The show must go on - but will it? ... Brian Cox and Sinead Cusack in Tom Stoppard's Rock 'N' Roll. Photograph: Tristram Kenton
So, the final curtain has yet to come down on the stagehands' strike that has brought most of Broadway to its knees over the past nine days. In fact it shows no signs of abating at all, as it was announced last night (November 18) that 26 of the 27 Broadway shows affected by the strike have been cancelled through to next Sunday (November 25). The lone exception is the special holiday engagement of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which does a 12-shows-a-week schedule and is therefore attempting to broker its own way forward - lest its limited engagement be scrapped altogether.
The continued cessation of activity during what looked, on paper, like the liveliest Broadway autumn in years is of particular relevance, in that the days ahead include the annual Thanksgiving weekend, which tends to be one of the most lucrative times in Broadway's calendar. Last year, Thanksgiving week saw Broadway box office grosses in excess of $23m for 33 shows; in contrast, the number of Broadway shows that will be available this year is eight (if 'Grinch' relights, make that nine).
Already, two plays due to open last week have had to delay their premieres - one of which, Conor McPherson's The Seafarer, will be familiar to National Theatre audiences. And one has to feel for the producers of the Tom Stoppard play Rock 'N' Roll, who opened that play on November 4 to generally excellent notices, only to have their theatre go dark six days later.
This can be especially onerous for a production booked for a limited run and that includes a fair number of visiting Britons (Rufus Sewell and Sinead Cusack among them). Down the street from Rock 'n' Roll, the visiting Chicago cast of the widely heralded Steppenwolf Theatre Company production of Tracy Letts's August: Osage County (scheduled for a November 20 opening) has had to weigh up whether to hang around in Manhattan or return to the Windy City and to homes that, in many cases, they had already sublet.
Meanwhile, the strike continues to pit a union that has been derided for unfair work practices (resulting in charges of featherbedding) against a producers' front ridiculed in some circles as nothing more than fat cats getting rich off the back of the humble stagehand.
The truth, however, is rather more complex, and taps into issues fundamental enough to halt activity along a street that, far more than can be said of London's West End, remains synonymous for many with New York. Throw in the grievous PR accompanying a scenario that will find tourists having booked their forthcoming holiday weekend months in advance for shows that are now not playing, and you have a genuine entertainment industry disaster that may take some time to put right.
While the hope remains for renewed talks that will lead to a way forward next week, some are already wondering about the more permanent fallout. What happens, when Broadway resumes its schedule, if a badly burned public decides not to return?
