Weekly Margin 2020, W19: Two Months

For not-on-Broadway New York theater community and its institutions, the death knells have begun. UCB closing was our first New York domino. Shetler is the second, followed only hours later by LIC's Secret Theatre. The longer this goes on (and prognosticators are saying not to expect theater to be safe any time this year, possibly even next year), more will fall. The pillars of low budget theater, the proving grounds for unknown performers, are beginning to collapse, and who knows if and when replacement scaffolding will be built. It's hard to hold onto optimism right now. While I love seeing theater companies find alternate performance venues online, and I've been trying to support them, one, I know the income they're generating doesn't match what they would make in the before times, and two, what will they find waiting for them when they're permitted to return?

Today is two months since Broadway's last performance. New York's state of emergency is extended to June 7th. For now.

This past week's watchlist and development summary below the cut:

Streaming Theater-Related Content I Watched

• More on Stars In The House.
• The other Frankenstein.
• Theatre Raleigh's Show and Tell-a-thon fundraiser, featuring performances from and interviews with their Daddy Long Legs team.
• Paul Gordon's Emma on Streaming Musicals.
• Roundabout's She Loves Me, on BroadwayHD. (yes, I've seen it before. it's comfort food)
• National Theatre at Home's Antony and Cleopatra.
• Andrew Lloyd Webber's By Jeeves.

Theater Developments

• Michael R. Jackson won a Pulitzer for his musical A Strange Loop.
• Shetler Studios, a beloved staple of audition, rehearsal, and blackbox performance space for the Off- and Off-Off-Broadway theater makers and community for the past thirty years, has shuttered permanently.
• Long Island City's Secret Theatre, a popular venue for Off-Off-Broadway performances for the last decade, is also permanently closed.
• Minneapolis's Guthrie will remain closed through the rest of 2020, with a planned reopening next year.