Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the performing arts

Many theatre performances have been cancelled or delayed. All Broadway theatres in New York have been closed until 6 September 2020,[6] while West End theatres in London are closed until 1 August 2020.[7] Waitress on West End and Frozen on Broadway announced they are closed permanently, despite at the time of their announcements, they would be able to reopen after the shut down.[8][9] 9 to 5: The Musical on West End,[10] Beetlejuice,[11] The Inheritance, [12] and Thriller – Live on Broadway[7] and the Endgame and Rough for Theatre II double bill at The Old Vic[13] were already scheduled to end, but were forced to close earlier than expected. Both Hangmen and revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? on Broadway cancelled their entire run, though they had a few preview performances prior to the Broadway shut down.[14][15] Sabrina Carpenter's limited run on Broadway's Mean Girls was cut short, though she intends to return to the show.[16] Sara Bareilles and Gavin Creel, who were performing at Waitress in London, returned to the United States a week before their scheduled departure due to international travel restrictions imposed.[8]

Premieres and openings that are postponed include the world premieres of 101 Dalmatians[17] and Identical[18], Broadway openings as revival of American Buffalo, Caroline, or Change, Diana, Flying Over Sunset, revival of How I Learned to Drive, The Lehman Trilogy, Mrs. Doubtfire, revival of Plaza Suite, Sing Street, Six, and revival of Take Me Out;[12][19] West End openings including Blithe Spirit,[19] Cinderella,[20] revival of The Seagull[21] and revival of Sunday in the Park with George; [7] Local Hero and 4000 Miles at the Old Vic.[22] Hairspray at the London Coliseum,[23] and What's New Pussycat? at the Leeds Playhouse.[24]

The 2020 Laurence Olivier Awards ceremony is cancelled, with the awards being issued in an alternate manner.[25] The 74th Tony Awards is postponed.[26] The 2020 announcement of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama was postponed to May 4 via live stream on the prize's official website.[27]

Shakespeare's Globe had call for urgent funding in order to avoid insolvency.[28]

Cameron Mackintosh, a theatre producer, noted it will take four to five months for actors to return to the stage after social distancing ends.[29]

Most dance companies have cancelled their remainders of the 2019-2020 season, and several companies have cancelled the entire spring season. For example. the American Ballet Theatre 80th Anniversary Season at the Metropolitan Opera House was cancelled, along with New York Premiere of Of Love and Rage and several dancers' debuts.[30] In June 2020, the New York City Ballet announced the remaining performance in 2020 are canceled, including the annual George Balanchine's The Nutcracker performances in December, the first time since the ballet premiered in 1954.[31] Some companies had to reschedule their future performances and premieres. For example, National Ballet of Canada had to revise their 2020/21 season, with the world premieres of MADDADDAM postponed to fall 2020, Karen Kain's Swan Lake postponed to 2021, and the North American premiere of Victoria postponed 2022 to make way for Swan Lake.[32]

The performance cancellations had also impacted several dancers' retirement, such as Eleonora Abbagnato of the Paris Opera Ballet, whose departure was already delayed due to a dancers' strike, and is now postponed to autumn 2020.[33][34] The respective farewells of American Ballet Theatre's Stella Abrera and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Hope Boykin were not rescheduled.[35]

Most orchestra performances have been cancelled or postponed. For example, the Boston Symphony Orchestra cancelled their Asian tour, Orchestre de Paris had also cancelled their concerts.[36]

Most opera productions have been cancelled or postponed, such as the Metropolitan Opera and The Royal Opera. The world premiere of Ritratto, which was commissioned by the Dutch National Opera, was also postponed.[37]

Many performing arts festivals are cancelled, including the 2020 Edinburgh Fringe Festival was cancelled, the first time in 60 years. The 2020 edition of Hong Kong Arts Festival and Oerol Festival are also cancelled, though the Holland Festival is attempting to convert to online event.[38]

