Only Intermission at "Moulin Rouge!"

I’ve been through the stage door of the Al Hirschfeld Theater countless times in my career. After all, the very first Broadway show I photographed, “Kinky Boots,” resided there for its six-year run. I’d grown accustomed to a quick hello with the stage doorman and then a step up to the deck before I weaved my way to the house with my equipment.

But on September 15th, 2020, nothing was as swift as it used to be. By this point we were six months into the pandemic, which brought our industry to a screeching halt (on March 12th 2020, my birthday…thanks, universe). Back then we were three months away from the culmination of a season which “Moulin Rouge!”, a show near and dear to my heart, jump started the previous August.

It’s so rare, as a production photographer, to be involved with a show throughout the entire process. Yet, with this juggernaut I’d been there for the out-of-town tryout, rehearsals, campaign shoots, portraits and more. The cast and crew had allowed me in; allowed for a sense of intimacy as subjects and friends that I long for as a freelancer. Little did I know at our last souvenir book photo call in October 2019 that my next time photographing the show would be in an almost empty theater.

The assignment was to create portraits of six actors from the show that told a bit of the story of the Broadway shutdown. In addition, we’d document the theater in its current state; eerily, almost exactly as it had been on March 12th.

Robyn Hurder

Standing outside the towering building in September I took a few deep breaths. I hadn’t been to Times Square in over four months. I hadn’t been inside a theater since March 9th. I knew I was about to encounter some ghosts, but I also relished the possibility of collaboration after months of neglecting my camera.  

My assistant Tyler and I got our temperatures checked. We filled out paperwork detailing where we’d been. We received fresh masks. And then we made our way inside.

Danny Burstein

There it was, the ghost light, standing center stage as it always had. Only this time instead of getting a break each day to welcome the thrilling live performance and combustible energy of the show, it was working full time.

Weeks of careful planning had gone into the shoot via Zoom calls with stage managers, producers, company managers and more. We’d be back in a theater...even if just for a day. The previous six months had surely taught me that not a single moment spent photographing this art form can be taken for granted.  

Director Alex Timbers and I did a scout backstage and were struck by all the details we would have breezed past in the “before time.” The “In/Out” slip—a paper posted to show which performers are in the show that day and which are out—from March 12th, still posted on the call board. Hand sanitizer stations on every floor. Dressing rooms, largely untouched, except for personal belongings packed in boxes. Wigs, usually fussed with each day, now covered in plastic bags.

Tyler and I had our work cut out for us. Even though we were gifted the luxury of an 8-hour day, we had a mountain of imagery to capture. For each actor I wanted to do at least two setups with the allotted 20 minutes. In between we would shoot stills of the empty space—dressing rooms, passageways, offices, stairwells, quick-change booths, orchestra rooms…and we’d allot time to light the next shots. None of it would have been possible without the extraordinary crew of the Hirschfeld.  

Sahr Ngaujah

To capture the essence of the closed theater, we left the existing worklights as our baseline and then added in strobe lighting in a gridded octabox for the subjects. To add a little surprise to some of the images, we incorporated a Westcott Ice Light (looks like a little Lightsaber) with a warming gel cover, held just below the lens and pointed right toward it. I loved the idea of creating a footlight-like glow…the feeling of the theater revving back to life.

Robyn Hurder. The faint glow in the foreground comes from pointing a Westcott Ice Light directly at the lens.

Starting off our shoot was Mr. Timbers himself, up on the roof, the bulbs in the “Moulin Rouge” sign turned off behind him. It was the first time I’d taken a professional portrait of anyone in a mask and it hit me how much the world had changed.

The day continued and I realized the most impactful prompt I could give the actors was to just observe the space. Danny Burstein sat on the edge of the stage and gazed up to the balcony. Robyn Hurder laid down and looked up at the proscenium. Jacqueline B. Arnold rested her back against the wing, check marks counting each performance since the show began in Boston behind her…a count cut off abruptly the day of the shutdown. Khori Petinaud, pregnant with her baby boy, touched the empty seats. Sahr Ngaujah, masked, sat on a prop chair in the wings.

With all of our actors photographed, I took one final lap around the theater to grab some detail shots. As I walked down the aisle, I saw the padlock bolting the doors shut from the inside and began to tear up.

I know this additional measure is for the theater’s protection during this time, but I can’t wait for the days when that’s removed and, once more, audiences pour out those doors onto 45th Street.  

Jacqueline B. Arnold

Khori Petinaud

All behind-the-scenes photos by Tyler Gustin