The mayor doesn’t want any of New York City’s artists and performers throwing away their shot.
A new vaccination center solely for the city’s theater workers has opened in the heart of Times Square — a first step, star Lin Manuel Miranda said, in bringing Broadway back to life.
“We want to gather again and we want to tell stories in the dark, and we cannot do that if we don’t feel safe and if you don’t feel safe,” said Miranda, the award-winning composer, lyricist, actor and creator of hits like “Hamilton” and “In The Heights.” “The first step in that process is getting our vaccination shots. The next steps will follow but the first steps start today with this clinic.”
Miranda was one of many performers and elected officials to join Mayor Bill de Blasio on April 12 at an unveiling of the new site, which will also serve the city’s film and television workers.
“There’s a beautiful saying in the theater: ‘The show must go on,’ and here in New York City the show is going on again,” de Blasio said. “Broadway is coming back, film and television is coming back — New York City is coming back.”
Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi and Office of Media and Entertainment Commissioner Anne del Castillo were also on hand for the Broadway vaccine hub’s opening. The hub’s opening featured a Broadway performance.
The hub, located at the corner of 47th Street and Seventh Avenue, will service just about anybody who worked on- or off-Broadway or in the theater or film industry, said Miranda, who added that those performers will be in the best hands possible — those of a Broadway stage manager.
“If anyone knows how to make s–t run on time, it’s Broadway stage managers,” an emotional Miranda told the crowd.
Not only will the new center help get the city’s theater employees inoculated and get the industry back onstage, but it will also help employ 80 to 100 Broadway workers who have been laid off to handle administrative support tasks, reported Broadway World.
Prior to Monday’s press conference, Miranda and his father, Luis, toured the new vaccine hub. Earlier in the day, the Hamilton creator got his shot in the Bronx.
You wait for it…and then… pic.twitter.com/MtWxx1XCMU
— Luis A. Miranda, Jr. (@Vegalteno) April 12, 2021
