No Opening for “Farnsworth”

Looks like the current round of negotiations have reached and impasse, and Broadway will be dark through Thanksgiving weekend:

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) — Talks to end Broadway’s longest strike in 32 years reached an impasse yesterday, resulting in performances for 27 shows being canceled through Nov. 25.

“We are profoundly disappointed to have to tell you that talks broke off tonight, and that no further negotiations are scheduled,” Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of The League of American Theatres and Producers, said in a statement.

Negotiators for producers informed representatives for striking Broadway stagehands that what stagehands offered “was not enough,” Bruce Cohen, a spokesman for Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, told reporters at the Westin New York hotel, where talks were held.

Particularly hard hit have been the bumper crop of plays this
season. They include Tom Stoppard’s “Rock `n’ Roll,” which
opened to rave reviews six days before the strike shut it down,
and Aaron Sorkin’s “The Farnsworth Invention,” which has had to
postpone its opening.   
       

      

"Everyone was crossing their fingers, hoping for a quick
resolution this weekend,” Michael David, a producer of
“Farnsworth,” said before last night’s impasse. “But we’ve also
been making contingency plans for each show’s unique needs.”   
       

Regular readers here know I have some issues with how the play deals with some of the actual history, but I wouldn’t wish this on anybody.  I really expected to hear that the strike was resolved and the show would go on.  No such luck.  I’m sorry it will not be happy Thanksgiving for all the cast, crew, and creative people who have assembled The Farnsworth Invention.

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