Broadway stagehands end strike; show to go on Thursday

Nov 29, 2007, 6:31 GMT

New York - A 19-day strike by stagehands in the world's largest theatre district has ended, clearing the way for the lights on New York's Broadway to go back up Thursday night.

The stagehands union reached a tentative agreement late Wednesday with theatre owners and producers, The New York Times reported. Details of the settlement were not released.

The strike, the longest on Broadway since a 25-day 1975 walkout by musicians, closed most of the Broadway theatres and 27 large shows, left disappointed tourists grumbling and cost 17 million dollars per day in lost revenue.

Not only were such beloved musicals as Mamma Mia!, Chicago, Hairspray and The Phantom of the Opera hit by the strike but so were restaurants visited by theatre-goers.

The main point of contention involved work rules that govern the number of stagehands needed for each show. The producers wanted to cut costs and decide for themselves how many stagehands were needed instead of sticking to union specifications.

The previous agreement between the union and theatre owners expired at the end of July, and talks were broken off at an impasse at the beginning of November.

In another entertainment-related strike, the walkout by Hollywood screenwriters, which has seen US television viewers treated to reruns, continued without an end in sight.

Representatives of the writers, who have been on strike since the beginning of the month, began new talks with film and television studios Monday.

The walkout focuses on disagreements over pay for work that is distributed via DVDs, the internet, video iPods, cellular phones and other new media.

Not only has production on television shows been halted in the United States, but filming for movies in the United States and Europe has also been stopped because scripts have been left unfinished.