Broadway actors dig deep to weather storm during shutdown

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“Les Miserables” Tony nominee Judy Kuhn was three weeks away from being eligible for health insurance when rehearsals for her off-Broadway show shut down because of the coronavirus.

 

Still, she considers herself one of the luckier ones in New York’s tight theatrical community — at least she has a nest egg and her husband’s medical plan to fall back on.

 

And other bigger names do too: “Moulin Rouge’s” Karen Olivo, Kyle Selig of “Mean Girls,” and Adrienne Warren, who channels Tina Turner in “Tina.”

 

They all figure, somehow, they’ll be able to weather the storm financially. But they hurt for the thousands — both on stage and behind the scenes — who lost their jobs seven weeks ago and are in for a long haul until the lights go back on on Broadway.

 

“It’s a terrible, terrible kind of uncertainty to live with,” Kuhn, who was set to open this month in Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins,” told The Post from her home in lower Manhattan.

 

In a single day, March 12, New Yorkers in the theater world found themselves jobless after Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered a stop of all gatherings of 500 or more to slow the spread of COVID-19. The Broadway League, the trade group representing the theaters, is hoping to turn the lights back on sometime in September.

 

A deal struck between the theaters and labor unions paid workers for the first few weeks of the shutdown and covered their health insurance for at least a month; the sides are talking to work through the many health and financial worries tied to the long downtime.

 

Olivo, who plays Satine, is adamant that something good has to come from all the personal suffering. The crisis has changed her, and she believes it will change everyone in theater.

 

“I have too many friends who have fallen ill, some in the hospital, some we even thought we might lose,” the 2009 Tony winner for a revival of “West Side Story” told The Post from her home in Madison, Wis. “I kind of feel this is a really great time for all of us to train, not just as artists, but as human beings.”

 

She also is calling on theater actors to become what she calls “actorivists.”

 

“We’ve all become fatigued and complacent,” Olivo said. “It’s important to self-care … and then you need to brush yourself off, figure out what your part is and get moving.”

 

Selig is seeing things far differently these days, too. He’s more appreciative of his back-to-back hit shows — three years in “The Book of Mormon” and his three years so far as Aaron in “Mean Girls.”

 

The money he saved is keeping him afloat when so many of his close friends can’t make the rent.

 

“Every single person I’ve ever worked with doesn’t have a job,” Selig told The Post from his home in Hewitt, N.J. “They truly have no money coming in.”

 

What they’re going through reminds him how much he has taken for granted, from going out for drinks after the show to being untouched — so far — by the deadly infection.

 

“I’ll probably make it out OK,” Selig said. “But I think about families losing members, the medical staff, the first responders who are truly risking everything.”

 

Warren jumps rope in her Upper West Side apartment so she’s in shape when she gets back on stage. And she figures she can do voice work if money runs low.

 

But her emotions haven’t been so easy to take control of. This year was a big one for the show, which debuted in November, and for Warren personally.

 

She portrayed Tina Turner first in London, and now on Broadway. She was looking forward to ending her run sometime around the time of the June 7 Tony awards, which have now been postponed.

 

“I’m very, very heartbroken for the show and I’m very heartbroken for my entire community,” said Warren, who was nominated for a Tony in 2016 for “Shuffle Along.”

 

“We don’t have to create the greatest masterpiece,” Warren said. “It’s OK to just survive right now. It’s OK to ask for help. And it’s OK to help others.”

 

That’s what she and the others are doing.

 

They’re all helping raise money for the Actors Fund, a social services group for the entertainment industry, and Covenant House, which operates a nationwide network of shelters and programs for homeless kids.

 

A month ago, the nonprofit Broadway Cares launched a $1 million online fund-raising campaign that will benefit the Actors Fund. Nearly two dozen producers, led by Spencer Ross of “Company,” “The Minutes,” and “Jagged Little Pill,” promised to match the money, up to $1 million.

 

“In action, there can be hope,” said Tom Viola, Broadway Cares’ executive director.

 

So far, Viola’s organization has raised $4.2 million, and a second $1 million match challenge is underway, launched by Christine Schwarzman and Darren Johnston of No Guarantees theatrical production company.

 

“I don’t know any group like the theater so interested in helping each other out,” Kuhn said. “I just hope the actors who are really suffering know that they have a community that really supports them.”

 

Here’s how to help:

 

Broadway Cares: https://donate.broadwaycares.org/give/140654/#!/donation/checkout

 

Covenant House: https://www.covenanthouse.org/covid-emergency-donate

 

Actors Fund: https://actorsfund.org/help-our-entertainment-communiity-covid-19-emergency-relief