Standing ovations and musical metaphors: The return of Broadway

Broadway's back, thank god. I’m a true theater girl who, in the before times, tried to get to two shows a month, up for seeing pretty much anything and everything. In March 2020, I had far-too expensive orchestra tickets to see the long-awaited "Company" revival when this "flu-like" illness dominating the news cycle was deemed too contagious to pack thousands of people together in a dark, poorly ventilated auditorium. Initially, the show was postponed for two weeks. Surely, we’d have Covid under control by April! Then, the date was pushed back another two weeks, then a month, then the dreaded email came: "'Company' has been indefinitely postponed. Your card will be credited for a full refund." After that, I spent 18 months glued to YouTube watching old Tony’s performances and virtual specials like "A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration" and "The Rosie O’Donnell Show’s Actors Fund Benefit" to tide me over. I worried about the livelihood of my favorite performers, anxiously following many of them on TikTok and donating to their GoFundMes. Before the pandemic, Broadway was booming. During the last full season before the outbreak, from 2018 to 2019, 14.8 million people attended a show, grossing $1.83 billion. That’s more...