Ready to strike up the canned

Broadway producers are ready to use Memorex on Monday if pit musicians go on strike when their contract ends Sunday night. The crucial bargaining issue is the producers’ determination to end staffing minimums of as many as 26 players per show, a guarantee the union adamantly wants to keep.

Each theater with a musical has a computer primed to spit out a canned soundtrack so the show can go on should the orchestra be picketing instead of playing. Actors in about 20 musicals rehearsed to the recordings to become acclimated.

The expiring five-year contract sets minimum staffing levels ranging from three players to 26 depending on a theater’s seating capacity. The League of American Theatres and Producers, which negotiates for management, says those minimums saddle shows with unwarranted costs -- $88,000 in annual salary and benefits for each musician.

The union, Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, counters that the minimum staffing requirement at New York’s 32 Broadway houses ensures high quality. Without it, says the local’s president, Bill Moriarity, producers would whittle pit bands until the music started sounding threadbare.

“I don’t think any producer would be able to resist the temptation,” Moriarity said. He predicted that Broadway producers would follow the lead of touring musicals, which have no contractual staffing minimums. Those producers have been known to use small live bands augmented by synthesizers, saving salaries but, to many ears, sacrificing sonic richness and authenticity.

Since 1993, Moriarity said, producers whose shows would not be well served by a large orchestra have been contractually permitted to petition to use a smaller band; there have been 19 such instances in 10 years, he said, and in most cases the union has OK’d reductions.

About 325 union musicians currently are working on Broadway, Moriarity said; about 1,200 players regularly perform in Broadway orchestra pits, earning the base scale of $1,350 a week, plus benefits.

Jed Bernstein, president of the Broadway producers’ league, said producers want flexibility in staffing but would take care not to compromise quality. He pointed to the findings of a survey the union commissioned two months ago in which 90% of 600 Broadway theatergoers polled by Audience Research & Analysis said they wouldn’t pay current prices for a show with canned music. “We agree,” Bernstein said. “That piece of evidence alone would discourage a producer from replacing live music on Broadway.”

Bernstein said orchestra sizes in touring musicals are “not germane to this negotiation.” Instead, he pointed to London’s highly regarded West End, saying that live music flourishes there without minimum staffing requirements.

Moriarity said the union would see how negotiations play out as the deadline nears before deciding on a possible strike. “Our position is not locked into ‘no contract, no work.’ ” Both sides said they might be willing to extend talks after the contract expires, with shows continuing under the current staffing provisions. The last musicians’ walkout on Broadway was in 1975, a three-week strike that was also over minimum staffing requirements, according to Moriarity’s assistant, Bill Dennison. Dennison said that there were no negotiations planned on Friday, with talks set to resume this morning. Musicians are scheduled to vote today on whether to authorize the negotiating committee to “call a strike when and if they think it’s necessary.”

A lockout by management is not in the cards, Bernstein said. “The only way there will not be live music next week on Broadway is if musicians choose to strike. We have no intention of introducing virtual orchestras or any kind of ersatz music unless the musicians refuse to play and we are left with no choice.”