New York Theater Quiz for May 2020

Q.1

In the first month after Broadway was shut down on March 12th because of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Broadway League announced first that Broadway would reopen on April 13th and then that it would remain closed until June 7. True or false: In early May the League announced that Broadway would remain closed until Labor Day, but in an interview later in May, League president Charlotte St. Martin offered January, 2021 as her “optimistic” date for Broadway’s reopening.

True
False

Q.2

May is always a heavy month for theater awards, although some this year were done differently. True or false: The presenter for Outstanding Revival at the Lucille Lortel Awards announced the winner while taking a shower.

True
False

Q.3

Who won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama?

Will Arbery for Heroes of the Fourth Turning
Jeremy O. Harris for Slave Play
David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori for Soft Power
Michael R. Jackson for A Strange Loop
Matthew Lopez for The Inheritance

Q.4

Whom did the Drama Desk announce as the recipient of its first annual Hal Prince Lifetime Achievement Award, named after the producer and director who died last year?

Julie Andrews
Joel Grey
Stephen Sondheim
Hal Prince

Q.5

Which of the following actions didn’t Jeremy O. Harris do in the month of May?

Gave “unrestricted cash awards” of $500 each to 152 American playwrights.
Called on six theaters that have produced or plan to produce his plays, such as Lincoln Center, to release public statements about why black lives matter.
Angrily threatened to sue while live-Tweeting an episode of the TV series The Good Fight in May that parodied Harris and his “Slave Play” (which it renamed “Cocksucker in Chains”)
Spent the month in lockdown in London writing a screenplay about the future

Q.6

All of the following Broadway plays were presented online in May in live readings. In which one were the performers the members of the original Broadway cast?

Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward
Love Letters by A.R. Gurney
November by David Mamet
Significant Other by Joshua Harmon

Q.7

The shutting of physical theaters has given rise to an almost uncountable number of new online series, many of them featuring original works of theater by established artists, sometimes short plays grouped together in a single program. Which series offered a program in May featuring 15 short plays all on the theme of “COVID and Incarceration?”

Homebound Project
Spotlight on Plays
Plays in the House
Viral Monologues

Q.8

Most works of theater presented online in May, especially the starry variety shows, did not charge admission but doubled as fundraisers, soliciting contributions to charitable organizations. Which of the following charged $14.99 for opening night and was not a charity fundraiser?

“Allegiance” on Broadway on Demand
“Bombshell in Concert”
"Broadway Does Mothers Day"
“Hairspray Live” on The Shows Must Go On
“Tiny Beautiful Things” on Plays in the House

Q.9

Which television series about theater did producers announce in May they plan to make into a Broadway musical?

Glee
Rise
Slings & Arrows
Smash
Theater Talk

Q.10

What is not true of Larry Kramer, who died in May at the age of 84?

He was a playwright, screenwriter, essayist, novelist and activist, not necessarily in that order.
He called Dr. Anthony S. Fauci “an incompetent idiot”
He called Mayor Ed Koch a murderer.
He was a founder of both GMHC and ACT-UP
He was kicked out of GMHC a year after it began
He wrote about his experience as an AIDS activist in his play The Normal Heart, which ran Off-Broadway in 1985 and 2004, and was revived in 2011, where it won three Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Play
Before The Normal Heart, he had no critical success as a playwright or a screenwriter, but made enough money in Hollywood to be financially self-sufficient for decades.
The many heartfelt tributes to Kramer after his death included one by Ryan Murphy, who revealed that he bought the rights to two of Kramer’s plays, The Normal Heart and its sequel The Destiny of Me, and plans to run them in repertory on Broadway.