After a strike lasting over three weeks, Broadway stagehands and the league of producers sealed a deal late last night. Most of the 26 productions darkened by the standoff will open again tonight. The new contract is good for five years once the union rank and file votes to approve it, which they’re expected to do within the next ten days. (Local One's website has this announcement for members: "The strike is over. Do......

Unnamed sources are telling the Daily News and The Post that a deal between the stagehands’ union and Broadway producers is within reach. The two sides have an agreement on the main sticking point, the dispute over the number of stagehands required for a show’s “load-in” and are currently negotiating salaries. As one source put it, "Everybody is confident we can finally get this done." There’s even optimism that some shows affected by the strike......

Barack may have Oprah, but the stagehands' and writers' union have John Edwards! The former senator, currently in third place after Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the hunt for the Democratic presidential nomination, voiced his support of Local One, the Broadway stagehands union that has been on strike since November 9 over a new contract. Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said, "To interfere with the power of the Broadway community is not......

Yesterday Local One, the Broadway stagehands’ union, and the league of producers continued negotiations that had been stalled since last Sunday. Talks dragged on through the night and at 6:30am a union spokesman announced a 12 hour break. Though no details were given, it was said that “progress” had been made. An unnamed source told the Post that the two sides “had settled ‘the big issues’ and were continuing to hammer out details stalling a......

State Supreme Court Justice Helen Freedman has ruled that the Broadway production of How the Grinch Stole Christmas can and will proceed, despite the theater owner’s attempt to lock out the stagehands. “Grinch” producers dragged Jucamcyn, the third largest owner of Broadway theaters, into court yesterday seeking an injunction to let the show go on. Local One, the stagehands’ union, is on strike until a contract is agreed upon with the producers’ league, of which......

Broadway’s blackout grew blacker still Sunday night when talks between the stagehands’ union and producers broke down again. Around 9pm, after two days of negotiations averaging about 12 hours a day, the league of producers reached the end of their patience. A spokesman for the union, Local One, issued a statement saying that “producers informed Local One that what Local One offered was not good enough, and they left.” This despite the intervention of Disney’s......

For the first time since November 8th, Local One, the stagehands’ union, is meeting with the Broadway producers’ league to talk it out. (Local One has been on strike since last Saturday over proposed changes to their contracts.) Insiders are expressing guarded optimism about the talks because they’re proceeding with the help of Disney’s senior V.P. of labor relations, Robert W. Johnson. Disney is not a member of the producers' league and thus not directly......

Having already seen one of this season’s most anticipated Broadway plays, Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll, we haven’t been yet been personally disappointed by the Local One stagehands’ strike. While we sympathize with the union and the theatrical community that’s now out of work, we’re not exactly losing sleep over tourist tweens missing out on Legally Blonde for a few days. Now, however, we’re really starting to sweat it: though talks will resume this weekend,......

Make sure you’re sitting down before reading further: Today TV bloggers formed a virtual picket line to support the Writers Guild strike. We’ve been refreshing Ramblings of a TV Whore all day, hoping for some blogging scab to post something! All this strike activity is becoming quite the trend; CBS News writers are expected to join their more gifted and talented “creative” colleagues who are entering week two of the strike. The CBS News scribes......

As GOP crank-yanker Roger Stone recently learned, most Broadway theaters are dark on Monday, so day three of the stagehands’ strike will have the least impact on the city’s economy. The Times has a funny photo in today’s article about stymied Broadway theatergoers; it depicts disappointed Spamalot ticket-holder Cecelia Pan taking her family to a slightly different show: St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Because, you know, with Broadway shuttered there’s simply no other family theater worth seeing......

It's finally come to this. The lights of the Great White Way have gone dark in a dispute between the theater stagehands of Local One and producers and theater owners. The labor dispute which has been simmering for months and left the stagehands without a contract for an equal time, resulted in a shutdown of Broadway shows on the verge of the theater district's most profitable season. The stalemate came to to a head after......

According to Broadway insider Michael Riedel, it’s not “if” but “when” the stagehands will go on strike – and “when” could be a soon as tonight! The long and contentious contract negotiations between the producers and Local One are now at an acrimonious standstill over changes to rules governing overtime pay, work assignments and the number of stagehands required per production. Last night Thomas Short, president of the international union that must approve Local One’s......

Theater producers and Local One, the Broadway stagehands’ union, may have agreed to return to the bargaining table next week, but don’t rush out and buy Phantom of the Opera tickets just yet. (Or ever.) The Posts’s Michael Riedel points out that Local One is being joined at the table by Tom Short, the boss of their umbrella union, The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). Since Short will have to give the final......

Local One, the Broadway stagehands’ union, has never struck in its 121-year history. Since salaries for stagehands – who handle lighting, props, sets and, yes, even Tarzan's vine – currently top off at 100K, who could blame them? But The League of American Theatres and Producers, who control 22 of 39 Broadway houses, are now wringing their hands after the union’s unanimous vote on Sunday to strike. (Last week the Nederlanders, the producers who......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a suspicious package at Broadway and Wall St. in Manhattan, a shooting at 158th St. and Linden Blvd. in Queens, and a homicide on Popham Ave. in the Bronx. Local One, New York's stagehands union, doesn't want Mayor Bloomberg to mediate in their negotiations with Broadway producers and theater owners. A 40-year-old Staten Island bus driver is accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old frequent passenger on his route. The......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a water main break on Pacific St. in Brooklyn, an armed robbery on Jamaica Ave. in Queens, and a burn victim on West 165th St. in the Bronx. Spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy reportedly accomplished many feats during his life, but still died at his home in Queens, NY. A fight among members of a group of men, who were turned away from a Chelsea nightclub because they didn't meet......

Both the League of American Theater Producers and Owners and Local One, the stagehands union have put their final offers for a contract agreement on the table. Distance between the two offers could mean that almost all Broadway shows will go dark in the near future. According to The New York Times there are no more negotiating sessions scheduled, so a lockout by the producers and owners looks likely. If that happens, only four shows......