Broadway reopened for 36 minutes for the first time since March of last year

Audience members wait at the St. James Theatre for Broadway's first performance since shutting down for Coronavirus (COVID-19) in New York City, US on April 3, 2021.

REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs

• Broadway reopened for the first time since it was shuttered on March 12, 2020, due to the pandemic.
• Tony Award-winning actor Nathan Lane and dancer Savion Glover performed for 36 minutes.
• The audience of 150 were required to test negative or be completely vaccinated before attending.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Broadway reopened its doors for a 36-minute performance on Saturday, more than a year after it closed because of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.

Tony Award winners Nathan Lane and Savion Glover took turns performing for 150 audience members at The St. James Theatre in New York, CNN reported.

"I was a little nervous, but I was elated and happy, and there was nostalgia, and I was sentimental - it was everything," Glover told The New York Times after the show. "And I felt very safe. I want to be rubbing elbows and hugging - we're looking for that eventually - but there's no more safe place than right in the middle of that stage."

The audience members were frontline workers from the Actors Fund and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. They were masked and spaced out across the 1,700 seat theater, the Times reported.

Everyone who attended also had to provide proof that they tested negative for COVID-19 or were fully vaccinated.

Lane told the Times the event was safe and he's hopeful it's a start for Broadway to start reopening.

"I felt as safe as anyone who has been vaccinated and tested 123 times," Lane told the Times. "I've been swabbed. I've been hosed down. There were a lot of precautions and protocols, so yes, I felt safe."

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