Broadway theaters are dropping their mask mandates next month, letting audience members opt to go maskless for the first time since theaters fully reopened last September. 

The Broadway League, the industry’s trade association, said it would re-evaluate masking rules monthly. A decision for August will be announced in mid-July, the association said Tuesday. 

“It’s not something we take lightly,” said Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League. Representatives for theater owners met every Friday with an epidemiologist, said Ms. St. Martin, and looked at hospital admission numbers and other data before coming to a decision. 

Broadway shows reopened at 100% capacity in September, with strict safety policies in place, after remaining closed for a year and a half because of the Covid-19 pandemic. All 41 theaters required vaccinations and mask wearing for audience members. Many theaters stopped checking for vaccinations in May.  

Even as theaters reopened, Covid cases among cast and crew caused some show cancellations.

The industry and its home, Times Square, have been seeking to recover from the losses of the pandemic. The 2022-23 Broadway season, which started at the end of May, has grossed $94.5 million as of June 12, according to the Broadway League. Total attendance in the first three weeks was more than 728,500, the group said.

Ms. St. Martin said she doesn’t know how dropping the mask mandate will affect attendance, if at all. “Our audiences are not shy,” she said. “They will tell us if they’re unhappy.”

While mask wearing will be optional, the Broadway League will still encourages theatergoers to wear them.   

New York City has dropped mask mandates in schools and stores, but face coverings are still required on subways, taxis and other public transportation. Many museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, also require masks. Many big entertainment venues, such as Radio City Music Hall and Madison Square Garden, dropped their mask mandates in March. 

Write to Joseph Pisani at joseph.pisani@wsj.com