John Lithgow, Christine Baranski, and other Broadway stars on finding creative ways to perform during the shutdown, and how the pandemic could end up changing show business.

By Michael Schulman

“Since theatre might be one of the last industries to come back, the financial impact on its makers will be incalculable. Even worse, the theatre community has sustained devastating human losses, among them the actor Nick Cordero and the Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally, who was one of the first well-known people to die of the coronavirus, in late March. “The first thing I thought was, Oh, my God, the lights of Broadway won’t dim for Terrence McNally, because they’re already out,” the actress Christine Baranski says.

Nevertheless, theatre people are famed for their irrepressible spirit, and, in isolation, there have been fascinating attempts to figure out how “virtual theatre” can work. 

Source: The New Yorker