Should performance venues honor prior COVID-19 precaution related promises or just go back to normal for-profit mentality?

Saturday, May 7, 2022

Most of Broadway Ends Vaccine Checks as Cases Rise in New York - The New York Times:

“Our patrons have purchased tickets, and in the case of subscribers, been assigned performances through May, with the understanding that they would be entering a fully vaccinated and masked environment,” Steve Dow, the Roundabout Theater Company’s chief administrative officer, said in a statement about its Broadway run of “Birthday Candles.”

This article is about Broadway (nonprofit theaters are keeping proof of vaccination policies in place, for-profit theaters aren’t), but I have this exact same concern in Ohio.

Our theaters in Columbus are mostly under the CAPA umbrella, and CAPA has decided to soften the policies they put in place to protect people from Covid-19. They had a proof of vaccination requirement, and a masking requirement. I think seating was set to accommodate social distancing but I’m not 100% sure on that. Well, that’s all going away.

I bought a ticket to a Tori Amos show presuming precautions would be in place. Now I’m stuck with a ticket to a show at a venue where Tori Amos fans (they’re the worst, by the way; I’m not even kidding-I love me some good Tori Amos but her fans are just 👎🏼👎🏼👎🏼) will be screaming and cheering and (puke) singing along at times. I don’t want their possibly-vaccinated-possibly-not-spittle flying into the enclosed space I’ll be occupying for the better part of two hours. I don’t want to breathe their air.

Still, I haven’t made up my mind on whether or not I’ll use the ticket or try to have it refunded. The point of the story is that I agree with the stance the nonprofit theaters on Broadway are taking with Covid-19 policies. People bought tickets or subscriptions based on one premise, and switching it (especially as cases are rising again) is just plain dumb.