I have always favored a gradual removal of restrictions followed by a short pause to look at the impact. Then a continued dial down if justified. I feel like we implemented mitigations based on cases going up, but the re-opening plans never seem to work that way in most places. It’s just a random date.
That's why I am kind of skeptical about the Broadway thing. There is so much politically involved there to unpack.
To begin with, they HAD to announce something, before the damage to the industry was irreparable - the actors will come back, but in terms of craftsman, and everyone else who runs a Broadway show, chunks of the talent pool have had to move on. People forget about everything around Broadway as well - the dinner spots, the car companies, the souvineer shops, etc...all these industries have taken a beating for so long, it's not going to be just turning on a switch again. It's going to take time and it probably isn't going to look exactly the same after (much like WDW).
Now, all along, the Broadway owners have said all that they wouldn't open at less than 100% because they couldn't afford to run the theaters at anything else. That's why regional theaters and elsewhere have started to design their seasons with socially distanced seating "pods" (meaning obviously less attendance), but Broadway won't even consider that.
Then you have Andrew Cuomo's name all over this, who is on the skids right now and desperately needs some popularity points, particularly with his base, the well-heeled Manhattan crowd and the arts industries. He probably won't even still be in office by September.
Given that they are four months out, and they left a LOT of leeway and outs in there about "depending on current trends," etc. - they also were very unspecific about what "health and safety" measures that will be in place that they are talking about. I cannot imagine for the life of me that they would open at 100% and maskless, for example.
I think this was more about making an announcement, and a political statement, just to have some sort of blueprint - and seeing what the ticket sales would be like, to be honest. Like Disney, they are going to have a balancing act between what they can do and can't do, based on what the public is willing to accept. We are moving into the territory now of how far you can push the comfort level of people, versus emergency mandates.
That they are opening ticket sales up so soon in advance is very telling to me - I think some would view it as them being super-serious about the date, but I think it's more of them trying to see how many people out there really are ready to start plunking down $200 a whack to sit in a 100% full theater. I think that's also the reason for the staggering of shows - so if they have to pull back, there will be less of an impact than if everyone just went at once.
It's going to be very interesting to see how this one plays out, and how it contrasts to what happens at WDW.