Plays Rule on B'way - the Second Seven

Posted by Bruce Miller
It’s been more than 48 hours since I discovered that Broadway is enjoying an historic fall, having mounted more straight plays (The Ritz notwithstanding) in 2007 than during any other Fall Season in the last 27 years. And, yes, I know that everyone else probably noticed this months ago, but I didn’t notice it until now, and I’m excited.

It’s not that I don’t love musicals—I do. It’s just that I love plays even more. I’m so used to Broadway trending away from plays that this reversal gives me cause for rejoicing.

One of the questions I receive most often—it comes with the job title—is, “I’m going to New York next Tuesday and can go to only one show. What should I see?” Hopefully these last three posts will help to give at least a little guidance in that department.

Rock ’n’ Roll by Sir Tom Stoppard began previews on Oct 19 and opened on Nov 4 to nearly unanimous, heart-stopping raves. It’s a transfer of the London production that won just about every major award that London has on offer, and it jumped across the pond complete with its three amazing stars: Rufus Sewell, Sinead Cusack and Brian Cox. It’s directed by the deservedly acclaimed Trevor Nunn. It uses rock ’n’ roll as a roadmap to chart its way through the political and personal turmoil of the last several decades, finding connections between love, revolution and music that illuminate our current century. I’m passionate about seeing it and seeing it soon.

August: Osage County by Tracy Letts began previews on Oct 30 and opened on Dec 4, and it also received nearly unanimous, heart-stopping raves. As American as Rock ’n’ Roll is British, August is a transfer of the award-winning premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre, based in Chicago. In the NY Times, Christopher Isherwood says, “Tracy Lett’s fiercely funny, turbo-charged tragicomedy is, flat-out, no asterisks and without qualifications, the most exciting new American play Broadway has seen in years.” When Tracy Letts wrote Killer Joe, Gary Hopper started talking to me about him. When he wrote Bug, Irene Ziegler started singing his praises. Now all of the American theatre community is paying attention. This is another play I’m desperate to see.

The Seafarer, written and directed by Irish playwright Conor McPherson, began previews on Oct 30 and opened on Dec 6, and again received great reviews—although not quite as great as its two predecessors. The Seafarer is a supernatural tale set on Christmas Eve in an Irish bar, where five Irishmen, one of whom may not be who or what he appears, descend into drunkenness and share spine-tingling yarns. I know I’m sounding like a broken record, but this play is surely as Irish as August is American and Rock is British. At the end, it’s also, from most accounts, unexpectedly uplifting.

Shakespeare’s Cymbeline is being revived on Broadway for the first time since 1923 in an all-star production that is lighting up the Vivian Beaumont at Lincoln Center. The play began previews on Nov 1 and opened on Dec 2, starring Michael Cerveris, John Cullum, Phylicia Rashad, John Pankow and Martha Plimpton, under the direction of Mark Lamos. Again, the critics have been mostly enthusiastic, especially toward Michael Cerveris’s performance and Mark Lamos’s direction. Cymbeline was the first show to open after the strike, and it appears that it will have the successful limited engagement that had been planned.

Is He Dead? is that rarest of rarities—a new, previously unproduced farce by Mark Twain. Not known as a dramatist, old Sam Clemens nonetheless penned a couple of hoary chestnuts, and after this one was discovered in the University of California, Berkeley archives, it was “polished”—there’s that running theme again—by David Ives, and from all accounts turned into an effective comic vehicle for the Scott Wichmann of Broadway known as Norbert Leo Butts. The play’s a hit! A HUGE hit!! And, again, that rarest of rarities on 21st Century Broadway—a laugh-a-minute comedy hit!!! Exactly what Broadway used to have in abundance, seldom has anymore, and desperately needs. Our friend Lizzy Holland saw it a few days ago, and claims to have laughed herself silly.

The Homecoming by Nobel laureate Harold Pinter began previews on Dec 4 and opened on Dec 16 to, again, some truly amazing reviews. The NY Times starts out with, “First of all, it really is that good!” And Linda Winer of Newsday named it her Best Production of 2007. The Homecoming is, of course, a masterwork of 20th Century English language theatre, and apparently, after 40 years, it still sizzles with the right cast and director, both of which this current revival appears to have.

