BUZZ
Six great things to do in the city this weekend
BY DEAN JAMIESON
Friday, Aug. 20
Battery Park Dance Festival
New York City’s longest-running dance
festival, the Battery Park Dance Festival is
giving live-streamed and in-person performances
this weekend for their 40th anniversary.
Come on Friday to see Ballet Nepantla,
the Battery Dance Company, Flamenco Vivo
II, and many others. 7-9 p.m., Robert F. Wagner
Park, 20 Battery Place, Manhattan. For
more information, visit batterydance.org.
Movies Under the Stars:
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
The 1985 children’s-comedy classic Pee
Wee’s Big Adventure is coming to Murphy
Brothers Playground this Friday as part of
the Parks Department’s ‘Movies Under The
Stars’ series. Spread a blanket, enjoy the end
of the heatwave, and enjoy. Begins at 8 pm,
but come early, as space fi lls up. 8-10:30
p.m., Murphy Brothers Playground,
Avenue C near FDR Drive and East 17th
Street, East Village.
The We Love NYC Concert at Central Park will bring thousands of music
lovers together for the first big concert in NYC since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Saturday, Aug. 21
Summer on the Hudson:
The Count of Monte Cristo
A classic of Western literature, and a
CAITLIN OCHS
favorite of adventure fans for centuries,
The Count of Monte Cristo is being performed
by the Hudson Classical Theatre
Company this Saturday as part of the Parks
Department’s Summer on the Hudson series.
Enjoy the twists and turns of Alexander Dumas’
1844 novel all-over again in the Theatre
Company’s fun-for-the-whole-family adaptation.
6:30-9:30 p.m., Soldiers’ and Sailors’
Monument, West 89th Street and Riverside
Drive, Manhattan.
We Love NYC:
The Homecoming Concert
New York City’s massive celebration concert
is happening this Saturday at Central
Park. This historic, once-in-a-lifetime concert
will include by performances by Bruce
Springsteen, John Batiste, Earth Wind &
Fire, and Patti Smith, to celebrate the City’s
reopening and, hopefully, the soon-to-come
end of Covid. Reserve tickets at nyc.gov/
homecomingweek.
Sunday, Aug. 22
Tompkins Square Tree Tour
Join the Urban Park Rangers for a guided
tour of Tompkins Square Park and explore
all the different trees that provide shade
around the park. 1 to 2 p.m., St. Mark’s
Place and Avenue A, East Village.
Broadway comes back with new investors, bold plans
BY JILL SERJEANT
REUTERS
Broadway may have seen the longest
shutdown in its history but it has lined
up new investors and made big plans
for its grand reopening, determined to prove
that there’s no business like show business.
Optimism is strong for the reopening of
musicals and plays starting in September,
led by juggernauts “Hamilton,” “The Lion
King” and “Wicked.”
Theatres will be allowed to open at
100% capacity with audiences, casts, and
backstage crews all required to show proof
of vaccination.
Never risk-averse, Broadway producers
are already backing new projects despite millions
of dollars in lost ticket sales. The big
three musicals were taking in about $1 million
a week before the 18-month shutdown
that began in March 2020.
“Producers produce what they’re passionate
about. There’s nothing safe about what
we do. If we wanted safe, we would be in
investment banking, or an accountant, or
a lawyer,” said Ken Davenport, producer
of Tony Award-winning musicals “Kinky
Boots” and “Once on This Island.”
“This is a business that favors the bold…
I believe we’re about to see a renaissance
of theatre over the next fi ve years,” said
Hamilton will help lead Broadway’s charge back from its longest shutdown ever.
Davenport, who has six new shows in
development.
Mounting a new Broadway musical requires
an initial investment of about $10-15
million, including wages for the cast and
crew, makeup, sets, and advertising. Plays
generally cost less than half that sum.
Broadway’s optimism seems undaunted
by the absence of infl uential producer Scott
Rudin, who said in April he would take a
step back after multiple allegations of bullying
his staff. Rudin has apologized for his
behavior.
Instead, Rudin’s withdrawal has opened
the way for new investors, while not
PHOTO BY LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS
deterring big-budget projects like the fi rst
Broadway revival of the musical “Funny
Girl” and plans for a “Dreamgirls” revival.
Black investors
Not everything is rosy after the bruising
shutdown.
Disney musical “Frozen” is not returning,
nor is the Rudin-backed 2020 revival
of “West Side Story.” The two-part Harry
Potter play is being condensed into one and
there has been no word on pre-pandemic
plans for revivals of classic plays “Death of
a Salesman” and “Our Town.”
The Broadway League has said it will not
release offi cial box offi ce returns for the next
few months, and ticket sales for some previously
in-demand shows, including “Wicked”
and “To Kill a Mockingbird,” have been slow
so far, according to ticketing websites.
However, seven new plays have been
announced for this fall, all by Black writers.
Some are being fi nanced by fi rst-time
Broadway investors, including co-founder of
television network BET, Sheila Johnson, who
is putting money behind the play “Thoughts
of a Colored Man.” Johnson and celebrity chef
Carla Hall are also investing in a new musical
called “Grace” about Black culinary history.
Actor Blair Underwood and former
basketball player Renee Montgomery are
investing in the stage play “Pass Over”, a
modern twist on “Waiting for Godot.”
“There is various new money that is coming
into Broadway, and that money is extraordinarily
helpful and it is also diverse money,
which is also very interesting and new,” said
Brian Moreland, producer of “Thoughts of a
Colored Man,” opening in October.
Davenport says risk will always be part of
Broadway’s DNA.
“We’ve seen some really bold, exciting
choices this coming year, and that’s what
producers are doing. They’re saying ‘I love
this piece, I love the message of this. I’m doing
it, pandemic be damned, because it deserves
to be on Broadway’,” Davenport said.
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/batterydance.org
/nyc.gov
