...Meanwhile, on Broadway
Martin, Nicholas
...Meanwhile, on Broadway by Nicholas Martin The Writers Guild of America may not be the only entertainment union more concerned with makingmoney than with the well-being of 'its industry. The...
...Evita, Amedals, and Barnum all were asking 530...
...A Chorus Line and Dancing rose in the End Zone set a high of 527.50 in 1980, but Annie, Barman, Evita, and lint Misbehaving' ware rill going for $25 or less...
...But their idea of worker-cooperation still leaves a lot to he desired...
...According to one IATSE rule, if a particular department, electricians say, is required in the theater for a specific "work call," then the coos chiefs of all departments also must be called...
...the show didn't have a curtain -it's an experiment.'' Bob McDonald, business agent of Manhattan's Local 1, boasted to Business Week at the time...
...a lot of people just can't go to the theater who want to go to the theater...
...Explaining the ticket increases of the first four years of the eighties...
...seems to think that people would be willing to pay $60, $70, $100 lot a big hit "They have it," he promises, though lie adds, "that may change...
...And with overtime first-class air travel, and other bonuses-which van from local to local and theater to theater-it can be much more...
...Iii s office receipts this year were Broadway's highest ever, but much of That can be accounted for by a handful of big musicals, and attendance levels are still not back to their 1984 level_ That mean...
...The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employess (IATSE...
...As Papp notes ominously...
...So lab ii is a culpable proportion it these production' inflated budgets...
...Maybe it will work and bring in other producers with shows...
...It didn't matter if the next show needed some or all of the lights in the same placesthey still had to comedown so that union crews could put them hack up...
...producer Morton Gottlieb notes that "when I had Sleuth and Soot( lime, Next Year on Broadway...
...In the end, the program was canceled...
...One designer remembers cutting a deal with his crew when they wanted to postpone lighting work (a "locus" session) to pick up a more lucrative job first...
...I hope so" .A flared system of real risk and real reward, where salaries are tied route closely to the success of a play...
...The 1"-(t 72 seasons saw up-per limits of $l2 for such musicals as 1776 and Jesus, Christ Superstar...
...Most stage managers say the_ do not encounter rigid adherence to the "out of department" rules in the middle of a performance-say, an electrician refusing to adjust a sandbag that seems precariously close to falling on Angela Lansbury...
...Why shouldn't the stagehands 7e cooperative once you've already hired everyone they told you to...
...Somebody raises and somebody else raises...
...everybody said 'raise the prices, raise the prices...
...In 1970, Local , of the American Federation of Musicians managed to lose 52 union jobs by insisting on one of its residency rules...
...An exception was made for the Indianapolis Symphony so that they could hire union members who had not yet been "transferred" to the local When a new summer program was initiated to play concerts in the city's parks, 32 members of the local were offered jobs...
...You're a Good Charlie Brown was a bargain at $8...
...and -A Chorus Line were ill) to $40, In 1983 L Agnes of God, A Chorus Line, and Amides all joined the $45 club...
...But the program's organizers needed another 20 musicians and the union v. as antmant about excluding the "union transfer candidates" who were allowed to play with the symphony...
...or "the alliance"), which represents all of the stagehands in the country's major commercial theaters, has a history of stringent rules and high salaries that stands in stark contrast to the happygo-lucky image of those who work on the Great White Way...
...Inflation accounted for Less than $5 out of the S?O Increases of those three Vicars...
...This would all be very well if the money were there...
...According to the rule, musicians-including .. FM members of other locals who moved to the city-could not be admitted to the local until they had completed three years of residency in the city...
...IATSE won't return calls...
...According to the bylaws from East's 1984 constitution, union members, as well as producers and theater owners foolhardy enough to infringe on other members' jurisdictions, can come in for heavy punishments...
...But it's hard to see hock the public will continue to indulge soaring ticket costs...
...Some rules are just silly...
...Under another agreement (now expired) crews were required to take down every stage light at the end of a show's run...
...by, 1982 Cats had risen to $45...
...So what...
...there are only large-budget show on Broadway...
...After those year,, increases again ,lowed...
...they played to L capacity standing room for the first %car...
...Then the floodgates opened...
...presumably some of the accent restraint a pr duet of mere modest union increase in the pant three years-0 ). 51/2, and 51/2 percent saIary increases per year...
...IATSE is not the only theater union with a history of odd rules, of course...
...Pippin and Can title were ;raking w15 by 1975...
...lATSE officials seem to understand that the salad day-a may be over...
...Another producer put the figure closet to $1,000 per week...
...The union's work rules are notorious...
...He was kind enough to agree if they would charge hint less...
...During the run of the show, the ten IATSE crew members will account for a minimum of `'6,000 per week--o ii $312,000 per year...
...Second offenses are punishable by fines of at least $200 and suspension trom the union for no less than one year...
...goodbye to all but the smallestp1o s- "Chances are slim that you'll ever make it [on a play with a cast of 15 (,r more]," says Papp-and goodbye to the kind of risk-taking that makes great theater...
...Joseph Papp, producer of such Broad way, goldmines as A Chorus Line...
...hose who work on a typical Broadway show-carpenters...
...What are salaries like when IATSE members do show up...
...In 1981...
...The top ticket price today is X50_ Other costs particularly advertising--are rising too and the pressure appears to be on to charge whatever people will pay...
...And that $4 million only gets the shoe to opening night...
...Has there been ,in attempt on the part of management and labor to keep price increase' down over the last few years u-s' "I dour think there ever is;' he contends...
...The top-priced show on June 3, 1951, was Guys, and Dolls, which cost $6.60 for a weekend evening orchestra ticket...
...By 1961, Caw clot was asking $9.411 for its top ticket price...
...Taking down an old show ("striking it," in stage terminology), "putting in" a new one, or fixing and maintaining running shorn costs extra...
...The 1970s saw only modest increases alter inflation...
...might help pull the commercial theater through, allowing producers to stem their price hike, and _is in,_ them no excuse to complain about high cost, Ill the meantime, a, Papp himself admitted...
...Ralph Roseman, general manager of the $4 million musical' Me and My Girl, estimates that as much as one quarter (,[that went to union technicians...
...The president of the Shubert Organization, Bernard Jacobs, says that for the 1987-88 season, his crew chiefs made $781 per week during the run of a show, or about $40,000 per year in base pay...
...To make the deal binding, the crew n embers had to run around the theater and touch each light...
...Working on a "short-crew" show tone employing fever stagehands than the union feels is necessary) carries a line of "not less than" $100 for union members, while "working out of department" Nicholas Martin is the production manager of`The Washington Monthly.., carpenters handling stage lights, for example-costs an extra $100...
...According to union rules, they had to give the owner a discount once any work had been done on a light-a touch was enough...
...But given, the penalties, producers do follow union rules during the months and months of preparations that :,o into a show...
...By the end ,'1 a two-year run, that will bane put 35 percent of the cost of the show into - the pocket, of alliance member...
...electricians, props men, and wardrobe workers-are not allowed to share even the simplest duties...
...Rosenman's production of Dancing in the hid Zone, for example, IATSE allowed bun to drop the other wise-required curtian-puller Of course...
Vol. 20 • November 1988 • No. 10
