‘It’s the balm we need right now’: how Broadway fought its way back

The long theatre shutdown in New York has taken its toll on the industry but a renewed and reinvigorated outlook towards diversity could have a major impact

When Ruben Santiago-Hudson walks on stage at the Manhattan Theatre Club on Tuesday night, the electric charge between actor and audience will spark back to life. Then the healing will begin.

It is the balm that we all need right now, not just on stage, but in our city," says Santiago-Hudson, writer, performer and director of Lackawanna Blues, one of a record seven works by Black playwrights opening on Broadway this autumn. It's a necessity, it's in us as human beings. Theatre has always been the great gathering place - church and theatre."