Pritzker eases COVID capacity restrictions on theaters, museums, performance venues: ‘It’s the difference between a life preserver and a life raft’

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced new, relaxed COVID capacity restrictions for Chicago’s indoor movie theaters, performance venues and museums Thursday, in what Music Box Theatre general manager Ryan Oestreich described as “the difference between a life preserver and a life raft.”

The new plan will be implemented when 70% of Illinois residents 65 and over are vaccinated, barring any reversals in COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths during a 28-day monitoring period, according to the governor’s office.

The new “phase 4A” will allow for 25% fixed seating capacity in indoor and outdoor film, theater and performing arts venues of 200 seats or more.

For fixed-seating venues with capacities under 200, the limit will increase to 50% capacity or 50 seats, whichever is fewer.

“That’s a game changer,” Oestreich said. “It means we can hire on a few more staff. And I can start sleeping better at night.”

In the eyes of Chicago indoor venue operators hobbled by the pandemic, Illinois, Cook County and City of Chicago restrictions have been unduly onerous compared to the more aggressive reopening regulations for the restaurant industry. Friday’s announcement is in sync with what many have been arguing for months now, long before the pandemic entered its second year.

The larger indoor capacity, which will allow for museums to expand to 60% during this bridge phase, will come as welcome news for the major Chicago museums.

Amid a fiscally painful cycle of openings and closings, they have been pushing the mayor and governor for their indoor spaces to be regulated like the big, airy rooms they are. They closed at the pandemic’s outset, were allowed to reopen in summer, then closed again in November as COVID-19 rates surged before being allowed to open back up beginning in late January.

“We are actively lobbying to get the restrictions reduced and the reason for that in part is we have the capacity,” Ray DeThorne, chief marketing officer of the Field Museum, said earlier this week. “We’re letting the mayor’s office and the governor’s office know that we think it’s safe to raise those levels.”

“As people are getting more confident about immunization and, I think, in appreciation of how tight the revenue is for museums, this is one that makes logical sense,” he added.

Museum attendance in the reopening phase that began in January was capped at 25 percent of capacity, but the institutions feel it would make sense to be in the same league as retail stores.

“We continue to point out our experience is very similar to a retail experience, which is at 50 percent,” said Meghan Curran, Shedd Aquarium’s chief marketing and experience officer. Yet even more than retail, institutions like hers, she points out, have shifted to touch-free experiences and are managing the flow of visitors with one-way routing and timed ticket entry.

The executives stress that they have had no documented cases of COVID transmission on their premises during the times they have been allowed to open and point to a recent Berlin Institute of Technology Study, which found museums and theaters at 30 percent capacity to be the safest indoor spaces in terms of the prevalence of aerosol particles.

Cinemas were also relatively safe in that study.

The 4A phase means the 1,000-seat Tivoli Theatre can sell up to 250 tickets per showing, and the 550-seat Oak Park Lake Theatre can accommodate 137 moviegoers per show, said Chris Johnson, CEO of the Classic Cinemas regional movie theater chain. Johnson operates both the Tivoli and the Lake, scheduled for April 15 reopening.

“We’re excited that our larger venues will be able to increase their capacity,” he said Friday. “And it’ll afford venues of greater than 200 seats to have a shot at enough business to possibly make some money. It’s a solid step in the right direction, and we applaud it.”

This story will be updated.