On Wednesday, “Tina,” a jukebox musical about Tina Turner, canceled both of its performances; “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” a stage sequel to the novels, canceled its matinee, and “Hamilton” canceled its evening performance.
In each case, at least one member of the show’s cast or crew tested positive for the coronavirus, and, either because of a lack of enough people to replace those who test positive or a concern about contagion, performances had to be canceled.
Broadway has taken precautions — there is an industrywide vaccine mandate for audiences and workers, and patrons must wear masks — but nobody lives in a bubble, and frequent testing is turning up a steady stream of breakthrough infections.
The cancellations are not only disruptive to consumers — some of them have been announced just minutes before showtime — but are also costly to producers, who already struggle to achieve profitability in an industry where far more shows fail than succeed.
Doubtfire,” for example, the Covid cancellations ate up all of last week’s anticipated profits — about $300,000 — according to Kevin McCollum, the show’s lead producer.
“What’s happening is a challenge for all of us in the industry, because we’re in the business of gathering,” Mr. McCollum said.
“What’s going on was contemplated — we hoped that it wouldn’t happen in the numbers that it’s happening, but it was contemplated, because we know there’s an ongoing pandemic,” said Mary McColl, the executive director of Actors’ Equity, a labor union representing performers and stage managers.
The Broadway League, a trade organization representing producers and theater owners, agreed that the cancellations are not a surprise, but also noted that most shows are continuing to run.
“There’s no question that this current rash of breakthrough cases is concerning, but the industry has not shut down,” said Charlotte St.
“I’m not insane — of course they’re going to cancel a show if someone has Covid,” said Karleigh Kebartas, a 21-year-old psychology student at Pace University, who had a ticket to the canceled Saturday matinee of “Little Shop,” “but it’s disappointing.” Ms. Kebartas was already at the theater when the show was canceled — in fact, much of the audience was held in the lobby until several minutes after the scheduled start time, when an announcement was made with no explanation of the reason.
Covid deaths in the United States surpassed 800,000 — the highest known number of any country.
While Omicron is perhaps less severe than other forms of the virus, it also seems to dull the power of the Pfizer vaccine, though the company said its boosters are effective.
In Europe, Britain is speeding up its booster program to counter a “tidal wave of Omicron,” while Denmark and Norway predicted the new variant will be dominant in a matter of days.
Pfizer’s Covid pill.
28, the Disney musical “Aladdin” resumed performances at the New Amsterdam Theater; the next day, the show canceled a performance, citing breakthrough cases, and then, after another performance, it detected more cases and took a 12-day pause.
Since that time, there have been a handful of closings at other shows — the lengthy shutdown at “Chicken & Biscuits,” and shorter Covid-related shutdowns at “Chicago,” which went dark for a five-day stretch last month, and “Wicked,” which lost a weekend early this month.
The cancellations are still “a small number of performances relative to the whole,” said Victoria Bailey, executive director of the nonprofit Theater Development Fund, which runs the TKTS booth in Times Square.
And in Washington on Wednesday, the Kennedy Center announced that it was delaying the start of a touring production of “Ain’t Too Proud” for 13 days, citing breakthrough cases.
Melissa Castor, a 31-year-old graphic designer, was still at home on Long Island on Saturday when she saw on Twitter that the performance of “Freestyle Love Supreme” she was planning to attend that night had been canceled.
The reversal of fortune was particularly abrupt for Ben Ratner, a 29-year-old digital producer, who on Sunday morning scored a rush ticket to that day’s “Mrs.