ONE STRIKE AND THEY'RE OUT: Victims of the Equity Strike... — Page 2

>> There's lost possibility of profit with a strike, but it's not like they have to pay the cost of running a show that night either, so the losses wouldn't be that much

The start up costs on your average Broadway music is now hitting eight million. That's start up costs, not running costs like salaries and theatre overhead and ongoing publicity. Unles you have a guaranteed hit, it takes between two and three years for a show to even come close to a profit.

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VC -- that answer was in regards to "what would happen to the other shows" (that weren't going to close due to the strike, but WOULD re-open)

There is no news VC, it's all speculation and possibilities.

>> We're not talking about starting up a new show, though: we're talking about reopening all of Broadway

Neither Fiddler nor Wicked nor any other large scale production that opened in the past year has even come close to recouping its start up. For a show doing marginal business, like Fiddler, even a short break in the income stream is deadly. You can't just pretend those costs have gone away because of a strike; you still have to make payments when they're due. Places like Feller aren't gonna just smile and say, "Hey, pay me when you can". Just doesn't work that way.

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In case you haven't noticed, people (especially on boards such as this) tend to ignore "Word is" and jump straight to the meat of the message. Then we have a mountain made out of a molehill.
Perhaps we should post our speculation with discretion, as usually all it does is a furhter disservice to the situation at hand.

Word on the street is that if the strike lasts more than a year that Mamma Mia and Lion King will close.

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>> There's lost possibility of profit with a strike, but it's not like they have to pay the cost of running a show that night either, so the losses wouldn't be that much

They may have to pay the salaries of the non-Equity workers if they want to keep them available for when the strike ends, and they have to pay the theater too or risk losing it. And, as has already been pointed out, all the other fees and payments that go into keeping a show running. I think a lot of the rabid pro-Equity people here really don't know what goes into putting on a show beyond singing and dancing and learning lines. Wicked brings in barely $300,000 a week more than it's break-even. That might sound like a lot to some of you, but the break-even is $700,000. It's playing to 100% capacity every week, so it can never make more than it's making now. Putting on a show is hugely expensive. A strike of even a few days for a show that isn't pulling in at least three times its break-even can be deadly. The amount of money that you all seem to think is going into producers' pockets - isn't.

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Updated On: 7/11/04 at 02:21 PM

Thank you, Rathnait.

God I hope this doesn't happen. I'm kicking myself right now for not going to see a few shows earlier. If I miss Boy From Oz and the totally HOT Hugh Jackman I don't know if I'll ever forgive myself!

>> And, no, if there is a strike, no one working in that theatre gets paid

Only if either (a) the other unions go on sympathy strikes or (b) the production company lays everyone off.

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jrb -- Disney paid their ushers after the musicians' strike. I'm still waiting for the ushers' local to get its act together & get the money they promised us from that strike. Note: I'm not holding my breath.

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If there is an equity strike - no one gets paid because we're all locked out. For the musicians strike equity and local one supported the musicians so local one recieved strike pay from the union.

None of this changes the fact that Reidel doesn't exactly tell the truth about these things.

Riedel...*snorfle*...truth...

*dies laughing*