Bruce Springsteen is bringing glory days back to New York next week, when his show becomes the first to reopen on Broadway since the lights went out for the coronavirus pandemic. But fans without vaccinations approved by the US government will be left dancing in the dark. The Boss has laid down strict rules for attendees of Springsteen on Broadway, which reopens on 26 June at the St James theatre. For admission, ticketholders must be able to prove they have received one of the three Covid-19 vaccinations with emergency use authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration: the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson.
This means those who have had doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford jab, which is not approved for use in the US but is popular in Canada, the UK and other countries, will not be allowed in for what the show’s producers are billing “an intimate night with Bruce, his guitar, a piano and his stories”.
Understandably, the news was not well received in Canada, where the Toronto Star published a report on the perceived snub with the headline Burn in the USA, a play on the title of one of the 71-year-old Springsteen’s bestselling hits. “The show must go on. But if you got the AstraZeneca vaccine, you’re not invited,” the newspaper wrote. The theatre’s owners, Jujamcyn, said it imposed the stipulation “at the direction of New York state”, and that the only exception would be for children 16 or younger, who must still produce proof of a recent negative Covid-19 test and be accompanied by a fully-vaccinated adult.
Rawr
Article URL : https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jun/18/bruce-springsteen-vaccine-astrazeneca-broadway