by Brad Ogden. @plaidbrad1990.
NEW YORK, NY - On August 4, the first preview performance of Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu's Pass Over marked a major milestone - the first Broadway performance in almost a year and a half. Three full months later, we are thrilled to re-announce, yet again, as if for the first time, that Broadway is back, remains back and, in fact, couldn't be backer.
We all know the Great White Way has experienced its fair share of setbacks, cutbacks, and even push back in the last two years. But Broadway fought back to bounce back and now exists in a state of backness so potently vague and unending that we decided to break down the implications of what being back really means. TLDR: Marin Mazzie was wrong; we CAN go back to before, and we're fuckin' there, fam.
In spite of the rampant and all-encompassing backness, the Broadway League isn't forgetting about the pandemic (otherwise known as the global immersive production to which we've all been given comps). As an audience member on Broadway, which is back, you'll be required to show proof of vaccination and, like a little actor, wear a mask inside the theatre - except while actively eating or drinking in designated locations. Like spending $22 on Skittles and eating them alone in a roped off corner of the Lyceum mezzanine? You're in luck! Broadway is back.
Speaking of backs, what's Broadway without 'em? The human backs of artists, that is, without which Broadway couldn't be back nor still keep coming back - let alone begin to harken back, double back, or lean back, as Fat Joe might be wont to do. Consider clapping out your windows at 7pm to show these folks how glad you are to have them and their big Broadway backs back, or back one of the small businesses they launched as a fallback ten months back when Broadway was un-back and you were calling them non-essential in your pithy Tweets.
Now that Backway is back and remains back, we better begin adjusting our backs to the new normal that is this tedious purgatory of suffocating, if enigmatic, backness. From callbacks to talkbacks to backlit backstage backslaps, creatives and backtors alike aren't holding back about just how back they are to be back in the groove - a New York groove - that looks a hell of a lot like backness. You know the neon lights are bright on Broadway, but today, and also in perpetuity, the neon backs are back on Backway, too. There's no backness like show backness!
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