Lights off on Broadway
2007-11-14 13:46
New York - No talks. No comment. And no opening nights.
Wednesday was to have been the New York premiere of The Farnsworth Invention, the eagerly anticipated return to Broadway of playwright Aaron Sorkin, the creator of such television shows as The West Wing and Sports Night.
Instead, the Music Box Theatre, one of Broadway's most elegant playhouses, sits dark along with 26 other theaters as Local 1, the stagehands union, and the League of American Theatres and Producers remain deadlocked in the fifth day of an acrimonious contract dispute.
Neither side is talking to the other. Silent pickets stand in front of locked theater lobbies. Other unions, including Actors' Equity and the musicians' local, have lined up in support of the stagehands. Even Broadway press agents, instructed by their own union to honor Local 1's picket line, are silent.
The Farnsworth Invention, Sorkin's look at the birth of television starring Hank Azaria, was not the only opening scheduled this week. The Seafarer by Irish playwright Conor McPherson had been set for Thursday. It, too, is shut, and its opening uncertain.
McPherson, author of The Weir and Shining City, says the challenge now is to psychologically stay ready even though the actors are not allowed to rehearse at the theater. "We'll be doing our best to sort of get together and talk about it and keep our chin up," he said.
Previews, which began in late October, stopped after last Friday's performance.
"I'm confident that if we get a chance to open, it should be all right," the playwright said. "We'll just keep our fingers crossed and pray - pray that the testosterone levels drop on both sides of the strike and see how it goes."
- AP