Broadway Stagehands, Producers Face Fourth Day of Strike Talks

Broadway Stagehands, Producers Face Fourth Day of Strike Talks

By Philip Boroff

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Stagehands and producers meet in New York today for the fourth straight day to try to end a strike that's led to the cancellation of more than 500 performances.

After about 30 hours of talks spread over two marathon sessions, negotiators return to the theater district offices of Proskauer Rose LLP to salvage what's left of the holiday season. Talks are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.

``We made some progress,'' Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of the League of American Theatres and Producers, said in an interview after talks yesterday. ``We just don't have a deal.''

Since stagehands represented by Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees walked off the job without warning on Nov. 10, 26 of Broadway's 35 shows have been shut down. The industry had ticket sales of $4.3 million in the week ending Nov. 25, down 81 percent from the $23.3 million weekly gross a year ago, according to figures out yesterday from the League of American Theatres and Producers.

Last week's grosses exclude ``Young Frankenstein,'' the Mel Brooks musical that shuns industry tradition and does not disclose ticket sales.

Producers and union officials involved in the talks say a conflict over work rules for the load-in of sets -- which can cost producers more than $1 million per show -- has already been revised. Still to be resolved are labor rules for shows that are already running, as well as pay increases. Producers said last week they offered a 20 percent increase over five years.

All-Night Vigils

The talks, which officially began in July, have of late attracted round-the-clock media attention. Yesterday, reporters, cameramen and news vehicles clogged West 48th Street outside Proskauer, which shares its office building with Morgan Stanley. During two successive all-night vigils, television people napped in their vans as writers and photographers loitered uncomfortably on the sidewalk.

While producers and union members are cushioned by separate multimillion-dollar strike funds, the dispute has cost the city's economy dearly. New York City Comptroller William Thompson puts the impact at $2 million a day. That estimate assumes that most out-of-town tourists who are shut out of Broadway will spend an equal amount of money on other activities.

``I think someone is assuming too much,'' Jeffrey Friedland, a Harvey, Louisiana-based theater diehard, wrote in an e-mail.

``I have been talking to a lot of friends who have cancelled plans to go to New York because of the strike, and one couple who was already there just went to museums and walked around the Village. No extra spending. They pocketed the refunds and came back home, very irritated and disappointed.''

`Grinch' Return

Just one show has reopened so far, after missing 23 performances. On Nov. 23, ``Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! -- The Musical'' resumed performances after the producers won a court fight against their landlord, Jujamcyn Theaters. Jujamcyn sought to keep the show closed while Local One was striking in its four other theaters.

``Grinch'' has a separate contract allowing as many as 15 performances a week -- seven more than the typical Broadway show.

When ``Grinch'' reopened, it faced a daunting challenge: it had 18,000 tickets to sell for 11 performances over a three-day weekend. People who'd used credit cards to buy tickets before the strike had received automatic refunds.

``We did very well considering that families had only two days notice,'' said Tomm Miller, vice president of marketing for Running Subway LLC, the show's lead producer. She said ``Grinch'' played to about 90 percent capacity over the weekend -- good under the circumstances but disappointing for what's normally one of the year's busiest theater weekends.

When the strike is resolved, many other shows will struggle to regain momentum, without the giddy and concentrated press coverage that the ``Grinch'' enjoyed. New plays without stars may be particularly vulnerable.

``Every day you have refunds, your advance sale goes down,'' said Robyn Goodman, a veteran Broadway and off-Broadway producer and serious-play devotee. ``If you only had a small advance, it can go down to zero.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Philip Boroff in New York at pboroff@bloomberg.net .