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Tony Awards administrators held an emergency meeting on Monday to try to salvage this year’s ceremony in the face of a strike by screenwriters that is imperiling the broadcasting of the event.
The officials have asked the leadership of the striking Writers Guild of America to reconsider and accept a compromise that would allow the Tony Awards broadcast, which is scheduled for June 11 on CBS, to proceed in some form as the Hollywood strike continues.
The W.G.A. said on Friday that it would not grant a waiver that would allow screenwriters to work on a script for the broadcast. That made it difficult to see how the Tonys could be televised, since Broadway is a heavily unionized industry and it is widely expected that theatrical union members, who include actors and musicians, will refuse to participate out of solidarity with the striking screenwriters.
The awards show’s management committee, which oversees the broadcast, held a 90-minute virtual meeting Monday morning at which they opted to seek a way to preserve the planned June 11 show, according to three people with knowledge of what took place who were granted anonymity to describe a confidential conversation.
Why It Matters: It’s Broadway’s biggest marketing moment.
Broadway producers and industry leaders say that the annual awards show is a vital marketing tool for the industry, and particularly important to the financial health of new musicals.
Broadway shows do not have the outsize marketing budgets of Hollywood films or television series, so they need to find other ways to build awareness, and the awards ceremony has traditionally been an important element of that.
The ceremony benefits the theater industry in several ways: the shows that win awards often sell tickets to theatergoers eager to see the most acclaimed productions, and those shows that stage exciting or moving musical numbers on the broadcast often see a box office bump as a result.
Background: Theater attendance is still down since the pandemic.
W.G.A. members are striking for better compensation and structural changes to the way writers relate to studios, streaming services and networks as the entertainment industry evolves.
At the same time, the theater industry is still trying to recover from the disruptions brought by the coronavirus pandemic: Broadway attendance this season remains about 17 percent lower than it was during the last full season before the pandemic.
One sign of the current economic challenge: Four of the five shows nominated for best new musical this year are losing money most weeks, because the shows cost more to run than they are making at the box office. Those shows — “Kimberly Akimbo,” “New York, New York,” “Shucked” and “Some Like It Hot” — are especially hoping that winning prizes or showing off their production numbers on a television broadcast could help them sell tickets. And the nominated show currently doing the best at the box office, “& Juliet,” would welcome a chance to perform before a national audience.
What’s Next: A decision could come in days.
Conversations between theater industry leaders, union leaders, and CBS are ongoing. The Broadway League and the American Theater Wing, which jointly present the Tony Awards, are hoping to resolve the crisis soon.
It appears more likely that the Tony Awards will have to find a way forward without a televised broadcast on June 11, but in an industry built on optimism, some theater officials are still holding out hope that pleas by theater artists to their Hollywood colleagues could yield a compromise.
If a broadcast proves impossible, many industry leaders appear determined to hand out the prizes as scheduled, either at a nontelevised event or simply by announcing the winners. But there are also some who think the ceremony should be postponed until the strike is settled, so that it can remain on television.
Source: Theater - nytimes.com
