Pandemic Reflections: What Watching Musical Recordings Can Reveal

This article isn’t going to be about the one-year pandemic necessarily. I’ve talked about my thoughts on work going remote on my personal website. With that said, Broadway has opened. So has the West End. They may be showing off new shows, perhaps established ones. Even so, there is a sense that things will not be the same. You can reduce seating and order people six feet apart, and ensure that everyone wears masks and does not eat in the theater.

It’s hard to measure the loss for the people who had to hang up usher uniforms, cancel auditions, or apply for unemployment. This great fear emerged — if the pandemic didn’t stop, or end in a reasonable way, would show business end, in a sense? I love the theater and have been privileged to see shows in person. The pandemic took away that huge luxury, and I imagine it’s much worse for the people who worked hard to put on the shows. Tech crews are so amazing and underappreciated.

The strongest memory definitely has been the day when we transitioned from in-person office work to remote copywriting, marketing, and communications. At first, it felt like this would only last a few months, and everyone would be laughing about the scare. That is not what happened. It’s been more than a year, and the anniversary passed. Hand sanitizer at least is available, as are…