Individual actors, such as Patrick Stewart and Sam Neill, entertained from isolation in order to "...be in this together and that this has to take the form of being apart", as Neill described his contribution of comedic relief.[39] Stewart, a trained Shakespearian actor, broadcast himself reading one sonnet each day via Instagram,[40] readings described as "more than light entertainment, they’re moments of connection".[41] The Sydney Theatre Company commissioned actors to film themselves at home discussing, then performing, a monologue from one of the characters they had previously played on stage.[42]

The original West End of Mamma Mia!, reunited via a group video call, sang "Thank You for the Music" in tribute to NHS and a cast member with coronavirus.[43] Lin-Manuel Miranda, and the cast of the musical Hamilton (including original performers Leslie Odom Jr., Anthony Ramos and Renée Elise Goldsberry) reunited on John Krasinski's Some Good News to surprise a nine-year-old girl named Aubrey who was a "superfan" of Hamilton but was unable to see the show due to the coronavirus. They also sang "Alexander Hamilton" for Aubrey.[44]

Kathy Lette presented a Zoom performance of The One Day of the Year with five actors performing from their homes.[45]

The Old Vic have announced a socially distanced performance of Lungs by Duncan Macmillan starring Claire Foy and Matt Smith to be performed live from the Old Vic stage and relayed on-line to a ticketed audience of the same size as Old Vic's usual capacity.[46]

The Royal Opera House had its first performance on 13 June, which was broadcast via YouTube and BBC Radio 3. The performance included classical music and a new dance by Wayne McGregor.[47]

Many ballet companies ran classes via Zoom to their dancers which were also broadcast.[48] Ballet dancers, including principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, James B. Whiteside and Isabella Boylston, as well as the artistic director and a lead principal dancer of the English National Ballet Tamara Rojo, offered live classes on social media.[49]

Musicians had performed at-home concerts during quarantine.[50]

The Maltings Theatre, St Albans performed an interactive production of Twelfth Night with both cast and audience being Zoom participants.[51]

The Original Theatre Company announced a performance of Birdsong using live performance and video tech as a fundraiser for The Royal British Legion directed by Alastair Whatley.[52]

The Lockdown Theatre Festival is a BBC radio festival comprising a debate about the future of theatre and four radio plays that had either had curtailed runs or failed to start due to Covid-19: Lyric Hammersmith Theatre's Love Love Love by Mike Bartlett, Manchester Royal Exchange's Rockets And Blue Lights by Winsome Pinnock (this had no performances, and was to have been a world premiere), Orange Tree Theatre's The Mikvah Project by Josh Azouz, and Royal Court Theatre's Shoe Lady by E.V. Crowe.[53]

Considering how to host to audiences at internal venues, the Kings Theatre, Southsea has that announced its 2020 pantomime will be performed for a reduced audience of 400 (compared to its usual 1400) capacity, who will have their seats allocated by the venue, be directed to specific entrances and arrival time, and will have to pre-book refreshments.[54]

In June, Gran Teatre del Liceu reopened, though the performances were live-streamed and the audience was filled with plants.[55]

Due to the closure of productions and the simultaneous shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) several theatre costume departments – including that of the Berlin State Opera – converted to creating face masks.[56]

The filmed version of the stage musical Hamilton, though originally scheduled for an October 15, 2021 theatrical release, but was later moved up to July 3, 2020 exclusively on Disney+, as announced by the show's creator Lin-Manuel Miranda on May 12, 2020.[57]

Some professional performing arts companies have released previously recorded productions. For example, Andrew Lloyd Webber released recordings of his musicals on YouTube,[58] the Royal Opera House had also released performances of the The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera;[59] and Cirque du Soleil released one hour specials on YouTube each week.[60] Actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge made the video of her play Fleabag available online for donations of at least £4.[61]