November, the new David Mamet play starring Nathan Lane, began previews on Dec 20 with a planned opening on Jan 17. There’s lots of promise. I’ll let you know more after the play opens.

Until then, have a Happy New Year. I hope to see you at the theatre!

--Bruce Miller

Broadway Shut Down by Labor Dispute

Posted by Bruce Miller

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Well, it’s happened. Broadway is on strike.

This past Saturday, IATSE (the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) stunned just about everyone by directing their NYC chapter (Local One) to call a strike for 11 a.m., shutting down most of Broadway. IATSE is the same union whose members handle stagehand responsibilities for the largest venues right here in River City, including the Landmark Theatre and the Carpenter Center. None of Richmond’s independent theatres, including Barksdale and Theatre IV, work under IATSE contracts.

This strike affects Broadway only, and not even all of Broadway. Disney theatres have their own contract with IATSE, as do all of Broadway’s nonprofit venues (Circle in the Square, Manhattan Theatre Club, Roundabout). Consequently a few Broadway shows are still up and running: Young Frankenstein (which just opened at the Hilton), Mary Poppins, Xanadu, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Mauritius, Pygmalion, The Ritz and Cymbeline. And Off Broadway is also still going strong.

The strike shut down approximately two dozen Broadway theatres that are owned and operated by the members of The League of American Theatres and Producers. The strike began with Saturday’s matinee and will continue until … no one knows when. It was called for 11 a.m. to shut down an early family matinee of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Apparently no one saw the irony.

Local One has never called a strike before. And in late October, they promised to give advance warning before calling a strike now. On Saturday morning they broke that promise. This meant that thousands of tourists who had made their plans weeks in advance showed up in New York on Saturday, checked into their hotels, and then learned at the last moment that the shows they had come to see would not be taking place.

Refunds will be given for previously purchased show tickets, but the considerable transportation and accommodation expenses will have to be eaten by the audience members. And the ability to get last minute tickets to those few Broadway shows that are still running, or to Off Broadway shows, is extremely limited. On Saturday, internet tickets for Young Frankenstein were selling for $1,500—each!

Depending on which side you listen to, the strike is a self-serving folly or a defensible stand for fairness.

The heart of the labor dispute is not the amount of the wages paid to the individual worker, but the number of workers that the union requires the producers to hire. The last contract between The League of American Theatres and Producers (they’re the ones who own the majority of Broadway’s theatres and the strike is targeted at them) and Local One (representing the stagehands) expired in the summer. Since then, the League and Local One have not been able to agree on the number of workers required for load-ins, load-outs, and daily operations of a running show.

The expired contract required the League to hire, in many cases, more union workers than were actually needed to get the job done. The producers call this “featherbedding,” and they refuse to allow any future contract to include provisions that require the hiring of unneeded workers.

Before you agree 100% with this reasonable position, consider the stagehands’ point of view. When Broadway is running at capacity, the producers require approximately 2,500 stagehands to get the jobs done. The union has limited its membership to approximately 3,000 highly skilled workers. It’s a TOUGH union to join, and those who are members have years of experience at what they do.
The problem is that, due to the vagaries of show business, at any average point in time, only 500 or so of the union’s members are employed full time. And that was under the old contract. Shows open and shows close—and those decisions are all made by the producers in their own best financial interests. The “featherbedding” that was written into the previous contract (or, as the union would prefer me to say, the “job security provisions” that were written into the previous contract) simply take one small step toward ensuring that hardworking stagehands have the opportunity to earn a living wage even after the producers have decided to close a show.

I can understand and respect both points of view. Broadway requires the infrastructure provided by the 3,000 stagehands and their union. And it's foolhardy to require something and then refuse to pay for it, one way or another.

Hopefully, this labor dispute will be resolved soon. The ones suffering the most are all the theatre artists who won’t be paid while the strike continues, and all the audience members who will be disappointed by the cancellation of their holiday plans.

Perhaps now is the time for both sides to enter into the arbitration that NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg has offered, but, thus far, the warring parties have refused. And while that arbitration is going on, why not let the Broadway shows keep running? Let the Grinch who steals Christmas be a fantasy with a happy ending, not an ongoing reality with no end in sight.

--Bruce Miller