Is the Met last in line for Save our Stages cash?
mainNo-one yet knows how money from the US Congress $15 billion Save Our Stages act will be shared out among music venues and movie theatres. The bill still needs presidential approval.
The bill was co-sponsored in the Senate by Amy Klobuchar (D-Mn.) and John Cornyn (R-Tx.) after intensive lobbying by the entertainment industries. Klobuchar said: ‘This funding will get small entertainment venues the help they need to make ends meet and serve our communities for generations to come.’
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), a cosponsor of the bill, said: ‘I am especially pleased that this bill will provide money for bars and restaurants, and $15 billion in SBA grants for theatre operators and small venue owners.’
Small means small. Does that mean the big stages come last?
In the previous PPP packages, any business with more than 500 employees did not qualify. Do we know whether the requirements are the same for this package?
Venues can only apply for PPP or this grant. I believe Met received it in April.
Unfortunately, the Met did not qualify for any PPP in April. That was part of the reason it gave for furloughing its unions.
Correction to “Nope, no PPP” — looks like the Met did get a loan of $336,700 in April, so some but not much for an organization that costs so much to run.
The Met has been closed all this time so they didn’t need it IF they received anything. If they collected any monies they should either pay their singers, etc or simply give it back.
They have donors who came out back in April for Gelb’s emergency gala. Where are the figures on that little soirée Norman and who benefitted again??
Selling off some securities and downsizing now is a great idea. They rarely fill that house anymore and won’t open until MAYBE September ‘21 at the inside under De Blasio and Cuomo.
It’s one thing to qualify, quite another to assume that the money goes to the musicians!
Isn’t Peter Gelb still paying off his $16 million, 45 ton, “Ring Machine”, imbecility?
When reckless decisions come back to haunt you a decade later: what $16 million could’ve done in 2020 for the musicians.
I love that $16 mil figure. The Ring was well North of 4 times that amount. Creative accounting or straight up lies.
He would still have found a way not to spend it on the musicians…
Great to save venues/stages, but without musicians and others working and performing in then what good are they going to be?
More actors that dont have to do any real work for their money, looking for more of a way to not do real work. They shouldn’t get a dime.
One wishes it were not so, but the “big stages” come last because the big stages can rely on generous private donors with money comparable to government. But it’s up to the STATES! NOT the federal government. Will US states save their creative and performing arts? Or don’t they care? The national theater of the United States is television: infinitely various, culturally, politically, nationally, internationally, intersectionally representative. States must revive the art they want. Nearly every one of them had a really good dance theater. What now? Will there be again what once was the one and only Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra?