Re: Interesting developments for Broadway musicians

Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2003 22:00:34 -0600
Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.songwriting
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Hi Bob,
I had posted a chronicle about this latest development, but I posted it
under my original thread, so I think it got lost. I'll include the text of
it here. Yes, it has been a very interesting week!
-Danny
Hi guys,
If you read my last chronicle, you might remember something about a
potential musician's strike. Well in a new twist of absurdity in the
continuing Urban Cowboy saga, Broadway Musicians went on strike yesterday
(something no one ever really thought would happen). The shows were going
to go on anyhow until late yesterday when the actors union and stagehands
union decided to honor the picket lines. This shut down Broadway. The only
precedent for this is when the musicians went on strike in 1975 for 25 days.
But the actors and stagehands kept working, so Broadway kept running. We're
in unchartered territory now.
Personally, I can't imagine it will last too long because the theaters lose
about $100K per night when it's dark. The sticking point is that the
musicians want to have a minimum number of 26 musicians in the large
theaters. The producers last offer was 15 musicians. Urban Cowboy actually
only has 4 musicians since it's trying to imitate the kind of small band you
might find at a club like Gilley's. They had gotten permission from the
musician's union to use just 4 musicians, so the "minimum" wasn't really an
issue for them. But the strike is.
The strike hurts Urban Cowboy in two respects. The first is directly since
they are in previews with a live audience. Even though the ticket prices
are less expensive during previews, the show is obviously losing money
because no one can see the previews at the moment. The second affect will
be more indirectly felt because a strike just isn't good for business...it's
bad PR for Broadway in general and will likely hurt the attendance figures
throughout all Broadway. The strike comes pretty close to the official
opening of Urban Cowboy on March 27th. We'll just have to wait and see how
it all plays out.
One of our friends asked if this was kind of like losing a hold or cut. I
told him it's more like having Faith record a couple of your songs only to
have Byron Gallimore die (you might remember the original director of Urban
Cowboy died last summer) and be replaced by Mark Wright who drops several
songs from the album in favor of other songs (I can actually make that
leap). Then after all kinds of production delays and problems, the album
gets finished. But the release date of the Faith's album conflicts with the
release date of the Dixie Chicks new album. Magically, everything is somehow
resolved and you have the next single. But all of the DJ's and radio
personnel go on strike on the day they ship your single to radio.
On a slightly more upbeat note, the cast of Urban Cowboy is scheduled to
perform on the "Today" show on March 14th (this Friday). I think they're
supposed to be on in the last half hour of the show. I don't know what
effect (if any) the strike will have on that appearance.
Stay tuned...
-Danny
-------------------------------------------------
Danny Arena/Sara Light
www.SongU.com
Songwriting Courses Online
"=Bob=" <email-address-deleted> wrote in message
news:Qo5aa.2227$email-address-deleted...
>
http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/07/broadway.musicians.ap/index.html
>
>
> =Bob=
> bob -at- threestrands -dot- com
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>