Broadway enters an anxious time as labor action threatens to roil
theaters
[October 16, 2025]
By MARK KENNEDY
NEW YORK (AP) — Broadway is a tense place these days after two major
labor unions authorized strike action amid ongoing contract negotiations
with producers.
Actors’ Equity Association — which represents over 51,000 members,
including singers, actors, dancers and stage managers — and American
Federation of Musicians Local 802 — which represents 1,200 musicians —
have voted in favor of a strike authorization, a strategic step ahead of
any work stoppage. No strike has been called.
Members of both unions are currently working under expired contracts.
The musicians’ contract expired on Aug. 31, and the Equity contract
expired on Sept. 28.
Both unions want pay increases and higher contributions by producers
toward employee health care costs, a key sticking point. Actors Equity
also wants producers to hire more backup performers and stage managers,
add protections for performers in the event of injury and put limits on
how many performances in a row actors can be asked to do without a day
off.
The health of Broadway — once very much in doubt due to the COVID-19
pandemic — is now very good, at least in terms of box office. The
2024-2025 season took in $1.9 billion, the highest-grossing season in
recorded history, overtaking the pre-pandemic previous high of $1.8
billion during the 2018-2019 season. It has been a long road back from
the days when theaters were shuttered and the future looked bleak.
The unions are pointing to the financial health of Broadway to argue
that producers can afford to up pay and benefits for musicians and
actors. Producers, represented by The Broadway League, counter that the
health of Broadway could be endangered by increasing ticket prices.
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A Broadway street sign appears in Times Square, in New York on Jan.
19, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes, File)
 “On the heels of the most successful
season in history, the Broadway League wants the working musicians
and artists who fueled that very success to accept wage cuts,
threats to healthcare benefits, and potential job losses,” Local 802
President Bob Suttmann said in a statement Tuesday.
A strike would cripple most of Broadway, but some shows might
continue. “Beetlejuice” and “Mamma Mia!” arrived as part of tours
and so do not have a traditional Broadway contract. And shows
playing at nonprofit theaters, such as the musical “Ragtime” at
Lincoln Center Theater and the play “Punch” from the Manhattan
Theatre Club, have separate labor agreements.
The most recent major strike on Broadway was in late 2007, when a
19-day walkout dimmed the lights on more than two dozen shows and
cost producers and the city millions of dollars in lost revenue.
More than 30 members of Congress, including the entire New York
delegation, have signed a letter urging all sides to bargain in good
faith and avoid a strike.
“A disruption to Broadway will result in significant economic
disruption to not just the New York metropolitan area but harm
theater workers and patrons across the country and around the
world,” the letter states.
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