How would Tesla have responded to the pandemic in 2022?
The Spanish Flu ravished the world between 1918 and 1920 and killed between 25 and 50 million people around the globe. Nikola Tesla was never infected; his fear of germs coupled with his need for isolation clearly contributed to Tesla maintaining a clean bill of health. In addition, our hero regularly took “electric baths” using “cold fire”. He would stand naked on a special platform, throw a switch and one million volts of electricity would instantly throw off all dirt and microbes, leaving him totally clean and refreshed. These electric baths helped keep the Flu at bay.
Tesla would no doubt employ these three techniques to ward off our present pandemic. As he loved publicity and writing for all manner of publications, can’t you see Tesla making the rounds on TV news shows like Anthony Fauci? He would be pleading with people to wash their hands, wear effective masks and keep away from indoor crowds.
In the musical we are preparing for Broadway, you’ll be able to experience Tesla dazzling thousands of people at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. There you’ll see how Tesla first demonstrated the safety of his AC system by allowing one million volts to pass over his body. Later in the show you become a peeping-tom as Tesla helps defeat the 1918 pandemic with his electric baths.
In 2022 the speed by which our musical moves forward will be governed by Covid and its sinister variants. Assuming Omicron, though highly contagious, proves to be much less weaker than its antecedents, and we are not attacked by further variants, the theater world should continue on its path to something resembling “normal”.
