NEW YORK | After the return of NBA games at Madison Square Garden, then the reopening this Friday of some cinemas, New York may soon be able to celebrate the resumption of the performing arts: the governor announced on Wednesday that theaters could reopen on the 2nd April, with a still limited capacity.
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The rooms of the American cultural capital, closed since March 12, will be able to reopen at 33% of capacity or 100 people at most, with the wearing of the mask and compulsory distancing, announced the governor Andrew Cuomo during a press briefing.
Outdoor shows can accommodate up to 200 people.
The thresholds will be raised for rooms capable of testing their spectators beforehand – to 150 people indoors or 500 outdoors.
With such thresholds, the big productions of Broadway – like “Frozen”, “The Lion King”, etc – “will not be able to leave again”, indicated to AFP Martine Sainvil, spokesperson of Broadway, without giving of new date.
“But we’re happy that some arts venues, including some theaters in the Broadway neighborhood, are able to reopen their doors and give audiences back a taste for what we’ve been missing so much from those dark months,” she added.
Some prestigious venues, such as the Apollo Theater in Harlem, or the huge hall of Park Avenue Armory on the Upper East Side, could also seize the opportunity.
The announcement of this conditional green light comes as the number of cases and hospitalizations due to the coronavirus are down, in New York State as in other American states, against the backdrop of an acceleration of the campaign to vaccination and arrival of a third vaccine, that of Johnson & Johnson.
While some states have started to lift a series of restrictions, such as Texas which announced on Tuesday the end of the wearing of the compulsory mask, the governor of New York called to remain vigilant, in particular because of the uncertainties related to the new variants of the coronavirus .
“In my opinion, some states are going too far, too fast,” he said. “You release the restrictions too quickly, and you’re going to see the beast arise again.”
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