Typically, Broadway shows that cross the country use members of Actors’ Equity, the union of experienced stage performers. But recently, a growing number of productions have taken to hiring non-union actors-often straight out of school-to lower their costs. Now a labor dispute involving Equity and “The Sound of Music” has highlighted the question of whether a show can be truly “Broadway” if the performers have never worked there.
Equity had ignored the situation for some time. But then came “The Sound of Music.” Troika Entertainment, which ran the tour, was faced with paying union fees of $2,600 a week per person. With 28 cast members, that was major money. Instead, they hired a non-Equity cast, allegedly paying between $350 and $650 a week. (Troika would not discuss salary levels.)
The real trouble came when Williams, a high-profile Equity member, changed his union status to do the show. “The production is important to me; it’s important to my family,” says Williams, who is reportedly making $15,000 a week plus a percentage of the show’s gross. Work is not always easy for actors to find, Williams says, and such tours “don’t fall off of trees.”
The union went ballistic. Quicker than you could say, “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia,” they held a disciplinary hearing and fined Williams $52,000. (He is appealing the decision, claiming that Equity has misrepresented his actions.) “If he hung in there and said ’no,’ Troika might have come to the table, because they wanted him badly enough,” says Equity representative David Lotz. The union is also protesting at many of the show’s performances, in an attempt to usher audiences away.
The publicity has been painful for Williams. “I’m not interested in breaking up the union,” he says. “I am now more sensitive to Equity’s larger concerns…and it’s extremely unlikely that I’d do a production outside of Equity’s umbrella again.”
Troika’s opening gross receipts have ranged from over $500,000 a week in Cincinnati to almost a million in Pittsburgh, which is more than a number of national Equity tours take in. “In some ways, I can’t help but grudgingly respect that these guys have the business acumen to slash their costs and charge the same amount,” says Brown. “But from an artistic viewpoint, it makes my blood boil. They are taking advantage of these kids who are desperate for some experience.”
