Broadway Stagehands, Producers Plan Talks

The stagehands striking on Broadway will resume talks with theater producers this weekend, the New York Times reports. The two sides were tight-lipped about whether the meeting would end the five-day strike, which has closed 27 shows on the Great White Way. But Michael Bloomberg called the negotiations “a very important step forward.”

The strike threatens the lucrative theater industry and is hobbling nearby restaurants, bars, hotels, and souvenir stores. A Times Square business official told the Wall Street Journal that the work stoppage is conveying "an immediate and palpable sense that the wind has been sucked out of the sails.” Eight shows, including Young Frankenstein and Mary Poppins, are still running. (More Broadway stories.)