The Washington Post - USA (2021-12-25)

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 25 , 2021. SECTION C EZ RE

ILLUSTRATION BY GUS MORAIS

Christmas elves vs. the supply crisis

Santa and his elves have plenty of their own deliveries to make, but first they’re here to

help with ours! Can you find all 100 elves and Santa? You can also try this and previous

Christmas puzzles online at wapo.st/elves-christmas-search-game. Answer key on C2

BY PETER MARKS

new york — I went to the
theater this week, which
shouldn’t be news. But unfortu-
nately it is, in this holiday season
of spreading infections and resur-
gent shutdowns. As coronavirus
cases rise yet again, so does the
threat to the full recovery of
cultural life: not just theaters, of
course, but theaters, certainly.
And Broadway, definitely.
The frustrations of trying to
sustain an entertainment ma-

chine as immense and important

as Broadway — which pumps as

much as $15 billion into the New

York economy — are especially

vivid now. The holiday weeks are

normally when Broadway and

theaters elsewhere fatten their

box office receipts, stocking up

like hungry bears for the leaner,

colder, more traditionally chal-

lenging months of January and

February.

The viral variants that are hit-

ting New York and other states

could not, then, come at a worse

time for the performing arts.

Broadway shows canceling per-

formances — including smash

hits such as “Hamilton” and

shows still in previews, like “MJ,”

the Michael Jackson musical —

lead the local TV news. The Rock-

ettes have mothballed their holi-

day tap shoes for the season, the

musical “Jagged Little Pill” decid-

ed to call it quits for good, and

even Candace Bushnell, author of

“Sex and the City,” had to stop her

one-woman off-Broadway show,

SEE NOTEBOOK ON C2

CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK

A mostly dispiriting week on Broadway
BY PAUL FARHI

With a fierce new variant of the

coronavirus on the loose, White

House reporters are urging press

secretary Jen Psaki to move her

daily briefings online — but it’s an

idea Psaki has been cool to so far.

The White House Correspon-

dents’ Association has proposed

holding the daily briefings on

Zoom or some other online plat-

form to avoid face-to-face contact

in the White House’s cramped

briefing room.

The WHCA is concerned that

reporters face an elevated risk of

being infected with the highly

contagious omicron variant — or

infecting their colleagues with it

— while congregating in the 49-

seat briefing room or the narrow

workspaces behind it.

In a memo sent to members on

Tuesday, the group’s president,

Steven Portnoy, noted that Presi-

dent Biden himself had said in a

speech that day that omicron

cases are likely to be widespread

in many workplaces, including at

the White House.

Portnoy urged reporters “not

directly tasked by their managers

with being at the White House to

please not come in.” He also wrote

that his organization had sug-

gested Zoom to Psaki, but “no

changes are expected at this

time.”

White House officials have told

the WHCA that the administra-

tion’s covid protocols — which

include mask requirements, and

vaccine and booster checks or

tests for those entering the White

House premises — are sufficient

protection against omicron.

But some reporters say they

think the White House is more

concerned about optics than

SEE WHITE HOUSE ON C2

Corps conflict: Live briefing or virtual?