BULLETINS from the front lines of the producers vs. musicians labor dispute:
* Negotiations began Tuesday, with both sides doing the requisite amount of posturing. On the burning question of “minimums” (that is, the number of musicians, mandated by the union, that each Broadway theater is required to have in its orchestra pit), the producers said there was nothing to discuss. Minimums equal featherbedding and must go. Period.
No way, said Local 802, which reps the musicians. Minimums protect jobs and ensure orchestras will not be replaced with pre-recorded music.
The divide on the issue is “gaping,” said a person involved in the talks.
Yesterday’s talks were less contentious, dealing with minor issues and “dancing around the gorilla” – that would be minimums – “in the room,” said one source.
* Producers have taken what one source calls a “blood oath” that they will hang together in the event of a strike. They expect the union to take a divide-and-conquer approach, striking only those shows with weak box offices (zai jian, “Flower Drum Song”!) or that don’t yet have their “virtual orchestras” in place (there are a few).
Should that happen, every show will bar musicians from the theater and use pre-recorded music.
“If they try to pick off one of us, we’ll lock them all out,” promises one theater executive.
Union officials counter that they’d never target weak shows, saying they don’t want to look like bullies in the press.
* Local 802 officials have met with Actors’ Equity and Local One, the stagehands’ union, in an attempt to shore up their support, should there be a strike.
If Local 802 can convince the other unions to honor its picket lines, Broadway will have to shut down. There are no such things as “virtual actors” or “virtual stagehands.”
Neither Equity nor Local One has committed itself to either side yet, but Actors’ Equity chief Alan Eisenberg has annoyed the producers by refusing to meet with them.
The key person on the stagehand side is Thomas Short, president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and one of the most powerful behind-the-scenes players in the entertainment industry.
His word is law, and if he gives the order not to cross the picket line, the producers will be sunk.
* Producers fear a grass-roots campaign by musicians to enlist the support of their actor and stagehand pals.
“The musicians talk to the actors and the crew guys every night at the theater,” says one producer.
Management recently included form letters in the actors’ and stagehands’ paychecks explaining its positions.
That’s hardly the personal touch (“and we don’t even know if the actors can read,” cracks one snide impresario), so producers will likely call cast and crew meetings to lay out their case in person.
BEN Brantley, chief drama critic of The New York Times, has informed Michael Sommers, chief drama critic of the Star-Ledger and president of the Drama Critics Circle, that he and his Times colleague Bruce Weber will have to resign from the Circle per the Times’ new (and pompously titled) “Ethical Journalism Code of Conduct.”
The 53-page tome, apparently written by that great ethicist, Count Leo Tolstoy, prohibits Times critics from serving on awards panels because “cooperation of this sort puts the paper’s independence in question.”
The Times yanked its critics off the Circle once before, though it continued to allow them to serve on the nominating committee for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
I called Steven Erlanger, the Times’ former Berlin bureau chief who was recently named culture editor (or Frank Rich’s puppet, as the case may well turn out to be), to see if Pulitzer service is still allowed.
Herr Erlanger didn’t return my call, but some seasoned Timesmen think an exception will be made.
In the Times galaxy, the Pulitzer is the “Jupiter” of awards, and it is unthinkable that the paper would not want to exercise its influence over such an august garland.
Besides, the Times has to continue to participate in the nominations for journalism awards, if only to ensure the paper receives its annual Pulitzer haul.
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BROADWAY SHOWDOWN COUNTDOWN (Musicians vs Producers]