Coldplay’s Sold-Out Concerts Show Live Entertainment Is Thriving

The Hot Toddies Jazz Band is ripping through a set of standards to a packed house at the nightclub Somewhere Nowhere on a cold, gray night in Manhattan. There’s barely room to move, but a clutch of devoted swing dancers has carved out a section off to one side of the stage. As the trombonist and clarinetist trade hot licks, a bald man wearing spats pulls a woman in a backless dress into an exuberant Lindy Hop.

“It’s crazy like this every Wednesday night,” Patrick Soluri shouts over the din between sets. Soluri is the producer of this gig through his one-man company, Prohibition Productions. (He’s also the drummer.) Revenue from his Jazz Age-themed events has more than doubled since 2019, and he plans to expand beyond New York City in 2025. “From a gradual build coming out of the pandemic, all of a sudden it just exploded,” he says.