Broadway Journal

ACTORS PAN THEIR UNION’S COVID PROTOCOLS

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Actors’ Equity Association recently announced far-reaching health protocols that producers complained would prohibitively increase the cost of presenting theater and delay the industry’s restart after a year of being sidelined by Covid-19.  This week, some 2,000 actors and stage managers signed a petition calling the procedures impractical and criticized their union’s leadership for inadequately communicating with members.

“Equity’s protocols from just over a week ago seem to be based on science from six months ago,” the actors wrote to Equity President Kate Shindle and Executive Director Mary McColl. “We are hopeful that the issue of realistic and detailed protocols to return to work can be prioritized so that funds can return to our union.”Continue Reading

‘REBECCA’ PRODUCER SENTENCED TO FIVE YEARS OF PROBATION IN CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CASE

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Ben Sprecher, who has produced shows and managed theaters in New York since the early 1980s and is best-known for a Broadway musical that collapsed before it could open, was sentenced Thursday afternoon to five years of probation for possessing child pornography. He’ll be required to publicly register as a sex offender in any state in which he resides.

Judge J. Paul Oetken accepted the recommendation of the producer’s court-appointed lawyer, Martin S. Cohen of the Federal Defenders of New York. Citing the seriousness of the crime, the Justice Department had sought a prison term of 78 to 97 months. The U.S. Probation Department recommended a year and a day of incarceration.Continue Reading

MASKED AUDIENCES, CAR & DRIVERS FOR CAST: ACTORS’ EQUITY WANTS PRICEY PROTECTIONS BEFORE MEMBERS RETURN

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EXCLUSIVE: For theater actors, a car and driver is generally a perquisite reserved for bankable stars.

In this pandemic, the labor union Actors’ Equity Association considers private transport a basic necessity.

“Mass-transit will not be used and if needed, dedicated transportation arrangements will be arranged by the employer,” Equity announced last week in a post on its website that details safety protocols for indoor productions with an audience. Equity, which represents actors and stage managers, lists just one “dedicated transportation arrangement” (presumably in addition to walking, biking and operating one’s own vehicle): a private car service with a driver who’s masked and gloved.Continue Reading

‘BOOK OF MORMON’S BLACK ACTORS PUSH TO CHANGE PORTRAYAL OF AFRICANS (EXCLUSIVE)

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If and when The Book of Mormon  resumes performances on Broadway, the take-no-prisoners musical will reconsider its mission.

In a video call last summer organized by lead producer Anne Garefino, co-writers Trey Parker and Matt Stone assured Black cast members that they were eager to take a fresh look at the 10-year-old blockbuster and were open to making changes, a person familiar with the conversation said. The call came in response to a letter from the actors — both original and current cast members — outlining their concerns regarding the musical, which is about inept Mormon missionaries in a Ugandan village ravaged by AIDS and civil war.  Among other issues, the letter addresses the challenges of differentiating between racial stereotyping and satirical storytelling, especially in moments of the show when African characters are treated as “props and punchlines.”Continue Reading

INSURANCE KEEPS ‘COMPANY,’ ‘COME FROM AWAY’ ALIVE AS JUJAMCYN FIGHTS CHUBB SNUB

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EXCLUSIVE: No one put more money into the highly anticipated Broadway revival of Company  than the insurance giant Chubb.

The Ladies Who Lunch LLC, which transferred the Stephen Sondheim and George Furth musical from the West End only to suspend it during previews because of Covid-19, received $8.85 million from Chubb, according to an email that lead producer Chris Harper sent to investors. Continue Reading

PRODUCERS WANT UNION CONCESSIONS BEFORE REOPENING

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Charlotte St. Martin

Broadway seeks givebacks from the industry’s unions before performances resume, the head of the trade group that represents commercial producers and theater owners told an online industry conference Monday.

“There have been general conversations [with unions] about what the contracts might look like, what might be changed,” Broadway League President Charlotte St. Martin said during the final day of The TheaterMakers Summit. “We’ll have to get to the changes, if any, toward wages and work rules and all of that to get open, because the producers will have to figure out if they can reopen. If you reopen at 50 percent of your previous attendance, nobody even comes close to recouping at 50 percent of the theater being open. So we’ll have to talk about things.”Continue Reading

DISNEY’S SCHUMACHER SEES SLOW RETURN OF AUDIENCES & TICKET PRICES

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Thomas Schumacher

Speaking at an industry video conference Saturday, Broadway League Chairman Thomas Schumacher said that restarting Broadway after the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic will be gradual and dependent on tourism rebounding.

“Without those tourists, it’s going to be a challenge for us to hit both the capacity targets and the average ticket price that people want to hit,” Schumacher, president of Disney Theatrical and head of the Broadway trade association, said at producer Ken Davenport’s TheaterMakers Summit. “To imagine that the faucet just turns on isn’t a healthy way to approach it. It’s going to take some building.”Continue Reading

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