A lot of places have re-opened in New York, with certain restrictions. Even Saturday Nigh Live has opened up to an audience. However small theater venues and comedy clubs in NYC are still on shutdown.
With this six, odd-Broadway theaters and two comedy clubs in New York City are suing Governor Andrew Cuomo and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio over their venues still not being allowed to open. TheirĀ suit states that New Yorkās continued closure of small venue theaters ālooks more arbitrary than everā as other businesses and gatherings have been allowed to reopen, and infringes upon āthe right to work, right to contract and right to engage in commerce.ā
The small performance venues that have filed the lawsuit are Theater Center, theĀ Players Theater,Ā Actors Temple Theater,Ā SoHo Playhouse, theĀ Gene Frankel Theater, theĀ Triad,Ā Broadway Comedy ClubĀ andĀ New York Comedy Club. Small theaters are those that have less than 199 seats, which the theatersĀ argue is a low enough capacity to open doors safely with health restrictions in place. The lawsuit was brought together by Catherine Russell, an actor who is also the general manager of the Theater Center.
āSmall theaters are much more capable of doing this safely, and if people walk into our theaters and feel safe and protected, theyāll be more likely to see āHamiltonā or āSixā next summer,ā Russell told the New York Times. āAlso, people need to go back to work. We were closed with restaurants and bars, but theyāve been open for a while, and itās actually safer to be in a theater because you keep your mask on.ā
āWe get sued virtually every day for virtually every action taken during this pandemic, and frankly Iāve lost track of all the frivolous suits filed against us,ā senior adviser to Governor Cuomo, Richard Azzopardi, told theĀ New York TimesĀ about the theater lawsuit. āWe are moving heaven and earth to contain this virus and we know some people are unhappy, but New York continues to have one of the lowest infection rates in the nation, and better to be unhappy than sick or worse.ā
Cuomo did not seem in any hurry to reopen either comedy clubs or music venues in a recentĀ interview with Long Island New RadioĀ in September.
āHow essential is a comedy club when youāre talking about the infection rate?" The governor said. "Not to offend people in the comedy club, Lord knows we need to laugh, but those are the calibrations weāre making.ā
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