Hello out there...
Had some interesting emails from pals today and thought I would start by sharing a LINK that one included:
http://glumbert.com/wii/view.php?name=womenfilm
E N J OY !
Not much happening for me these days. Guess i am in a holding pattern.
Went up to Lenox Hill Hospital for my partner's foot surgery follow up. LORD the Xray was amazing. Two screws holding the reset bone which was BUNION-ATED and a 4 INCH pin..SPIKE...in his second hammer toed toe..It comes out on Friday. YIKE !!
I haven't had foot surgery but Dr.Karen Schneider was recommended and she is terrific and thorough.
I have also had many relatives and Friends email that they are coming to NY after Christmas and are concerned that they can't see a Broadway show what with the Stagehand's Local 1 Strike in effect.
Nonsense I tell them. There are plenty of things to see. Even YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN is still playing...don't play into the false deprivation the Producer's League is counting on for Public sympathy.
This is a VERY important time for the creative Unions. The Stagehands fight is one that the Producers prompted by creating tight rules that the Producers knew could only result in a Strike.
They had been planning this for almost 5 years...Because they have been charging the Public an extra dollar per ticket..WHO knows what category.."theatre restoration fund" comes to mind...SO that they have a $20 MILLION DOLLAR STRIKE FUND to float themselves through weeks of dark houses without it hurting them...AND they are SUING the Stagehand's Union for Losses of those dark weeks ..LOSSES THE PRODUCERS INCURRED BECAUSE THEY INDUCED THE STRIKE TO BEGIN WITH. These are very mean and GREEDY people. NOT the real showman Producers of years too far gone and sorely missed.
They are BOTTOM LINE not CHORUS LINE type producers. They could care less about those who work for them.
The Producers set the ultra high ticket prices and NONE of that goes ANYWHERE but into the Producer's DEEPENING pockets. Nothing more goes to the Actor or the Crew people.
This is a PRODUCT that is only alive when the Creative People are doing their Professional Top Notch Best..which is every night and matinee. But now the Producer wants to minimalize the Minimums and thereby corrupt the very product he is selling.
This is not a PEANUT BUTTER or a Packaged Meat. This is a very intangible and extremely immediate product. It only lives within the confines of the theatre house and the time it takes to perform it.
It's shelf life is as long as the performance lasts. Each audience is witness to a miraculous melding of forces and professionals that combine to make a WICKED or a PHANTOM or a LION KING etc...
Each individual audience sees it's own Individual product that performance. THAT is something that is so Unique and that is something that only the Professional creative teams inside the piece can conjure each performance.
When the Producers who by the way never really lose a cent it is the investors that are losing..when the Producers ATTACK their own professional teams and want them to work for less and use less manpower. Well even though all my professional life I have been told "Less Is More"..here LESS is.. well..L E S S !!
I won't even go into what safety problems they are creating...and not only for the actors, but Musicians , dressers, and even the audiences.
Shame on their arrogant Greed.
And Ultra Shame on Gerry Shoenfeld ..a Subert Head whose organization owns 17 Broadway theatres.
He threatened to pull funding for Charitable programs for AT. MALACHY'S Actor's Chapel if they kept allowing the Unions to hold Press Conferences there.
What was the Priest to do??
SO it is not enough to TAKE money and Benefits from these hard working people but also through abject BLACKMAILING deny them a HOUSE OF WORSHIP to congregate in.
WHEW!!
That is amazing and so belittling to someone who has been involved in some of the most wondrous of Broadway productions.
Anyway..That is my vent..
Ther are plenty of other venues like OFF or OFF OFF Broadway.
I also suggest XANADU among those still running as a very wonderful and entertaining evening on all counts.
It is at the Helen Hayes on the same Block as the Shubert Offices which are in the Sardi Building.
The Actor's contract is up for this same holocaust come summer. SO if they don't meet a balanced amicable settlement here we will again see a darkened theatre town.
All this in the most Successful and Profitable Theatre seasons in History!
Those of us in the industry know we are the life and breath of the shows and product onstage. We strive for perfection and high professional standards daily. Let alone the maintenance of classes and instruction just to keep competitive.
I keep faith that the reality of how vile the Producers are behaving will eventually reach such a peak that they have to back off and get into a reality based arbitration.
This is Collective Bargaining after all.
But so far the Union is Bargaining and the Producers are doing ALL the COLLECTING!
AND PLEASE don't buy into the $160,00 a year salary figure the producer hae thrown into public view. It is not true..and Even if it were..whose business is it anyway?
Do the Producers let us know what they are pocketing and taking home? And take this into account..Not too many people in this profession WORK A FULL YEAR.
Not many shows area hits, and those that are running are not always at capacity and will have a shorter run. Eventually ALL SHOWS CLOSE.
And it takes a lot of technical know how in today's theatre to work a show.
A producer looks at cost sheets and cuts this and that not to help make the show better but to MAXIMIZE his Profit.
ENOUGH..
So many actors are out of work and the market is tight and the pay is less and the most honored of professions is tarnished into becoming a marginalized HOBBY because one cannot sustain a living unless one is a Name and can demand a high salary. Even then unless one is a Movie name it is difficult in the theatre.
SO enjoy the Holiday in NY. The Wonderful X-mas windows and the Gorgeous Rockefeller Plaza ...go see the Radio City Spectacular and the Holiday movies. I hear ENCHANTED is terrific...even though I was called back 2 X for it and didn't get it!
Visit the various parks like Gramercy and Union Square
Also hit the Off Broadway fare..you'd be amazed..ALTAR BOYS/ DIE MOMMIE DIE and so many other really terrific offerings.
Let's see what happens and see if they can STRIKE a balance.
AND don't forget there are WORLD CLASS MUSEUMS and the Palenetarium is astounding..the Rose Center is something dazzling.
XXXX
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