Striking Broadway
stagehands and theater producers agreed early Monday to
a 12-hour break in negotiations aimed at reopening darkened
theaters.
Bruce Cohen, a
spokesman for Local 1 of the International Alliance of
Theatrical Stage Employees, announced the adjournment about
6:30 a.m. He offered no details on the talks,
which began Sunday evening and lasted through the
night, except to say that progress had been made.
The two sides are
trying to resolve a thorny labor dispute that threatens
a third week of mounting box office losses. More than two
dozen plays and musicals have been closed since
November 10, when the stagehands walked off the job.
Earlier, Cohen
had said that the fact that both sides were together was
itself progress. ''You can't make a deal if you are not
negotiating. We're still negotiating,'' he said.
The walkout was
particularly felt during last week when most shows and
theater district restaurants do strong business during the
Thanksgiving holiday. Not so this year, when only nine
productions, including the newly reopened Dr.
Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, were
playing, and 26 others were shut.
A settlement was
believed to have been in the works November 18 after a
marathon weekend of negotiating, but the talks ended
abruptly with producers walking out.
The complicated
contract dispute has focused on how many stagehands are
required to open a Broadway show and keep it running. That
means moving scenery, lights, sound systems, and props
into the theater; installing the set and making sure
it works; and keeping everything functioning well for
the life of the production.
The producers
want a flexible number; the union wants a set number and
ample compensation for any concessions made.
The negotiations
have been protracted. They began last summer, with each
side preparing for the worst.
The producers set
up a $20 million strike emergency fund, taking a couple
of cents out of each ticket sold over the past several years
to pay for it. The money was to help struck shows
struggling with the costs of a shutdown.
The union too has
its own fund -- benefits of more than $4.1 million
for its members, as well as another $1 million allotted for
members of other unions affected by the walkout.
Grinch came back to life Friday after its
reopening was ordered by New York state supreme court
justice Helen Freedman.
The judge said
she believed the show's production company would be
irreparably harmed if the $6 million holiday musical wasn't
permitted to resume its limited run, which ends
January 6.
Seven other
shows, whose theaters have separate contracts with the
league, remain unaffected by the walkout: Pygmalion, The
Ritz, Cymbeline, Young Frankenstein, Mary Poppins,
Xanadu, and The 25th Annual Putnam County
Spelling Bee. An eighth, Mauritius, finished
its regularly scheduled limited engagement Sunday.
(AP)