That was how David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon taped their late shows Monday night, leading to some remarkably quiet monologues. On Tuesday, as the city took account of the damage wrought by the storm, some late-night shows were moving back into full production, while 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 the hurricane. Officials at the arena said the concert was rescheduled due to flight cancellations for Springsteen's band and more than 1,000 ticket holders.
The fallout for touring musicians will depend in part on how long it takes public 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.
"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."
In New York, despite a downed subway system and a large swath of Manhattan being powerless, others were pushing on.
ABC announced Tuesday that Jimmy Kimmel, who had planned to bring his Los Angeles-based "Jimmy Kimmel Live" to Brooklyn for a week's worth of shows, will be live from the Harvey Theater at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Tuesday night after canceling Monday's show.
Jimmy Fallon, after sending his studio audience home Monday, planned to resume taping "Late Night" with an audience Tuesday.
Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" both canceled Tuesday night's tapings. Representatives for Letterman's "Late Show" didn't immediately respond to questions about Tuesday's plans.
Letterman and Fallon's taped shows Monday, sans studio audiences, were an unusual sight. Letterman read his trademark top 10 list with hand-written signs held up for each entry, and guest Denzel Washington showed up in a yellow rain slicker, claiming he swam to the Ed Sullivan Theater. On "Late Night," guest Seth Meyers said the experience was "like watching Charlie Rose if he had a band and everybody was a little bit high."
"Saturday Night Live," for which Meyers is a head writer, is expected to put on a new show Saturday as scheduled, with host Louis C.K., who himself had to cancel two Sunday stand-up performances in New York.
The city revoked film permits for all five boroughs on Tuesday, after doing the same Monday. Production on many New York-based prime-time series was affected. The sets of "Smash," ''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," ''30 Rock," ''Deception" and "Do No Harm" were closed Tuesday, NBC said. "Special Victims Unit" won't tape Wednesday but decisions had yet to be made for the other series.
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 Tuesday, 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.
While Broadway theaters were closed and ready to reopen Wednesday, the thriving downtown off-Broadway community, with most of its theaters in lower Manhattan, was still assessing the damage and likely facing a longer time off. The superstorm already forced the well-respected Vineyard Theatre in Union Square to cancel performances of its world-premiere production of "Checkers," which was to open Wednesday.
Many of the cultural institutions of New York remained shuttered Tuesday. Aside from Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center cancelling performances, the Metropolitan Opera and Radio City Music Hall were also closed.
Most movie theaters on the East Coast in the path of the storm have been closed since Sunday night and many continued to be Tuesday. Clearview Cinemas said its 47 theaters in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania were closed Tuesday. 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.
Losing several days of box office for such a large area of the country would likely mean millions to Hollywood, although early weekdays are lesser moviegoing days and current new releases - "Cloud Atlas," ''Silent Hill: Revelation 3-D," ''Fun Size" - were already attracting little interest.
Any impact on movie ticket sales in the coming weekend is difficult to estimate, said Hollywood.com box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian. 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," Dergarabedian said. 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."
