A group of eight small theaters and comedy clubs in New York City have sued city and state officials over the pandemic restrictions that have kept their businesses closed eight months into this crisis.
The crux of their lawsuit against Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, which was filed in Manhattan federal court, is that dozens of other similar businesses have been allowed to resume at some capacity in recent months, but comedy clubs and theaters have still not been allowed to reopen. “The state continues to govern impartially and arbitrarily by allowing malls, casinos, churches, movie theaters, restaurants, gyms … bowling alleys, Saturday Night Live, schools and colleges in the state to open, yet small venue theaters in Manhattan continue to be shut down,” the suit states.
The businesses involved in the suit, which all are located in Manhattan and are smaller than 200 seat venues, are: the Theater Center, the Players Theater, Actors Temple Theater, SoHo Playhouse, the Gene Frankel Theater, the Triad, Broadway Comedy Club and New York Comedy Club.
“Whatever latitude for constitutionally questionable orders may have existed when the pandemic was new, there is no longer legal justification for prohibiting people from earning a living if they work in or own what a governor deems a non-essential business,” the suit states.
The lawsuit was put together by Catherine Russell, an actor who is also the general manager of the Theater Center. She told the NY Times that there were plenty of safe ways to resume theatrical work, including more one-person shows. “Small theaters are much more capable of doing this safely, and if people walk into our theaters and feel safe and protected, they’ll be more likely to see Hamilton or Six next summer," she said. "Also, people need to go back to work. We were closed with restaurants and bars, but they’ve been open for a while, and it’s actually safer to be in a theater because you keep your mask on.”
The attorney representing the venues is James Mermigis, who has filed similar lawsuits on behalf of various restaurants, gyms and fitness center owners, and other businesses looking to get officials to respond to their entreaties.
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Governor Cuomo's office, said in response to this new lawsuit, “We get sued virtually every day for virtually every action taken during this pandemic, and frankly I’ve lost track of all the frivolous suits filed against us. We are moving heaven and earth to contain this virus and we know some people are unhappy, but New York continues to have one of the lowest infection rates in the nation, and better to be unhappy than sick or worse.”
In September, a group of comedy club owners and local politicians held a rally outside of the New York Comedy Club to implore officials to allow clubs to safely reopen, offering a plan on how they could do that. "For over six months, there's been no rent relief and no plan for us to reopen. New Yorkers can go indoors to the gym, bowling, go gambling in casinos, [but not] a comedy club—it makes no sense," said organizer Kambri Crews, the owner of venue Q.E.D. Astoria.
The State Liquor Authority's pandemic-related restrictions prohibit restaurants and venues from offering live music, ticketed events, and other forms of outdoor entertainment, with the exception of "incidental music" and trivia nights.
As with the restaurant industry, comedy club owners have said they are in danger of going under because they've received little support during the crisis and currently exist in a state of limbo over when they'll be allowed to reopen.
Several New York bars, restaurants and venues have already filed a lawsuit against the SLA over the ticketed events rules, arguing the rule change is not only unworkable, but also unconstitutional.
One Times Square venue was able to quietly reopen with limited capacity live shows thanks to a loophole in the rules—they don't have a liquor license, so they don't fall under the SLA rules, nor are they technically considered a theater.
And a few comedy podcasts in the city have resumed hosting limited in-person tapings, arguing that the events "[weren't] live entertainment."
