A PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES!!!

I am so upset over this strike. Both sides have acted so irresponsibly. What neither side seems to understand are the adverse long-term effects of this strike. Many people will be turned-off by this strike and will not come back to Broadway. Broadway is not sustained by hard-core fans like us- it's sustained by people who see 1-4 shows a year- and a significant chunk of those people will stay home or not go to Broadway shows anymore.

The last baseball strike had hurt attendance levels for 5 years and had Sosa/McGuire not started hitting homeruns, the strike's ill effects would have continued longer.

I don't care anymore about who's right and who's wrong. After this strike is over, there will be less Broadway shows open and less earnings for producers, stagehands and everybody else who works on Broadway. Unfortunately it's the actors who end up getting screwed the most.Don't be surprised to see many Broadway actors decamp for LA to do film and TV.

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Color me stupid, but I don't understand why people would be scared off by a strike once the strike is over.

It's not so much the after the strike is over, its the people (and groups) that are making future plans.
We have already cancelled our December trip to NYC and have decided to go to Arizona for our 10 day Easter vacation instead of NYC (where we spent 10K last year).
Also the spring 'show plane' from here has already sent out an email asking us to vote on where we would rather go this year (it's always been NYC.... but they don't want to take a chance, especially since they don't know what shows may not reopen).

Jesus, stop whining already, it only makes you look just as bad as the stagehands and the producers.

It is what it is. Sure it's bad, and sure it could turn some people away from Broadway, but there's NOTHING we can do.

Just be glad there are some shows still running.

"Color me stupid, but I don't understand why people would be scared off by a strike once the strike is over."

I'm an Equity member who works occasionally on Broadway and I'M scared about what happens once the strike is over. If someone told me they'd be planning a trip to NY in summer '08, I'd say "you might not want to book those plane tickets just yet."

Once the strike is settled, the biggest question to me is what happens in June when Equity's contract ends. Is the League going to put us through all of this again? This has to be settled fairly or else we could be seeing it almost every year if the League gets it in their heads that they can impose whatever they want on the unions.

So I think the long-term effect is that even when a settlement is reached THIS TIME, I think the underlying issues and bad blood will remain into future negotiations.