'Show must go on, except when it can't': OKC's live entertainment biz coping with omicron

Almost two years after the curtain went up on the COVID-19 pandemic, Rhonda Clark is assembling the cast for another modern-day version of an old-fashioned radio show.

"Because it's been so long since we've produced anything, we are going to do at least one (more) live-stream," said Clark, the artistic director of Carpenter Square Theatre.

"It's hard to believe we're back to doing live-streams, but here we are."

Like the rest of Oklahoma City's performing arts organizations and live entertainment venues, the venerable community theater is dealing with another show-stealing surge of COVID-19 cases, powered by the fast-spreading omicron variant.

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In January, Oklahoma already has reported 144,059 new confirmed coronavirus cases, by far the highest total for any month during the pandemic.

Decisions on whether to postpone, cancel or carry on with shows vary among venues, presenters and producers of live entertainment. But at this stage in the almost two-year-long COVID-19 saga, many agree that the shows — for the most part — must go on, even as adjustments sometimes have to be made.

Theaters adjust to latest surge

Last July, Kelly Kerwin quietly made her entrance as the new artistic director of Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre, and in December, she announced three planned shows for OKC Rep's spring 2022 "Reboot Season," to be the award-winning regional theater's first performances since autumn 2019.

OKC Rep still plans to present Inua Ellams' one-man show "An Evening with an Immigrant" Jan. 22-23 at Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center's Te Ata Theater, as long as the pandemic doesn't prevent Ellams from making the trip to OKC from his London home. OKC Rep is requiring its audiences to wear masks and provide proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or of a negative test taken within 72 hours.

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"We've gone down to 50% capacity, from 75%, and Inua's only one person. So, we feel like as long as he can get here, we can spread out," Kerwin said. "So, we're moving forward … and as a theater, we'll just continue to get through it."

After performing its entire 2021 season outdoors, Lyric Theatre announced last week it was delaying its first indoor show in almost two years — the Shakespeare-meets-The-Go-Gos romp "Head Over Heels" — from February to April. Producing Artistic Director Michael Baron said the season was strategically planned for a potential winter surge.

Lyric Theatre now will start its 2022 season outside, with its long-delayed world-premiere Native American musical "Distant Thunder" slated to open March 23 at the new First Americans Museum's outdoor Festival Plaza.

'Show must go on' at this stage, says OKC Broadway GM

Despite the omicron surge, OKC Broadway — the local presenter of nationally touring Broadway shows — has continued with the second half of its 2021-2022 season. OKC Broadway requires proof of COVID vaccination or a negative test taken within 72 hours, and its primary venue, the Civic Center Music Hall, has a stringent mask requirement.

"If we've learned anything over the past almost two years, it's to be flexible and to pivot on a dime. So, there have been no conversations about canceling, but we are aware that tours have had to cancel individual performances all over the country recently ... as close to us as even Tulsa," said OKC Broadway General Manager Elizabeth Gray.

"We're prepared either way but hopeful that the full eight shows will be able to play for each (tour)."

The current OKC Broadway season includes several touring shows that were scheduled for its planned 2020-2021 season, which was upended by worldwide coronavirus shutdowns. Those titles include six-time Tony winner "Dear Evan Hansen," which wrapped its long-awaited OKC run Jan. 16, and the celebrated and controversial reimagining of "Oklahoma!" scheduled for Jan. 25-30.

"From a national touring Broadway perspective, I think it is the overall consensus that the show must go on, except when it can't. … They have several understudies and swings that do a great job of stepping in last minute, but there's always a finite number of people that can do that for any particular role," Gray said. "As long as they have the numbers — and we have the numbers from a local labor perspective to facilitate the production — the show will go on."

Venues work with artists, tours on omicron response

Since Gray is also the executive director of the Civic Center Foundation, she is working with several resident companies navigating the pandemic's latest stage, including the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. The orchestra has postponed most of its planned January and February performances — five concerts so far — to later in the year due to the surge.

"The upcoming concerts not only include a large orchestra but singers and choruses, posing additional challenges during these unprecedented times," said OKC Philharmonic Executive Director Agnieszka Rakhmatullaev in a statement. "The lack of social distancing on stage and the inability to mask our entire orchestra ... impacts our ability to protect our musicians and patrons."

Stephen Tyler, managing partner for the Tower Theatre and Ponyboy, said many of the venues' January and February shows have been canceled or postponed, while others are still on the calendar.

"We're just really taking the cues from the artists ... and tours at this point," Tyler said. "We're going to try to do what we can do, because the reality of it is, every show that moves, every one that cancels, it's hours lost to our staff, it's revenue lost for the business — and with none of the support systems that were popping up at this state in previous waves."

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Last summer, the venues started requiring ticketholders to provide proof of vaccination or of negative COVID-19 test results from within the previous 72 hours to enter, along with encouraging attendees to wear masks.

"We haven't had to just close the doors because we're out of staff. ... More of us have tested positive and have been out. We're doing isolation and quarantine periods, and we've managed to sort of luck out that it's not been completely debilitating," Tyler said. "So, we're kind of just going with the flow right now."

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The Tower Theatre has started offering free COVID-19 testing from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Tuesday, in partnership with Test Today USA and Northshore Labs.

"The first day we had a line wrapped around the building all day … and I think we even stayed open an extra hour," Tyler said. "I was like, 'This is what happens when Blue October comes to town.' … To experience that phenomenon for people just trying to get tested and find out if they have COVID, it's heartbreaking, because we want to get back to what we do and be successful and have fun and bring all this great talent to town."

Despite the surge, Tyler and his partners are putting the finishing touches on their new live music venue, Beer City Music Hall, 1141 NW 2. Although some of the already announced concerts may be moved or delayed, they are still hoping to open Beer City in spring.

"This is the moment where we would really be kicking the marketing engine into gear ... and it just doesn't feel like we can do that as we sit here hosting a testing site with long lines," he said.

Theater pivots through pandemic construction delays

Along with shifting from live-stream shows to in-person productions with masked actors and audiences and back, Carpenter Square Theatre has spent the past two years trying to convert a decades-old warehouse at 1009 W Reno Ave. into a new performance space.

Along with typical construction delays, supply chain issues and labor shortages related to the pandemic have forced the nonprofit organization to delay its planned opening dates several times, most recently from January to possibly late March.

"It's fluid at this point. It depends on if we can get materials delivered ... and there's so many different kinds of inspections," Clark said.

In the meantime, she plans to direct live performances of the radio version of the classic film "All About Eve" at 7 p.m. Feb. 4-5 at RK1 Studios, with the shows streaming with video on Carpenter Square's YouTube channel.

"Then, we're hoping like everyone else that the omicron variant settles down quickly — and that another doesn't rear its head," Clark said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma City's live entertainment biz coping with omicron