Broadway, shut due to COVID-19 pandemic, reopens with three mega-hit shows
The Hindu
The audience cheered on as Wicked, The Lion King and Hamilton were back at the theatre.
Theatre royalty — in the form of Kristin Chenoweth, Julie Taymor and Lin-Manuel Miranda — welcomed back boisterous audiences to Wicked, The Lion King and Hamilton for the first time since the start of the pandemic, marking September 14 as the unofficial return of Broadway.
Chenoweth surprised the crowd at Wicked by appearing onstage — on the same stage where she became a star years ago — for a speech. “There’s no place like home,” she said, lifting a line from the musical. The crowd hooted, hollered and gave her a standing ovation.
Taymor, the director and costume-designer of The Lion King, congratulated her audience for the courage and enthusiasm to lead the way. “Theatre, as we know, is the lifeblood and soul of the city,” she said. “It’s time for us to live again.” And Miranda at Hamilton summed up the feeling of a lot of people when he said: “I don’t ever want to take live theatre for granted.”