Broadway Goes Dark, Well Sort Of.
With the Broadway stagehand strike heading into its third day on Monday (11/12), I decided to take a walk down to 44th St. and Broadway home to mega Broadway musicals like Les Miserable and ‘Xanadu.’
During intermission standing outside the musical Xanadu and across the street from ‘Les Miserables’ and ‘Spamalot’ were Andrew R and Phil A from London, who write an online theatre review blog called the West End Whingers (http://www.westendwhingers.net/). Both visitors asked that I not reveal their last names.
Andrew and Phil were in New York to see and write about six Broadway shows they planned to see in six days. They arrived on Saturday (11/10) night when they managed to squeeze in their first musical ‘Alter Boyz’.
Neither Andrew nor Phil was aware of the strike before their plane touched down on Saturday. Both theatre enthusiasts said they would not have altered their plans if they had known about the strike earlier; before they left London. “We wouldn’t have changed our plans anyway,” Andrew said. “Xanadu alone was worth the trip,” Phil said. Andrew and Phil admitted the show they really wanted to see the most was Young Frankenstein, but they were not sure if it was effected by the strike.
Not all Broadway shows are effected by the strike between the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and the League of American Theatre and Producers. There are eight Broadway shows still open for business.
The strike is primarily over working rules at the theatres. The theatre owners and producers say they are forced to hire more stagehands than are necessary, thus forcing up production costs. During a press conference on Saturday (11/10, a representative for the producers and theatre owners said, that each stage hand makes between 150,000 and 200,000 dollars a year.
The stagehand union claims that the owners and producers are trying to force job cuts on the union while theatre owners make record profits.
Steve a member of the Theatrical Stage Employees Union who was handing out flyers from behind a picket line outside ‘Les Miserables’ called the theatre owners demands ‘unreasonable.’ Steve who has worked as a stagehand for more than 30-years called the salary figures quoted by the producers and theatre owners as “highly inflated.” “There are several different pay scales for union employees,” he said. “An average union employee who worked a full year might make $100,000 dollars,” He was prepared to stay on the picket line for as long as it took for the theatre owners and producers to come back to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith, he said.
In the meantime, New York City loses millions of dollars a day; some estimates run as high as $17 million dollars. On Sunday (11/11), Mayor Bloomberg said he was willing to help both sides reach an agreement in any way he can. In a statement he said, “While this is a private labor matter, the economic impact is very public and will be felt far beyond the theatres closed today,” It is in everyone's interest for both sides to come together and resolve their differences."
There are no talks scheduled in the near future.
In the meantime as the call went out for theater goers to return to their seats for the second act in ‘Xanadu’ both Andrew and Phil were giddy with excitement to hear that ‘Young Frankenstein’ was not effected by the strike.
With the Broadway stagehand strike heading into its third day on Monday (11/12), I decided to take a walk down to 44th St. and Broadway home to mega Broadway musicals like Les Miserable and ‘Xanadu.’
During intermission standing outside the musical Xanadu and across the street from ‘Les Miserables’ and ‘Spamalot’ were Andrew R and Phil A from London, who write an online theatre review blog called the West End Whingers (http://www.westendwhingers.net/). Both visitors asked that I not reveal their last names.
Andrew and Phil were in New York to see and write about six Broadway shows they planned to see in six days. They arrived on Saturday (11/10) night when they managed to squeeze in their first musical ‘Alter Boyz’.
Neither Andrew nor Phil was aware of the strike before their plane touched down on Saturday. Both theatre enthusiasts said they would not have altered their plans if they had known about the strike earlier; before they left London. “We wouldn’t have changed our plans anyway,” Andrew said. “Xanadu alone was worth the trip,” Phil said. Andrew and Phil admitted the show they really wanted to see the most was Young Frankenstein, but they were not sure if it was effected by the strike.
Not all Broadway shows are effected by the strike between the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and the League of American Theatre and Producers. There are eight Broadway shows still open for business.
The strike is primarily over working rules at the theatres. The theatre owners and producers say they are forced to hire more stagehands than are necessary, thus forcing up production costs. During a press conference on Saturday (11/10, a representative for the producers and theatre owners said, that each stage hand makes between 150,000 and 200,000 dollars a year.
The stagehand union claims that the owners and producers are trying to force job cuts on the union while theatre owners make record profits.
Steve a member of the Theatrical Stage Employees Union who was handing out flyers from behind a picket line outside ‘Les Miserables’ called the theatre owners demands ‘unreasonable.’ Steve who has worked as a stagehand for more than 30-years called the salary figures quoted by the producers and theatre owners as “highly inflated.” “There are several different pay scales for union employees,” he said. “An average union employee who worked a full year might make $100,000 dollars,” He was prepared to stay on the picket line for as long as it took for the theatre owners and producers to come back to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith, he said.
In the meantime, New York City loses millions of dollars a day; some estimates run as high as $17 million dollars. On Sunday (11/11), Mayor Bloomberg said he was willing to help both sides reach an agreement in any way he can. In a statement he said, “While this is a private labor matter, the economic impact is very public and will be felt far beyond the theatres closed today,” It is in everyone's interest for both sides to come together and resolve their differences."
There are no talks scheduled in the near future.
In the meantime as the call went out for theater goers to return to their seats for the second act in ‘Xanadu’ both Andrew and Phil were giddy with excitement to hear that ‘Young Frankenstein’ was not effected by the strike.
1 comment:
Different perspective.
The photo accompaniment is appropriate.
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