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Broadway Shows Don't Go On
Curtains came down on Broadway Friday as musicians went on strike just after midnight to protest a move that would downsize orchestras.
Then, after an emergency meeting Actors' Equity, which counts 652 Broadway actors and stage managers currently rehearsing or performing among its ranks, announced they would join their orchestra-pit companions on the picket lines tonight in a sympathy strike.
"Our members have made it clear, we do not want to perform to virtual orchestras," said Patrick Quinn, Actors' Equity president, during an afternoon press conference.
"Honoring the line is for the good of the industry and our membership," said stagehand union president Edward McConway. "Even though we are concerned about the theatergoing public, the state of our industry and our city, we are a union and a union supports a union picket line. It's an issue of conscience."
Negotiations between musicians, actors, stage managers and producers continued in hopes that an agreement could have been reached before curtain call at 8 p.m. but to no avail--17 shows--and three in rehearsal, including Nine starring Antonio Banderas--will be dark tonight, including hits like The Producers, Hairspray, Chicago and Mamma Mia.
Those shows join relative newbies La Bohème and Flower Drum Song, which were the first two casualties of the strike, with producers canceling Friday evening performances shortly after the musicians announced they were walking.
The League of American Theaters and Producers had hoped the show would go on for musicals, with taped tracks used to replace the striking musicians--but actors, even bad ones, are harder to replace.
At stake is the musician's Local 802 union mandate that requires 26 musicians per orchestra. Theater owners want to whittle that number down to 14 while the union refuses to settle for less than 20.
The musicians' union says the minimum is necessary to keep live music rocking the Great White Way while producers complain that shows are over-staffed and that they're required to pay even when musicians don't play.
"We love live music, but know of no other industry where workers are paid, but not needed," complained League representative and Chicago producer Barry Weissler at a press conference.
"That's simply not true," counters union rep Bill Dennison. "It's an old lie that's being regurgitated for this negotiation," he said, adding, "This is not about the artistic needs of a musical team that puts together a show, this is purely about money. The producers want the right to tell a composer and the orchestra how many musicians they will be allowed to have."
The last time the music died on Broadway was in 1975 when a Local 802 strike crippled nine musicals for 25 days. Actors' Equity first flexed its muscle in a 1919 strike that last 30 days and closed 37 plays. The actors' union struck again in 1960, striking for 13 days to win a pension plan for its members.
Musicals had been enjoying something of a revival on Broadway recently as audiences flocked to new song-filled, standing-room-only hits, among them last year's Tony winner Thoroughly Modern Millie, as well as Hairspray, The Full Monty and Urinetown (soon to be turned into a feature film).
(Originally published at 1:15 p.m. PT.)
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