Due to the closures, revenues for cultural organisations reliant on ticket sales were expected to cause devastating effects upon revenues, with consequent impacts upon organisational staffing, and on independent artists and professionals. This is due to the fact that the arts and culture is a sector of national economies characterised by particularly a high proportion of self-employment.[62] For example, by the 20th of March the Cirque du Soleil had laid off 95% of its workforce and closed traveling circus performances operating in seven countries,[63] Performing arts fair such as Hong Kong Arts Festival were cancelled.[64]

Arts and culture sector budgetary and employment reports from individual countries included:
 Australia. Opera Australia – the nation's largest performing arts company – temporarily stood down nearly all its staff[65] amid speculation it would also need to sell major assets in order to avoid bankruptcy.[66] By the 23rd of March, 255,000 cultural events had been cancelled with an estimated revenue loss of $A280 million, self reported through the crowdsourced website ILostMyGig.net.au.[67]

 United States. As the pandemic spread and closures became the standard not the exception, institutions started publishing expected revenue shortfall calculations.[68] For example, by the end of March: the Metropolitan opera expects to lose US$60 million in revenue.[69]

In parallel to museum sector layoffs, staff began to unionise, even though "Social distancing orders prevent the in-person meetings required to sign the cards required to file for union elections.[70] Meanwhile, on 18 March and in response to the rapid rise of online performances during the closures of performance spaces, the Actors' Equity Association – the union announced a new "streaming media agreement" available to productions in areas with physical distancing regulations in force, for "select producers to capture and make a performance available online for one-time viewing to ticket buyers.[71] A planned performance of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore via videoconferencing software was cancelled at the last minute due to a dispute between the theatre producers and the union. The AEA argued that during a time when almost everyone in the arts is going without a regular pay cheque and is worried about their health care, "it's deeply sad to see that some employers will still ask Equity actors to work without the protections of a contract."[72] The theatre producers argued that "cyberspace" is not within the AEA's jurisdiction nor "...should free online-only experience, in which actors participate from the safety and comfort of their own home on teleconference, without rehearsal or admission price," be subject to the Off-Broadway agreement.[73]

With the extensive financial disruption across all areas of the economy, many governments announced fiscal stimulus and economic bailout packages which included specific resources for the arts and cultural sectors. Equally, various charities and industry bodies raised funds to support their sector.

Arts and culture sector financial stimulus packages from individual countries included:

 Australia. In March, a petition of over 50 arts and culture organisations (including peak bodies from the music, dance, visual arts, museums, writers' and indigenous arts groups) requested a financial aid package "...to a value of 2% of the $111.7 billion [cultural and creative] industry". Furthermore, it requesting the Prime Minister "...issue a public statement recognising the value of our industry to all Australians" and noting that the industry had not yet recovered from the impact of the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season.[74] Separately, Live Performance Australia, "the advocacy body for the live performing industry" had requested $850 million for its sector.

Instead of the $2.2billion requested in the petition, In early April the federal government announced a package of $27million in specific Arts funding – $7 million for the Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support program, $10 million for Regional Arts Australia's regional arts fund, and $10 million for Support Act,"the charity that provides financial support and counselling to people in the music industry".[75] It also expanded unemployment assistance in response to the pandemic – dubbed JobKeeper – however it specifically excluded "freelancers and casuals on short-term contracts, or who have worked for a series of employers in the last year". Given arts sector's high reliance on short-term contracts, a large proportion of arts and cultural sector professionals were ineligible for the scheme.[76][77]

 United Kingdom. Arts Council England announced £160 million would be made available for arts organisations, including £50 million for organisations it does not usually fund and £20 million for individual and freelance artists.[62]

 United States. In late March the United States federal government announced a $2 trillion economic stimulus package in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. It included: "$75 million for the National Endowment for the Arts and $75 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities, which can pass on the money to institutions that need it. Another $50 million was designated to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which distributes funds to museums and libraries.[78] Some Republicans criticized US$25 million in relief funding that was allocated for the Kennedy Center as wasteful spending.[79]