People: Roy Gabay

“I don’t know another industry hit as hard as mine,” the long-time theatrical producer and general manager said. “We’ve seen a 75-percent or more drop in income, young people leaving the business. We’ve dealt with it the best we can, but on the emotional side, this is something that’s going to be nearly impossible to get over.”

Gabay has worked in Broadway since he was in his twenties. “There’s not a job I haven’t done in theater; to use the mailroom analogy—I’ve worked from the bottom up.” He worked on stage and backstage, interned for many productions, and experienced as much as he could. His first production was in 1998. He produced How I Learned to Drive, by Paula Vogel, which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

On his fiftieth birthday Gabay decided to give himself a gift that he’d been dreaming of for years: an introduction flight at Essex County Airport (CDW) in New Jersey.

“It was October so it was perfect East Coast fall weather with the leaves at their peak color and the instructor took me up and down the Hudson River corridor, from the George Washington Bridge down to the Verrazzano Bridge and then let me briefly take the controls when we circled the Statue of Liberty,” Gabay said. “As anyone who has done this knows, flying up and down the Hudson River at 1,200 feet msl is truly one of the most spectacular things you can do. I was hooked and started lessons the following week.”

However, between work (pre-pandemic intensity) and the drive time to Republic Airport (FRG) in Farmingdale, New York, where he trained, it took him nearly five years to get his certificate.

“I live in Brooklyn, and I trained out of KFRG, which is 38 miles away but reached by the notorious Long Island Expressway. It’s easily an hour each way when the traffic is good (which it rarely is) and usually it is 90 minutes or more to get there and the same to get back. Each lesson lasted approximately two hours, so every lesson door-to-door was a five-plus-hour commitment. And I tried to train at least twice a week. So that was very hard to accomplish with a full-time work schedule, and there were periods where I didn’t fly for six months at a time.”

Nonetheless he persevered and jumped into aviation with as much passion as his career. He used rental aircraft from Republic to get to shows across the East Coast. “The northeast is home to several highly acclaimed summer theater festivals and over the last few years I’ve flown to the Williamstown Theater Festival (AQW), the Berkshire Theater Festival (GBR), NY Stage & Film (POU), and the Provincetown Theater (PVC),” he said. “Being able to get up in the morning, fly somewhere to have lunch and see a matinee, and then fly home, has been a great experience and helped me see shows I normally wouldn’t have gotten to see if I was limited to just driving.” And, when in California, he rented aircraft in Santa Rosa at the Charles M. Schultz Sonoma County Airport (STS).

“I am currently using the Covid shutdown of Broadway to get my IFR rating. My commute to FRG has dropped to 45 minutes!” he said.

And when will we all get back on Broadway to see shows? “Rumors say fall 2021, but it’s definitely not before Labor Day and the really big shows maybe December,” he said. “The rest of Broadway in 2022—the bridge and tunnel crowd.” (That’s you and me, non-NYC friends.)

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