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B'way could lose $135M this holiday season
NEW YORK, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Broadway could suffer a $135 million loss this holiday season due to a New York stagehand strike that has darkened the Great White Way for 10 days.
Last year, ticket sales brought in $134.4 million from Thanksgiving to Christmas, with $23 million generated during Thanksgiving week alone, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday. This year, most Broadway shows have been canceled at least through Nov. 25.
City Controller William Thompson said the strike is costing New York City about $2 million in lost revenue each day.
"It's not good for the city," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday, adding that it isn't just the loss of money that concerns him.
"I think what hurts more is our reputation," he said.
Broadway stagehands go on strike
NEW YORK -- From "Wicked" to "The Phantom of the Opera," from "Mamma Mia!" to "Rent," most shows did not go on as Broadway stagehands walked off the job, shutting down more than two dozen plays and musicals. It was a dramatic, uncertain day in the Times Square area for disappointed theatergoers, who mingled on the streets Saturday while striking Local One stagehands picketed in an orderly fashion behind barricades and declined to talk to reporters. The union had no official comment on the walkout. No new negotiations have been scheduled between Local One and the League of American Theatres and Producers, so the outlook for a quick settlement looks murky. The two sides have been in contentious negotiations for more than three months. Much of their disagreements involve work rules and staffing requirements, particularly rules governing the expensive process of loading in and setting up a show.
B'way talks to resume
With the lucrative Thanksgiving week looming, striking Broadway stagehands and theater producers say they will start talking again on Saturday. Local 1 and the League of American Theatres and Producers jointly announced yesterday that they will resume negotiations "at an undisclosed place and time." Thanksgiving weekend is one of the best times for business on Broadway, with many shows selling out. It may have added to pressure for the union and producers to reignite their deadlocked negotiations, which have languished since last week. "Today's announcement . . . is a very important step forward," said New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The stagehands walked off the job Saturday, shutting down 27 plays and musicals. (AP) .
The Big Apple Gets Spanked
Austin musical collective Asylum Street Spankers is readying a two-week run of its first musical revue in a New York City theatre.
The group has a bunch of dates on its schedule before and after its Off-Broadway run, including tonight at the Cultural Center in Minneapolis, November 30 at Sons Of Hermann Hall in Dallas, December 28 at the Saxon Pub in Austin, January 23 World Caf� Live in Philadelphia, January 26 at the Diesel Club Lounge in Pittsburgh, February 2 at The Kentucky Center in Louisville and May 10 at the College Of Santa Fe in New Mexico.
Asylum Street Spankers' revue, "What? And Give Up Show Biz?," previews at the Barrow Street Theater January 9-10, opens with two shows January 12 and runs through January 20.
Tickets for the New York show will be available through Telecharge.com.
A dramatic new approach to the theatrical docudrama
Scottish military veterans recall the pride of their fabled regiment and their fateful, disillusioning service in Iraq. New Yorkers reflect on the disappearance of valued objects and the loss of cherished loved ones. These are shorthand descriptions of two unusual New York hit shows. One is "Black Watch," an exhilarating import from the National Theatre of Scotland, which just finished a run at St. Ann's Warehouse, a Brooklyn theater venue. "Gone Missing" is a diverting original piece by the inventive young troupe The Civilians, now at Off Broadway's Barrow Street Theatre in an extended run through Jan. 6. Though dissimilar in some respects, both pieces reflect a theatrical trend that's steadily gathered steam in recent decades: the rise of documentary drama.
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