When the Show Can’t Go On

You know what sucks? When you and many others have devoted hours and hours creating, rehearing and anticipating putting on a musical and then it doesn't happen. In BMT#59 , I mused with passion about the joy of choreographing and co-directing our temple’s production of “Hello Dolly”. I got lost in the “flow” as I taught the cast the dance numbers. But just this week, only 2 weeks away from our performance, the production staff made the difficult decision to NOT go on with the show. Why? 1) One of our stars is ill with Covid, and 2) Ticket sales are weak; this is likely because congregants are wary of attending large indoor gatherings. If Covid-19 has taught us anything, it’s that you can’t count on anything. All the planning, all the time and all the resources you put into something planned for the future is a crapshoot. In Covid Times, this is true despite the wide availability of vaccines, a huge decrease in cases (especially serious cases) and the dismantling of mandates. We can’t go on with this show at this time, but to paraphrase the Terminator, “We’ll be back.”