How River City handles a recession

To cut costs on the huge production of The Music Man, which opens tonight in Tampa, the producer hired nonunion actors, spurring a national boycott of the show.

By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 1, 2002

[Publicity photos] Publicity photo Harold Hill (Gerritt Vandermeer) marches through a throng of trombones in The Music Man.

When longtime theatergoers think of The Music Man, they think of Robert Preston as the charlatan "professor" Harold Hill and Barbara Cook as Marian, the spinster librarian of River City, Iowa. They remember show-stopping numbers from Meredith Willson's 1957 musical such as Trouble and 'Til There Was You (the only show tune covered by the Beatles) and Shipoopi.

They tend to forget how big a production it was.

"It's a very difficult show to revive," said Ray Roderick, director of The Music Man tour, opening a weeklong run tonight in Tampa.

"It's just huge. There are 19 or 20 principals. That's unheard of today in musical theater. You have maybe half that many principals in a big Broadway show. Then you have a giant ensemble supporting that group of principals. It was written at a time when the economics of theater were quite different."

The tour is not quite as big as the Broadway production, which wound up a 20-month run when it closed Sunday, but it is still sizable, with a cast of 37 and a 16-piece orchestra.

And therein lies the rub. In order to keep costs down, the producer of the national tour is doing the show with nonunion actors, the first time in recent memory that a hit show on Broadway has gone on the road without an Actors' Equity Association contract. The orchestra is also nonunion.

The savings can be considerable. Under the standard Equity contract, union performers on Broadway and on tour earn a minimum salary of $1,252 per week. Actors on the road get $106 a day extra for meals and hotels. Union members are covered by pension plans and medical insurance.

More and more in these days of cost-conscious theater, special Equity contracts with lower salaries are negotiated for tours, but New York-based producer Big League Theatricals and the union couldn't reach an agreement for The Music Man.

The producer hasn't disclosed terms for non-Equity performers, but the union says the pay could be as low as $400 a week.

"We can tell you that tours that share the same itinerary as The Music Man are paying, in most cases, double your wages and per diem," the union said on its Web site in a message to members of the company. "They are also paying health insurance, pension, vacation and sick pay. Audiences are paying the same price (or close thereto via their subscriptions) for The Music Man as they are for other Equity tours.

"So the question is, are you getting a fair share?"

There are many nonunion tours, but they tend to be golden oldies, such as the production of Cats that played TBPAC last summer. So-called bus-and-truck tours playing one or two days in a theater are usually nonunion.

Equity has mounted a national boycott of The Music Man, which started out in Des Moines, Iowa, in October and is scheduled to continue, playing major markets, at least through the summer. Informational picketing by members of Equity and the American Federation of Musicians has taken place in most cities the show has played.

Typically, a first national tour of a Broadway show includes a well-known actor or two in the cast, or at least some members from the New York production. But don't expect to see Rebecca Luker, who played Marian in the Equity production on Broadway, or Craig Bierko or Eric McCormack or Robert Sean Leonard -- all of whom played Harold Hill opposite Luker -- on the road. In fact, members of The Music Man company on Broadway endorsed the boycott.

Instead, the tour stars unknown non-Equity actors Gerritt Vandermeer as Harold Hill and Carolann Sanita as Marian Paroo.

Harold Hill (Gerritt Vandermeer) holds on to the Wells Fargo wagon as it is surrounded by the townspeople of River City.

Roderick, who was director-choreographer Susan Stroman's associate director for the Broadway production, acknowledged that casting a nonunion tour took special measures.

"I had to cast a wider net in terms of the audition process," he said. "I had to go to more cities than just New York. There's a lot of wonderful nonunion actors out there, but they're in places like L.A. or Las Vegas or Orlando. A lot of them came to New York to audition, because this was a wonderful job for them. We found unbelievably talented actors and dancers.

"It was a big challenge. But casting is always a challenge. It's 90 percent of the job."

The touring production has different scenic and costume designs than the Broadway show. His top priority, Roderick said, was to replicate as much as possible the inventive choreography of five-time Tony Award winner Stroman, who also directed The Producers.

Roderick, 41, is an Equity member himself -- "In good standing," he said -- who was in Crazy for You on Broadway in the early '90s. However, he is also a member of another theatrical union, the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, which does not support the boycott.

"I was asked nearly a year ago if I would do this show, and of course, I wanted to very, very much, because I adore it and just think it needs to be seen by the world," he said. "Then I was told it was going to have to go out nonunion because of the economics, so I called SSDC to see if I was allowed to do it, and they encouraged me to do it. My job was to put up the best Music Man I know how, and that's what I feel I've done."

Interviewed while on vacation in Mexico, Roderick was clearly feeling somewhat conflicted by the flap.

"I know there is this controversy surrounding the show, and some people would say it's Equity's fault, and others would say it's the producer's fault," he said. "The reality is that it's a show with actors doing a wonderful job with wonderful jobs at a time when people need jobs. Everyone wants a healthy industry where good work gets out there. That's ultimately what's important, whether it's union or nonunion."

Theater preview

The Music Man opens tonight and runs through Sunday at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Tickets: $20.50-$62.50. 1-800-955-1045 or (813) 229-7827.

This Music Man's got trouble

The cast of Broadway's Cabaret took aim at the non-Equity tour of The Music Man at the recent Gypsy of the Year Awards with their reworking of the classic song 76 Trombones. Here is a sample; for the whole song and more about the dispute, check out www.actorsequity.org.

We Got Trouble

Written by: Michael Curry

Sung to 76 Trombones by Meredith Willson

PRODUCER HAROLD SHRILL:

Let me have your attention, slaves.

Attention now!

I can deal with this trouble, slaves, with a crack of my whip,

This very whip.

Observe me, if you will

I'm producer Harold Shrill,

And I'm here to organize the non-union tour of The Music Man!

Oh, think my slaves,

How could any fool union ever hope to compete with the crack of my whip!

Craaaaaack, craaaaaaack, crack, crack, crack, crack, crack, crack, crack!!

Remember, my slaves,

The money's a little tight.

Can't afford trombones,

But we got kazoos!

So take them 'zoos and make em' sound like bones!

Oh you'll do as I say, oh yes . . .

BAND/ENSEMBLE:

Seventy-six bucks a week, that's what we get paid,

For the hundred and ten hours a week that we work.

Every day we'll do 18 shows, but what really blows,

No insurance, no vacations, not one perk.

Don't you know it's a hard knock life when you're non-union,

We get only a three-minute break once a week.

And for lunch we get bowls of lard,

But what's really hard,

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