NEW YORK (AP) — Broadway, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center all remained dark Tuesday as superstorm Sandy left the New York entertainment industry fighting to go on with the show — even if it meant performing for empty studios.
That was how David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon taped their late shows Monday night, leading to some remarkably quiet monologues. Letterman repeated the feat Tuesday, though Fallon brought in a usual crowd to his "Late Night" taping. The shows have been cautious about luring audience members out on stormy streets where many are still without power and the subway system remains down.
"Just like every night, we pretend the audience isn't here," Letterman explained to band leader Paul Schafer on Tuesday's "Late Show" before an empty Ed Sullivan Theater.
The talk show host ran through his monologue from his desk, not bothering to pause for laughs that wouldn't come: "I had to come in. I used up all my sick days," he said, adding: "That's a joke there."
After a Monday night of awkwardness — which guest Seth Meyers compared to watching Charlie Rose "if he had a band and everybody was a little high" — Fallon happily welcomed back a live audience.
"First off, thanks to our great audience for making it out to the show tonight," Fallon began his monologue Tuesday. "I'm so glad you're here because last night's audience was the worst."
Jimmy Kimmel, who brought his Los Angeles-based "Jimmy Kimmel Live" to Brooklyn for a week's worth of shows, was to host the ABC program live from the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Tuesday night after canceling Monday's show.
Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" both canceled Tuesday night's tapings.
Fallon said Tuesday that after Monday's show, "I realized how much I missed the sound of laughter and applause. I haven't heard that much silence since Kim Kardashian was asked to say something off camera."
As the city took account of the damage wrought by the storm, the aftermath of Sandy continued to cause the cancellations of film premieres, film and TV production and even that most unshakable performer: Bruce Springsteen.
The Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert scheduled for Tuesday night at the Rochester Blue Cross Arena in upstate New York was postponed until Wednesday because of flight cancellations for the band and ticket holders.
The city revoked film permits for a second day Tuesday. The sets of "Smash," ''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," ''30 Rock," ''Deception" and "Do No Harm" were closed, NBC said, and "SVU" won't tape Wednesday. Other series temporarily knocked out of production included "666 Park," ''Gossip Girl" and "Person of Interest."
Films forced to stop shooting include Darren Aronofsky's "Noah" and Akiva Goldsman's "Winter's Tale," and the Tuesday premiere of Joe Wright's Tolstoy adaptation "Anna Karenina" was canceled.
ABC's "Good Morning America," NBC's "Today" show and "CBS This Morning" aired live Tuesday with extensive storm coverage, though "GMA" was forced to cancel its planned Wednesday Halloween special.
Daytime shows were less successful, with production called off for "Live! With Kelly and Michael," ''Katie," ''The View" and "The Chew." ABC said work on all the programs would resume Wednesday.
All 40 Broadway theaters were closed, and while most hoped to open Wednesday, both "The Lion King" and "Mary Poppins" announced that Wednesday's shows would also be canceled.
The thriving downtown off-Broadway community was still assessing the damage and likely facing a longer time off. The superstorm forced the well-respected Vineyard Theatre in Union Square to cancel performances of its world-premiere production of "Checkers," which was to open Wednesday. And the staff of the SoHo Rep, just a few blocks south of Canal Street, was dealing with no power and some flooding in the basement, on a day that was supposed to be the first technical rehearsal of a play about African genocide by Jackie Sibblies Drury.
"You obviously can't do tech without electricity," said artistic director Sarah Benson, who added that the tight-knit community was helping each other.
"I've already been in contact with other theaters who are offering help and the community is pulling together," she said. "Everyone is going to support one another as best we can."
Two Broadway shows were even offering a special discount — if you could walk to their theaters. Tickets to the Roundabout Theatre Company's productions of both "Cyrano de Bergerac" and "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" were going for $20 for Wednesday's matinee and evening shows to customers who show their MetroCards, made useless by the storm.
Many of the cultural institutions of New York remained shuttered. Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center canceled performances and the Metropolitan Opera and Radio City Music Hall were also closed. The 57th Street entrance to Carnegie Hall — which also canceled Wednesday concerts — was blocked by a street closure because of a dangling crane. The Metropolitan Opera said Tuesday that it planned to go ahead with its Wednesday evening performance of Thomas Ades' "The Tempest."
The Apollo Theater was forced to postpone its signature show, the Amateur Night finale, from Wednesday night to Nov. 14. Apollo president and CEO Jonelle Procope said finalists weren't able to travel to the event.
The financial hit for touring musicians will depend in part on how long it takes transit and other infrastructure to return to normal, said Gary Bongiovanni of Pollstar, the trade publication that tracks the concert industry. Atlantic City, where a lot of acts perform, was particularly hard hit. New York concert cancellations included those for Journey at the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn and a Beacon Theater benefit concert for marriage equality that was to feature Rufus Wainwright, the National and They Might Be Giants.
"Everyone knows there is no shows in New York tonight, but what about Wednesday or Thursday ... when do you make the decision to try and drop things and rearrange your schedules?" he asked. "Financially, everyone is taking a hit on this thing, and you make the best of it like any other natural disaster."
The storm also jolted one of the gaming industry's biggest releases of the year. GameStop stores canceled planned midnight launches of the highly anticipated Ubisoft video game "Assassin's Creed III" throughout the Northeast, but Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter doesn't anticipate the storm will derail the interactive medium at the beginning of its busiest sales season.
"That won't impact overall game sales," Pachter said. "The people who stayed home last night will buy it tomorrow."
Most movie theaters on the East Coast in the path of the storm have been closed since Sunday night and many continued to be shuttered Tuesday. Clearview Cinemas said its 47 theaters in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania were closed. AMC Theaters listed some 60 theaters in the area that were closed Tuesday, though some outside of New York could open later in the day. National Amusements, which runs Showcase Cinemas and Cinema de Lux locations in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, said its theaters were open, aside from those without power.
Losing several days of box office for such a large area of the country would likely mean millions to Hollywood, though early weekdays are lesser movie-going days and current new releases — "Cloud Atlas," ''Silent Hill: Revelation 3-D," ''Fun Size" — were already attracting little interest.
Debuting this weekend is the animated Disney comedy "Wreck-It Ralph," the Paramount thriller "Flight" and the martial-arts "The Man With the Iron Fists."
"I think 'Wreck-It Ralph' is going to have a huge opening, but if it's less than expected, I think a lot of people are going to lay that on the doorstep of the hurricane," said Hollywood.com box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian. At the same time, he added: "A film like 'Wreck-It Ralph' could be the antidote to the hurricane for families looking for an escape. It's a very escapist, fun movie. We'll have to take a wait-and-see attitude."
Another movie was on the mind of one performer.
With the hashtag of "SandySucks," Lady Gaga tweeted: "I'm never watching Grease again."
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AP Global Entertainment Editor Nekesa Moody and Entertainment Writers Mark Kennedy in New York, and Lynn Elber, Christy Lemire and Derrik J. Lang in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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Follow Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle
