#sorry to quote the trib but shit is dark for drama rn.

[power-chords]

Theaters have become fond of phrases like “the audience is not yet back,” and blame also has been attached to the purported loss of the theatergoing habit during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as audience members’ newfound preference for in-home streaming.

There is some truth there. High-quality TV shows like Hulu’s “The Bear” have made inroads with the former theater audience. Painfully for the theater, the massive improvement in TV mostly has flowed from theatrically trained writers and actors, who then compete on the opposing team on an unfair playing field. One widely acclaimed episode of “The Bear” even featured a chaotic and traumatic family dinner party, not far removed from a strikingly similar scene in Tracy Letts’ iconic Steppenwolf play, “August: Osage County.” Although “The Bear” is centered on a restaurant and chefs, it often has felt like its true gestalt was Chicago theater; it featured similarly intense acting and drew from themes that Chicago playwrights have been writing about here for years. For less reward.

When Letts wrote “August: Osage” in 2007, Steppenwolf had that aesthetic space to itself; now it has new competition. Adding to these woes, the domineering rise of team-written, long-form TV has made audiences more impatient with exposition: it’s more relaxing to watch characters you already know have their Season 5 adventures than to have to get to know a whole new crew who may or may not appeal.

“Not yet back” may be overly optimistic. There is evidence audiences are very much back at live entertainment, just not at most nonprofit theaters. The concert giant Live Nation posted record-breaking revenue of $3.1 billion in the first quarter of this year — up 73% from the same period last year — with nearly 20 million tickets sold. Concerts are very much back, and more than just Taylor Swift. People got out of the habit of flying, too, but leisure airlines have had a record-breaking summer. Restaurants mostly have recovered and have raised their prices to boot.