New Yorkers are decidedly reluctant to return to Broadway shows in September, according to a new poll, but they are significantly more willing to go by the end of the year — as long as certain safeguards are in place.

A New York Times/Siena College Research Institute poll, administered to New York State voters between May 17 and May 21, sought to gauge how soon New Yorkers would be comfortable attending live performances like Broadway shows.

Many of the nation’s biggest live performance producers and presenters have given up on the idea of fall shows, setting their sights instead on 2021, and the poll suggests that they have taken the right read on just how ready their audiences are to come back.

The industry is seen as one of the most difficult to reopen because Broadway shows are often populated by tourists and seniors, two groups who seem likely to return to Times Square more slowly than others, and because of the close quarters onstage, backstage and in the audience1

Of New York State voters polled, only 39 percent of people who attend Broadway shows with some frequency said that they would be very likely or somewhat likely to see a show if it were to open around Sept.

Martin, the president of the Broadway League, a trade organization representing producers and theater owners, said she was not surprised that a core group of people were expressing an interest in returning by the fall.

Creating that feeling of safety is the hurdle live performance producers must clear to get some people to return.

For Broadway attendees who say they aren’t likely to return any time soon, the reason, in large part, is a lack of trust that others in the audience will adhere to safety protocols: that a man in row M will refuse to cover his nose and mouth, that a woman standing in line at will-call would stand too close to the person in front of her.

According to the poll, 58 percent of New Yorkers who attended at least one Broadway show in 2019 but did not report that they were very likely to return this year said that they did not trust others to adhere to social distancing.

Some 72 percent of those polled said that for them to attend a live performance this year it would be necessary for the venue to sell tickets so that audience members were separated by six feet.

And the vast majority of people — 90 percent — would require professional cleaners to disinfect the theater or concert hall in between shows.

For Broadway and opera, industry leaders have said that a socially distanced model would be untenable as it might require shows that are expensive to produce and often lose money in the best of times to sell only a fraction of their seats.

For example, 86 percent of Democrats polled said they would need performance venues to require masks, while 68 percent of Republicans said the same1

The poll asked respondents to answer how often they attended a variety of live performance events in 2019 — with 55 percent reporting that they went to at least one or two pop concerts and 35 percent saying they went to classical music concerts, dance performances or operas that often.

Some 43 percent said they went to see at least one or two Broadway shows last year.

Roughly 38 percent of New Yorkers who attended at least one live performance in 2019 said that they would be very likely or somewhat likely to return to those cultural events around Sept.

Some 48 percent of those fans said they would be likely to return around Sept.

Fifty-six percent of those polled said that they were very likely, or somewhat likely, to visit this year, assuming that museums were able to implement social distancing