| Off-Broadway offers alternatives
About two dozen high-ticket Broadway shows are dark due to the stagehands' strike, but there is no need for hysteria by theater fans. Eight Broadway shows are still up and running — because of separate union contracts — including the sleeper hit "Xanadu," the new Mel Brooks musical "Young Frankenstein," and the well-received revival of "Pygmalion" featuring film star Claire Danes. In Connecticut, a Broadway caliber revival of Arthur Miller's "The Price" opened recently at New Haven's Long Wharf Theatre, a venue which has sent many of its productions into New York in past seasons, including the Pulitzer Prize winners, "Wit" and "The Gin Game". Now would be the perfect time for area theatergoers who head to New York for their stage fixes to discover the exciting — and much cheaper — alternatives available off-Broadway.
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NEW YORK - With no 8 p.m. curtain, Owen Johnston won't have to eat and run this U.S. Thanksgiving.But while the "Rent" actor will enjoy spending the holiday with family, the Broadway strike that has sidelined him is "an ever present cloud.""There's no trips to Toys "R" Us," he said. "There's no planning for Christmas because we don't know how long the strike is going to last."Now in its second week with no negotiations planned, the strike by Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees has affected thousands of actors, musicians, ushers, ticket takers, and concession sellers who work in the more than two dozen shuttered theatres.Theatre unions are honouring the picket lines and their members who work on the struck shows are receiving strike benefits that are a fraction of their regular pay."We're trying to scrimp and save," said Steve Armour, who plays the trombone in "The Drowsy Chaperone." "We're looking for the cheapest flight home for the holidays and looking to stay less time than we would otherwise."Armour, who lives in Brooklyn with his wife, said his normal take-home pay of $700 to $800 a week is down to strike pay of $30 a show."I'm putting off purchases like new clothes and music software that I had been planning on buying," he said.And though the producers of "The Drowsy Chaperone" say the show will survive the strike, Armour is planning for the worst-case scenario - that it will close."We're treating this as though I had suddenly lost my job, which in effect I have," he said.Fellow musician Steve Kenyon, who plays woodwinds, said this would have been his busiest week ever.
Fun by the minute
Time flies when youre having fun. Its also cheaper if you calculate the cost per minute. Think about it. The cost for an orchestra seat to watch Famous Artists Broadway Theater Series production of Annie next month is $55. The show is two hours and 30 minutes long. If youre on a tight budget, the ticket might seem steep. But when you break it down, its only 37 cents per minute. Among the cheapest fun you can have in Syracuse is watching a movie at the Hollywood Theatre in Mattydale for $1.50. It costs about 1 cent per minute for a two-hour film. And when you calculate it by the minute, a five-night stay at Disney World is cheaper than a 100-minute couples massage at Mirbeau Inn and Spa in Skaneateles. Read below how your fun in Central New York breaks down by the minute.
People heading Off-Broadway during strike
The producers of some Off-Broadway shows are hoping people will check out their offerings now that a strike has closed down most Broadway productions. "I feel really horrible and sad about (the stagehand strike) affecting so many people," Daryl Roth, producer of Off-Broadway's, "Die Mommie Die!" told Playbill.com. "I think the good message that could come out of this, if there's anything good to be had, is that there's a huge theater landscape in New York City, and it includes Off-Broadway and the not-for-profits. When people are making choices, they might think about those." Douglas C. Evans said he and his producing partners have been passing out flyers to remind potential theatergoers about their show, "Frankenstein, A New Musical." Walk-up business filled the Saturday and Sunday shows to capacity after the strike began Saturday morning.
Plays, dance liven up fall
It's not only the fall concert season that's heating up -- the curtains are parting on the autumn theater and dance front, too.Following is a look at what's being staged between now and year's end at area theater and performing arts venues.National tours• Sept. 11: Staggering Toward America, 11 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.; one-man show by Rik Reppe based on his post-9/11 eight-week tour of America, Millikin University Albert Taylor Theatre.• Sept. 18: Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, 7 p.m.; Mexico's national dance company, with 60 pairs of feet; U of I Krannert Center.• Sept. 19 and 21: N*GGER W*TBACK CH*NK, 7:30 p.m.; real-life experiences of racism transformed into "a fast, physical, comic slam"; U of I Krannert Center.• Sept. 20: Gypsy, 7:30 p.m.; Stephen Sondheim's classic Gypsy Rose Lee bio-musical; U of I Assembly Hall.• Sept.
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