Theater Workers Do Part to Help ‘Keep Broadway Lit’

With Broadway theaters showing attendance off two-thirds and receipts down almost $7 million last week, the producers league and the three major theatrical unions announced an agreement Thursday under which theater workers will accept 25% pay cuts at five struggling shows.

The unions--representing actors, musicians and stagehands--agreed to the lower salaries for four weeks to help out such Broadway mainstays as “Les Miserables,” “Phantom of the Opera” and “Rent.”

Theaters also are waiving rent for those shows and for others that are past saving, such as “A Thousand Clowns,” to minimize the losses in their final days.

And in another move to “keep Broadway lit,” as one union put it, “By Jeeves” is back on.

Just two days after the anticipated run of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical was suspended when jittery backers pulled $800,000 in initial financing, it was announced that five friends of Webber have replaced that total, putting the show back on track to begin previews next month.

Box office figures showed theater attendance last week dropped to 65,155, down from 181,305 for the same week last year. Receipts from last week alone, when stages went dark the first two days after the World Trade Center attack, fell from $10,041,727 a year ago to $3,466,038, according to the League of American Theatres and Producers.

With air traffic and tourism way down since then, theater attendance has been far below normal at virtually all but Broadway’s blockbuster shows, “The Producers” and “The Lion King.”

The Disney hit “Aida” saw its gross drop to $211,000 last week, from $760,000 the week before. Tourist-dependent “Les Miserables” receipts plunged from $340,173 to a mere $94,515

Attendance has been so bleak at other shows that actress Valerie Harper was elated Wednesday when she saw 400 people in the 1,070-seat Barrymore Theatre for “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife.”

That “was a huge jump,” said the actress, who performed before an audience of 200 last week. She told her producer that she would waive her salary if necessary.

Cristyne L. Nicholas, who heads New York’s visitors and convention bureau, sent 50 employees to “The Full Monty,” hoping to boost attendance at the musical about hard-hats who become strippers. “I’m playing my bit part,” she said.

“The Full Monty,” which saw its take plunge to $109,492 from $487,015 the week before, and “Chicago” are the other two shows granted pay concessions by the unions.

Citing “perhaps the worst disaster in the nation’s history,” the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees led the way Wednesday by agreeing to the 25% cut for the five high-budget musicals, which depend on tourist trade.

The largest of the unions, Actors Equity, announced Thursday that it would do the same. “We are acting now to help these shows, and Broadway itself, survive,” said Alan Eisenberg, the union’s executive director. His remarks were echoed by Bill Moriarty of Local 802 of the Musicians Union.

The unions, theater owners and producers said they will consider later whether long-term concessions are needed.

“It’s not going to be enough,” said Barry Weissler, the producer of “Chicago,” who was among the team that asked the unions to take 30% cuts. “We’re going to have to come back for more help. But I’ll take what I can get right now.”

Patrick Quinn, president of the actors union, said the five productions given concessions were “the five shows that came to us.” Other such requests will be considered “on their merits,” the union said.

The cuts did not apply to ushers “because their pay is low enough,” said a union representative.

In addition to the cost-cutting, the League of American Theatres and Producers is preparing promotional campaigns that tout theater-going almost as a patriotic act, featuring “cause-oriented marketing” promising a percentage of the ticket price will go to World Trade Center charities.

One new musical opened Thursday night, a week later than scheduled.

“This event was so unimaginable. The last thing any of us wanted to do was put on a show,” said Michael Rego, one of the producers of “Urinetown.”

“Mayor [Rudolph W.] Giuliani said it so poignantly, when he asked Broadway to come back on: ‘Broadway must be a beacon of light for New York.’ At other times it might sound hokey, but my feeling was that’s our duty.”

Though all parties spoke of a spirit of cooperation, some union officials remained wary that the producers could use the crisis to gain longer-term concessions.

Thomas Short, president of the stagehands union, rejected suggestions that the closing of shows this weekend was because of the World Trade Center disaster. September traditionally is a slow month, following the summer tourist season, he said, and “the reality is, they closed because of slow ticket sales long before the attack.”

Producers of “Kiss Me, Kate” posted cancellation notices Wednesday, following “A Thousand Clowns,” “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “If You Ever Leave Me I’m Going With You,” “Blast” and “Stones in His Pockets.”

Weissler, the producer of “Chicago,” whose gross dropped from nearly $500,000 to $175,000 last week, said the producers were not exaggerating the need for help.

“There is only a world crisis that can collapse the entire industry,” he said. “It’s not a threat. It’s a reality. The time is here when people are staying home. There are no out-of-towners. There are no airplanes. You just have people dazed . . . many of the shows are losing a quarter of a million a week.”

Correspondent Patrick Pacheco contributed to this report.