To Joe Allen, the owner of a 36-year-old theatrical hangout on Broadway's restaurant row, every day since the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center has been like Monday -- when theaters are usually dark.
He closed on Sept. 11 and 12, along with the city's theaters, and since then his business has declined 50 percent.
PHOTO: AP
"It seems a fairly direct line from no tourism to no theater to no customers," Allen said, referring to the restaurant that carries his name. "The lifeblood of this whole area is the theater. Every show counts. And now it feels like the theaters are dark, even since they've opened."
Ticket sales on Broadway, a US$650 million-a-year business that is among the city's top attractions, decreased US$6.1 million last week, according to statistics from the League of American Theatres and Producers, a Broadway trade group.
As part of a cost-cutting package to keep five musicals open, Broadway labor unions representing actors, musicians and stagehands last night agreed to a 25 percent pay cut for four weeks and theater owners said they would waive rent for those shows during the same period, said Jed Bernstein, president of the League of American Theatres and Producers.
The shows are Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, The Full Monty, Chicago and Rent. Theatrical producers and publicists also will seek reduced advertising rates and plan a new marketing campaign, Bernstein said.
Five shows that have posted closing notices for tomorrow are: Kiss Me, Kate, If You Ever Leave Me ... I'm Going With You!, A Thousand Clowns, The Rocky Horror Show and Blast. Each of the 23 shows on Broadway lost money for the week ending Sunday, with 21 compiling losses of six figures.
Most shows have sold 20 percent to 50 percent of their tickets since performances resumed on Sept. 13, statistics show.
Two productions, The Producers and Contact, sold more than 80 percent of their tickets.
Broadway earned a total of US$3.5 million for the week ending last Sunday, compared with US$10 million the same week last year.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Tuesday that he was "very concerned" about businesses, "particularly restaurants and Broadway plays." "We may be going through a period -- in fact we probably are -- in which people who are not afraid may just not feel like going to a Broadway play or a restaurant," Giuliani said.
"Things are going to be obviously different two, three and weeks we from now and we want to get them through this period."
In addition to Broadway's difficulties, which have an impact on hotels, restaurants and the businesses that serve them, the city suspended television, film and commercial production on New York streets for a week.
Production resumed Tuesday, except in Manhattan. The broadcast industry contributes about US$5 billion to the city's economy each year.
Attractions that draw visitors to New York and help Broadway attendance, including the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Grant's Tomb, are closed because of security concerns, said Brian Feeney, spokesman for the National Parks Service, which operates them. The Empire State Building, which gets about 9,500 tourists daily, also is closed to visitors.
Among shows that are closing, Kiss Me, Kate, the musical revival that last year won five Tony Awards -- Broadway's highest honor -- has had 769 performances. The show sold 22 percent of its tickets last week, with revenue down US$247,000 from the previous week, statistics show.
If You Ever Leave Me ... I'm Going With You! played to the smallest audiences, 20 percent of it box office, and reported a one-week loss of US$113,000.
A Thousand Clowns, starring Tom Selleck, reported a revenue decline of US$181,000 last week, with 30 percent of its tickets sold.
The cult phenomenon The Rocky Horror Show, sold 43 percent of its seats, and sales slipped US$57,000. A comedy set in Ireland, Stones in His Pockets, was at 27 percent capacity, with sales down US$122,000.
Blast, with revenue down by US$180,000 last week, announced it would close before the trade center disaster.
In addition to the closings, several productions announced that they wouldn't open as planned.
By Jeeves, an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical based on the stories of P.G. Wodehouse, canceled its Broadway run. Composer Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, which focuses on the murders of US presidents, also has been shelved.
"We are expecting to get more bad news from other shows," said David Lotz, spokesman for Actors' Equity, a union representing about 8,000 performers in the New York region.
Bernstein said the focus is on reducing expenses, increasing marketing and doing charity performances.
"If last week's business results continued for six months it would be cataclysmic," he said.
"The question is whether it will it last six months or six weeks or six days."
Bruce Cohen, a spokesman for Stagehands Local One, said union members are considering all proposals that might save shows because "if a show closes, we lose a job."
"Our average member may make US$1,000 a week and take home US$580," Cohen said. "It's not a big money profession to begin with." Sean Ricketts, dinner manager at Sardi's restaurant, an 80-year-old theater district mainstay, said about half his business is directly linked to Broadway.
"Without question it will pass," he said. "It's just a question of how long." Bernstein said there are two barriers for audiences to overcome.
"There's a logistical and security barrier, which I think will be overcome when people figure out how to get to the city and that it's safe," he said.
"The second barrier is psychology of people. Every other time in the last 100 years that we've had a national crisis people have felt like going to the theater to get away from things. So one has to be cautiously optimistic."
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