ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Coronavirus: 'Sing Street' stars waiting for Broadway debut amid COVID-19 pandemic

Thursday, April 23, 2020

'Sing Street' stars waiting for Broadway debut amid pandemic

Sandy Kenyon interviews young Broadway stars making the most of dashed dreams amid the pandemic

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- Broadway is shut down at least until June 7 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and theaters will likely remain closed for even longer.

The video footage in the player above, which comes from Jim Glaub, owner and founder at Super Awesome Friends, shows the grim reality of a Great White Way gone dark.

But fans of musical theater can still get their fix online, as music videos and original cast albums give us a feel for what we're missing.

Really, it's enough to make a theater lover cry: tears for fears that Broadway may never be the same. So imagine how you'd feel if you were a performer about to make your Broadway debut.

"It is heartbreaking," Brenock O'Connor said. "I don't feel robbed, as such, because the world is burning."

O'Connor was speaking from London by way of a video conference with his co-star, Zara Devlin, who was talking from her family's home in Kildress, Northern Ireland.

They are just two in the large cast of "Sing Street," a musical based on the 2016 film with the same title about an Irish guy who forms a band to impress a mysterious, young woman back in the 1980s.

The stage version was well received Off-Broadway, so the production moved to the Lyceum Theater last month.

Minutes after the final rehearsal, the performers were told to go home.

"It was extremely disappointing," Devlin said. "But after five minutes, you realize what the bigger picture was and what the priority was, and that was to make sure that we were all healthy and that our audience would be healthy."

Before the shutdown, the ensemble managed to make a few music videos and record a cast album.

"It couldn't come at a better time, when we all need joy and positivity," Devlin said. "And this album is oozing with it."

All of which offers hope for the production's eventual Broadway opening.

"It's exactly the kind of story you'll want to see after a terrible life-changing event like this," O'Connor said.