Saturday night live Christmas show 2021
SNL
There is no better place for live entertainment in New York City than Saturday Night Live. SNL is the place where comedy was first reintroduced on television after the period of mourning following the 9/11 attacks. Here a certain part of the population informs itself about news and current events. And it has one of the fastest on-air responses to changes in culture or the changing political winds.
Tonight, December 17, 2021, Lorne Michaels called an Audible, cut down the annual Christmas show, and went live from New York with only Tom Hanks, Tina Fey, Keenan Thompson, Michael Che and, for the fifth time, Paul Rudd as the presenter. The house band was reduced to two players. Today’s show, which was expected to be the usual Christmas spectacle, turned out to be a mix of pre-made videos, reruns of Christmas segments from the past, and a really sloppy chair reading from Weekend Update with the normally steadfast Tina Fey repeatedly kicking punchlines on her.
SNL’s return to extreme Covid protocols comes at the end of a week in New York that saw the Moulin Rouge audience sent home from their seats in the theater just minutes in front of the curtain because Covid appeared on the show, while Hadestown, Hamilton, Tina, MJ The Musical, Mrs. Doubtfire and Jersey Boys similarly canceled shows, and both the Radio City Rockettes and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater canceled the remaining shows in their run.
Covid infections are increasing rapidly in New York, the current number is a pandemic record of 21,027. The speed at which live events are being canceled and postponed is staggering and disappointing after the events cautiously resumed after dark in March 2020 and slow to resume in late 2021. Nobody yet understands what the Omicron variant means as a risk to public health. except that it’s amazingly efficient at spreading.
I was in New York this time last week. This is what Times Square looked like on Saturday, December 11th, a week ago.
Crowds in Times Square, Saturday afternoon, 12/11/21
Eric Fuller
There were swarms of people outside, few of them masked, and most having a great time soaking up the holiday vibe. The city was full, there were decorations everywhere, and the world felt like it was mostly back to what it was before the pandemic.
Saturday was also the day that New York’s Santa Con was held, with packs of partying Santa Clauses roaming the island looking for love or bars.
Santa Con parties line up in a bar on 3rd Avenue
Eric Fuller
Pedestrian traffic was so heavy in the downtown area that cross traffic in and around Rockefeller Center between 5th Avenue and Avenue of the Americas was blocked, creating a pedestrian oasis with thousands between staring at the sound and light show that was taking place from the facade of Saks 5th Avenue, took photos in front of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, or stood at Radio City Music Hall to watch the Rockette’s annual Christmas spectacle.
On Saturday I saw one of the final performances of the wonderful Lehman Brothers trilogy in a sold-out theater before heading down the island to Katana Kitten, perhaps my favorite bar in Manhattan and currently named the tenth best bar in the world. Katana Kitten is where Masa Urushido creates his magic, which includes his Amaretto Sour, the house favorite. Katana Kitten announced today that it will remain closed for the foreseeable future due to the surge in Covid.
Katana Kitten is falling out
My trip to New York was quick, late Friday, then Tuesday. I went there to support Steve Earle’s 7th annual fundraiser for John Henry’s friends for the Keswell School for Autistic Children. The three days that I spent wandering through the city were a wonderful look back at what used to be. Restaurants were open, shops were full and the streets were full of happy people to experience the city in all its holiday splendor.
I remember being a little surprised at how crowded people were everywhere. However, that seemed like the world had adapted to Covid and normalcy was on the rise. This is why the speed at which the pendulum reverses is so breathtaking. On Monday night, an audience composed mostly of XY seniors filled a room in City Hall to watch Bruce Springsteen play rock and roll in full exuberance. His third song was Glory Days, and when he started playing the audience just sang the first verse. Springsteen is one of the best front men in the business. He smiled, encouraged the audience, and stayed away from his microphone until the chorus.
Meanwhile, Omicron accelerated in just two days and the shows began to cancel. I still remember exactly how obviously the live entertainment had to be discontinued in early March 2020. What was less predictable was the leadership spirit of Michael Rapino, Dan Beckerman, and others who simply decided to shut it all down. Within a few days, live events around the world were postponed or canceled and the stages were dark for more than a year.
This time around, there are vaccines for those more interested in self-preservation and political stance – remember, all of your favorite talkingheads at Fox News have been vaccinated while you watch the Science vs. Freedom discussion. We’re all waiting to see if Omicron is as dangerous as the previous variants. And while our neighbors in Canada are already reducing capacity in their arenas to 50%, we are tiptoeing towards another decision to curb this spread. Adele may stand in front of everyone with her claim to be fully vaccinated and have a negative Covid test within 48 hours of joining her show.
Ultimately, live entertainment could stay that open as variants continue to mutate and expand. You can’t leave if you haven’t followed protocol. You have a choice whether or not to get vaccinated. One option gives you access to everything while the other doomed you to watch home life on your television screen.
I very much hope that the world of live performance doesn’t have to go dark again. It would be great if we could all do our part. George Santayana said, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Springsteen, who sang Promised Land this week, said, “Blow away the lies that have left you lost and brokenhearted . ”Now it’s up to you all. We’re back at the fork in the road. What is our choice – to walk the path together to defeat this pandemic, or to split up by tribes and march towards eternal chaos?
Maybe the answer lies here: every band has a drummer to keep all the players in sync. Somewhere, somehow, we need to replace the pontiffers and forecasters with someone of common sense and the ability to keep the pace. Every show reaches its climax when the audience dances together. That cannot happen when we are all segregated at home. Perhaps the political icon for 2022 should be David Bowie. He understood the power of dance better than most.
For me the trip to New York was nostalgic in that, for a sweet moment, the world appeared as it once was. It did so until I got home and promptly tested positive for Covid.