British producer Cameron Mackintosh, the producer behind musicals Cats and Hamilton, said it could be next year before the lights go back on in New York's Broadway and London's West End.
"We are going to be the last to go back," he told BBC radio. "The truth is until social distancing doesn't exist anymore, we can't even plan to reopen."
Death by social distancing
Commercial theatre depends on shows being at least two-thirds full to keep ticking over.
With people meant to sit up to two metres apart, that would mean at least two empty seats around each masked audience member, French official guidelines recommended Monday.
Such restrictions were socially and economically impossible, producers insisted.
"We either reopen completely or we don't at all. It's black and white," said French theatrical tycoon Jean-Marc Dumontet, who owns six Paris theatres.
People simply "will not want to go back to the theatre if they feel it is dangerous," he told AFP.
British actor Stephen Fry agrees, saying distancing restrictions go against the whole theatrical experience.
"The very quality that makes theatre so thrilling -- the united presence of an audience clustered together to experience live performance -- is what makes the enterprise so unsuited in a period of necessary social distancing," he said.
French actress Isabelle Adjani said Tuesday it would be curtains unless governments "declare a cultural emergency".
French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to announce a bail-out for the country's live entertainment sector Wednesday.
In Britain, where theatre plays a big role in country's cultural and economic life, the government has so far been silent despite a growing clamour for aid.
With little hope of state help on Broadway, the outlook is even bleaker.
"I think we're all a bit hopeless," violinist Maxim Moston, who is in the orchestra of the musical Moulin Rouge, told AFP.
"I think a lot of people are thinking about other careers at this point."
Blockbusters put back
Hollywood too is sceptical about a quick return to normal despite US President Donald Trump saying he wanted American cinemas to reopen as soon as possible.
Studios have pushed back the release of most of their big budget blockbusters until August or later.
Even so, some Czech cinemas will open next week and German industry body HDF Kino is lobbying for a July restart, saying the lockdown has already cost them 186 million euros.
Some cinema chains in the UK also want to open in July, although neighbouring Ireland is expecting a return mid-August.
Despite everything, US chain Cinemark said many cinemas could still make a profit even when two-thirds empty.
While the outlook is bleak for live theatre, Cinemark believes cinemas can weather the storm.
(with AFP)
