Shortly after posting on Facebook about Nick Codero being admitted into the ICU suffering from symptoms from COVID-19, I came across this page listing members of the Broadway community who had tested positive. It was devastating enough when Terrence McNally died. Clearly, it’s going to be months before we know the scope of the toll this disease is going to take.
It was a weird coincidence to see Codero’s name: I had just read about him because of his Tony Award-nominated turn in “Bullets Over Broadway,” the most recent Broadway work from Susan Stroman, the director / choreographer for #117 on the Countdown list, “Contact.” It’s also crazy to see Brian Stokes Mitchell talking about COVID-19 after just reveling in the remembered joy of Terrence McNally’s work on “Ragtime.” It’s trite to say it but, these days, everything is connected.
We all need a diversion and I’ll put a plug in for Schitt’s Creek’s star Emily Hampshire’s weird, funny interview show, “Humpday with Hampshire,” which premiered this past week. Like Hampshire herself, it’s a bit odd and, honestly, the show stumbles along until about halfway through. But by the time it got to her playing a variation of Head’s Up with Bobby Berk and Sophia Bush, I was genuinely enjoying myself. It also had the benefit of promoting donations to The Actor’s Fund, which is a truly awesome organization that supports a lot of people in the arts, not just actors. If the show doesn’t make you feel happy inside, throwing a few bucks toward the fund might.