Tony Winner John Benjamin Hickey Reveals He Tested Positive for Coronavirus: 'It Is a Brutal Sickness'
John Benjamin Hickey is opening up about his experience with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
During his appearance on Broadway.com’s Live at Five show on Thursday, the Tony winner, 56, revealed he was sick for the last two weeks after testing positive for the highly contagious virus. According to the actor, it all began on March 13 — the day after Broadway suspended all of its productions — when he started “feeling funny.”
“Went to my doctor, got tested, got my positive results back and spent two weeks really brutally sick,” he shared, before assuring viewers that he’s now feeling better. “I clearly came through it and am two-and-a-half weeks now symptom-free and feel great.”
Reflecting on the seriousness of the disease, Hickey shared, “Giving everything we’re hearing and understand about it now, I consider myself profoundly lucky. I only ever got really sick. I never needed to be at an emergency room or at a hospital. I had a doctor monitoring me the whole time.” I was very lucky. I came out okay and feel like myself again.”
“But it’s, as we all know and very well understand, it is a brutal sickness,” the Tony winner added. “So very happy to be here with you.”
Hickey was in the middle of directing real-life couple Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick in the revival of Plaza Suite when shows on Broadway were ordered to shut down over coronavirus concerns.
Since Broadway was shuttered on the day of Plaza Suite‘s invited dress rehearsal, Hickey said he’s since had to work with the actors remotely as the prepare for its opening day.
“Once a week I check in and say, ‘Have you run your lines?'” he joked. “They’ve been very good. In fact, when we finished [the out of town tryout] in Boston, we had only two weeks before we started tech in New York and we got together every day in those two weeks and ran the play almost daily.”
“So they will stay on top of it because they want to remember their lines. I think when we do come back, there won’t be any dilly-dallying,” he continued. “We will all want to get to work as soon as possible.”
The Broadway League, the national trade association for the Broadway industry, currently lists the shutdown’s end date as April 13, though the New York Times reported late March that the reopening is more likely to be in May or June.
As of Thursday morning, there have been at least 214,461 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, with 4,841 deaths from coronavirus-related illness.
As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from CDC, WHO, and local public health departments. To help provide doctors and nurses on the front lines with life-saving medical resources, donate to Direct Relief here.
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