Brian's NYC

I've had some time off from work at Wicked because of the stagehand's strike. It started quickly and unexpectedly (I mean, we were expecting it, just not when it happened), and we didn't think much of it. Now, it's day 10, and the theaters will be closed through Thanksgiving.

There's much stipulation and confusion about the strike, why the union is striking, who the good/bad guys are, when it will be over, etc. And, sadly, there aren't answers for some of the questions...

The exact reasons for the strike have not been released, but many speculate it is based around the League of American Theaters and Producers attempting to regulate the number of stagehands required to work on a project. They don't want to be paying workers who won't have anything to do, but Local One (the stagehands union) wants to have minimum regulations, and they also do not want to be overworked (regardless of being overworked or not, stagehands are extremely well paid for the theatre industry, with salaries in the $50,000 to $80,000 range). The union has been working without a contract since July amidst negotiations, but a fall-out has recently darkened 27 of the 35 Broadway theaters in operation.

The strike has been extremely crippling on the city, especially for the time of year that it is. Restaurants are suffering, people are cancelling vacations, and obviously everyone else who works in the theater community is out of work (merchandisers, bartenders, ushers, box office staff, janitorial staff, actors, etc.). Actors in the shows affected by the strike are required to check in with an Equity monitor every day in order to receive their stipend checks (which are only $300-$400 per week, a drastic change from their $1509 minimum required payrate). A lot of the people I sell merchadise with at Wicked are being forced to find other jobs, because selling merchandise is their only source on income.

There are 8 shows still playing: Mary Poppins, ...Spelling Bee, Young Frankenstein, The Ritz, Pygmalion, Mauritius, Xanadu, and Cymbeline. While their stagehands are members of the Local One union, the theaters in which the shows are playing are owned by companies who are under separate contracts with Local One (Lincoln Center, Manhattan Theater Club, and Roundabout, which have the plays, are non-profits; Circle in the Square, which houses Spelling Bee, The Hilton, where Young Frankenstein plays, and The Helen Hayes Theater, with Xanadu, are privately operated. I guess when I say 'privately,' I mean they are not part of one of the three companies that make up the 'League' in League of American Theaters and Producers). The theaters that are dark are owned by the three big Bway producers: Nederlander, Jujamcyn, and Shubert.

Interestingly, Dr. Seuss's The Grinch... is at the St. James Theater, owned by Jujamcyn, but is on a separate contract with Local One (probably because of their heightened performance schedule). However, Local One decided to add them into the strike as well. That makes for a lot of unhappy children in Times Square.

The League wasn't totally oblivious to the possibility of a strike, however. Actually, they have been preparing for it for quite some time. They have been setting aside a few cents from each ticket sold into a separate fund, and they now have something like $20 million saved up to last them through the strike. That won't last long, however, during a strike that is costing the city as a whole $2.2 million per day!

When the strike started, I was scheduled to be working the first show that was cancelled. We were all called in anyhow to get information, and they decided have us stay and hand out fliers recommending people to Spelling Bee. I opted out of working because I didn't want to cross a picket line, and while I wasn't working for Wicked, I would still have been promoting the production company, who also handles Spelling Bee, and I didn't want to support the producers.

Local One and the League returned to negotiations on Saturday for the first time since the strike began. At that point, we all still assumed that everything would be up and running again by Thanksgiving. But talks fell through (allegedly after a reported rift within Local One between the local workers and the national board who was monitoring the negotiations with the League), and no further meetings have been scheduled.

Now, in week 2, and with all performances cancelled through the holiday weekend, we are starting to wonder how this is going to affect Broadway in general. It is turning out to be a huge bump in the industry's history, unlike the musician's strike in 2003 which only lasted 4 days. No matter what, it is certainly shaking things up a lot around here.