
Saturday 2:00 and 8:00
Sunday 1:00 and 6:30
Wednesday CANCELED
Thursday 8:00
Friday 8:00
Saturday 2:00 and 8:00
Sunday 1:00 and 6:30
Over at Lincoln Center, normal performances resume tomorrow afternoon for War Horse, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike and Disgraced.
Of course, there’s more to New York theater than Broadway’s 40 houses. Dozens of Off Broadway shows and hundreds of Off-Off events have also been affected. Thousands of venues below 34th Street—including the Vineyard Theatre, the Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Incubator Arts Project, La MaMa, Union Square Theatre, the New Ohio Theatre, Barrow Street Theatre, and many, many others—are dealing with lack of power and transportation. You can expect many if not all of these theaters to have canceled shows tonight and possibly also tomorrow. Naturally, this will affect your theatergoing and what we can cover in the days ahead. Keep checking back here for updates and fresh reviews. In the days ahead, we hope to have more news about what downtown theaters have been hit hardest, and what you can do to help.
If you need to refund your tickets, here are some tips from the Broadway League:
If tickets were purchased via Telecharge or Ticketmaster via phone or online your credit card will be refunded automatically within 7-10 business days. For any issues, please contact the customer service information included with your tickets. Please have your order number/confirmation number handy. Original tickets need not be retained.
If tickets were purchased at the box office: please return your original tickets to the theater box office. You have the option of receiving a full refund to the original method of payment or exchanging your tickets for an alternate date of your choice, subject to availability.
If tickets were purchased as part of a group: please contact your group sales agent for more information regarding refunds or exchanges. Original tickets should be retained until you contact the group sales agent.
If tickets were purchased through any other sales channel, please return to the original point of purchase for more information. If you have your tickets in hand, please retain them for a refund or exchange.
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Personally, I’ve been glued to social media to see how people have been coping. I never really forgot, but the crisis reminds me what a wonderful breed show people are: cheerful, humane, resourceful. My heart goes out to all of them: to Once leading man Steve Kazee, whose birthday is today, urging people to donate to Red Cross as a present to him; or knockout trouper Danny Burstein (soon to star in the Roundabout's revival of Talley’s Folly) posting heartfelt Facebook dispatches from his travels around ravaged New York; to Lin-Manuel Miranda for his tireless blizzard of witty tweets; to playwrights, actors, directors, designers, press representatives, even, yes, theater critics, for messages urging safety and expressing concern. (And if you want to volunteer to help, check out this excellent TONY guide.) This hurricane might have rattled a few marquees and shaken a few lights. But let’s face it: Sandy’s got no legs and the show will go on.