🔒‘We’re In A Crisis’: Even as pandemic fades, CT theater execs say audiences haven’t fully returned

As the pandemic continues to fade and most Connecticut theaters lift COVID-19 restrictions, there’s a major question on the minds’ of many performance house CEOs: Are audiences returning?

The answer is: “Yes, but … .”

Yes, but not at pre-pandemic levels.

Yes, but season ticket sales — known in the theater industry as subscriptions — are still significantly down.

Yes, but the federal financial support to weather the drop-off is running out.

That “but” is a major concern for many of the state’s theater executives who fear some not-for-profit presenting and producing venues face the risk of closure if things don’t turn around.

“Our finances are not close to normal,” said David Fay, president and CEO of The Bushnell in Hartford.

“We’re coming back ever so slowly,” said Freddie McInerney, director of marketing and communications of TheaterWorks Hartford.

“People have lost the habit of going to the theater,” said Florie Seery, managing director of Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven.

“We’re in a crisis,” said Cynthia Rider, managing director of Hartford Stage.

Rider said Hartford Stage’s pre-pandemic subscriptions totaled more than 7,000, but for the 2021-22 season, which ended in June, they were just under 4,000.

“We took a big hit,” with subscription revenue alone dropping from nearly $2 million to $1.3 million, she said. “While other industries and businesses are out of the pandemic, we’re not.”

McInerney said pre-pandemic TheaterWorks was close to capacity at most shows “and now we are at the 50 percent to 60 percent level on average.”

For large presenting houses, which host Broadway tours, Fay said, “the trend line nationally is good overall. But here in New England we are not back to pre-pandemic levels and it’s going to take this coming year — if there’s no bump health-wise this winter — to get everyone over the COVID hesitancy.”

Mandates and habits

When theaters reopened last fall, audiences were divided. Some didn’t want to return unless everyone was masked and there was a vaccine mandate; others didn’t want to go if they had to wear a mask throughout a performance.

That has changed as COVID numbers have declined. Mask and vaccine mandates have generally been lifted, although theaters are offering some masked performances.

“We didn’t see a huge demand (for masked performances), but we’re making it possible for people who wouldn’t otherwise come,’’ said Rider.

The Bushnell has dropped its mandates but will follow the requirements of individual shows or entertainers.

But it’s not so much audience hesitation as it is new habits, theater executives said.

“For the past two-and-a-half years people have been sitting on their butts at home watching Netflix,” said Fay. “Breaking those habits is as difficult as anything we face right now.”

“People are recalibrating how they spend their time,” said Rider. “We have to inspire them, make them say, ‘Oh, yes, I really miss that.’ That’s our biggest challenge.”

Added Yale Repertory Theatre’s Seery: “People are now making different choices. It’s less about the pandemic. I see people in restaurants and going on planes, so people are going out. The question is, how do we get their habit back, to remember the joy, the delight in theater?”

Draw of the show

Drawing people back is all about programming, said Fay.

“When you have the right title in the right place it will do gangbusters,” he said. “Broadway shows, like ‘Dear Evan Hansen,’ are doing just fine. Would they have done better pre-pandemic? Hard to say. But I think it’s close.”

“Hamilton,” which went on a three-week run at the Bushnell in June, didn’t do as well as it did in 2018. This this year’s run also followed the musical’s debut on streaming service Disney+, which may have negatively impacted ticket sales.

Another factor for presenting houses like The Bushnell, the Shubert in New Haven and Palace in Waterbury is the excitement surrounding touring shows coming out of Broadway.

Since Broadway returned last fall, the number of big hits have been few and far between. The latest Tony Award winner — “A Strange Loop” — is not selling out in New York and could prove problematic with its sexual subject material. Even the Tony Award-winning musical revival of “Company” starring Patti LuPone closed after less than eight months.

“We’re also waiting for the industry to rebuild,” said Fay.

For regional theaters, it’s producing shows that have a broad appeal.

Hartford Stage is opening its season with the popular Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap,” which has been running in London for 70 years.

“It’s fun, it’s for all ages, and it’s a unique experience,” said Rider.

For TheaterWorks’ season opener, it chose the Tony Award-winning musical “Fun Home.”

“We feel this musical is irresistible,” said McInerney. “It comes with all the provenance of a big hit and we know it can be very special in our space. But it’s a huge investment for us, no question. It’s part of the calculus to get people excited and to remind people that they want this experience to be part of their lives again.”

Money issues

That theaters are able to continue at all financially is due to the significant funding offered through the federal Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, which doled out $14.6 billion nationally to thousands of arts organizations.

Connecticut arts and culture institutions collectively received $150.7 million from the program, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The Bushnell received $8.7 million, while Hartford Stage received $3.8 million and TheaterWorks $472,651. The Bushnell and other arts groups were also helped by federal Paycheck Protection Program forgivable loans.

Fay was critical of the state’s lack of support during the shutdown.

“State government in Connecticut doesn’t support the arts anywhere near what other states do and that is largely because we have no county government, which is the number one funder to the arts,” he said.

The budget for the state Office of the Arts was $3 million for all cultural and historic groups during fiscal 2022, and another $3 million for 2023.

The Bushnell gets $190,000 annually in a special line item in the state budget.

“My counterparts around the country running theaters of our size get between $1.5 million and $2 million a year,” Fay said. “The state needs to step up and fund the arts better than they do. It’s a crime.”

The federal funding is what kept the Bushnell and other theaters from running deficits last season, he said.

“But that federal money expires at the end of this year “and then we go back to our measly $190,000 of state support,” he added. “If the other [audience] trends haven’t gotten us back to where we were pre-pandemic, that is going to be a real problem.”

Outlook cloudy

But for some, even getting back to pre-pandemic levels is not enough.

“Pre-pandemic (ticket revenue) levels were not great for (not-for-profit theaters),” said Seery, of Yale Repertory Theatre. “None of us would be smug about coming back to that. Long before the pandemic we were talking about struggling with ticket sales. I think we have to understand what we mean to our community. We may need to mean more to them than just putting on a show. It’s much more of a grassroots approach that we have to have.”

Without larger audiences, Rider foresees a crisis.

“It’s not sustainable if we can’t get more ticket revenue,” she said. “I think you’re going to see a lot of theaters close.”

When asked if any Connecticut theaters will be ending their runs, she said: “I can’t tell you exactly who. There’s a lot of inspired work going on at all the Connecticut theaters, but you can’t sustain yourself when your ticket revenue is half of what it was.”