Capathia Jenkins has sung Christmas carols in the Copa Room of the Showboat Hotel Casino in Atlantic City, belted show tunes as a singing waitress aboard the Spirit of New York dinner cruises on the Hudson River and bopped as a lead singer for wedding bands.þþBut after years of casino ambience, floating hecklers and nuptial crooning, Ms. Jenkins, 36, is ready for her close-up: a featured role in the new Broadway musical ÿThe Look of Love,ÿ with songs by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, scheduled to start previews next month.þþBut like hundreds of other musical theater performers, Ms. Jenkins has had her potential big break put on hold because of the strike by Broadway's musicians, whose picket lines are being honored by the industry's actors and stagehands.þþMs. Jenkins is just one of the hundreds of people working on Broadway whose lives have been affected by the strike, which started on Friday after negotiations with producers broke down over the minimum number of musicians required in a given orchestra pit.þþIf the strike continues, the 325 musicians working on Broadway, along with 650 actors and 350 stagehands who have voted to support their picket lines, will have to figure out how to make do without their paychecks in pursuing careers that in many cases are already cobbled together from various sources.þþÿThe nature of our business is that you never know when you might lose your job, because shows close all the time,ÿ said William Ngai, the house carpenter at the Ambassador Theater. ÿI just hope that some of the reserves and other little stuff I get will get me through. Otherwise, it could get ugly.ÿþþThe ActressþþMs. Jenkins has been on Broadway once before, making her debut in the 1999 Broadway show ÿThe Civil War,ÿ which flopped after two months to the tune of $8 million. She played a slave and had only one solo number.þþNow, however, in ÿThe Look of Love,ÿ she has been given one of five singing roles, performing several well-known Bacharach tunes, including ÿWalk On By,ÿ ÿMake it Easy on Yourselfÿ and the title song, the show's opening number.þþThis was supposed to be the show's third week of rehearsal. Instead, Ms. Jenkins sits by the phone at her home in Park Slope, waiting for strike updates and wondering if her show will be delayed or worse. ÿWith every day that we miss, we're a day behind,ÿ she said.þþOne of seven children raised by a single mother who worked as a telephone operator, Ms. Jenkins knows what it is to be resourceful. She once spent six months working for Telecharge, ÿselling tickets to Broadway shows that I was not in.ÿ She has been on unemployment before.þþBut for the most part, Ms. Jenkins has been lucky. She has toured in places like the Netherlands. She performed in an Off Broadway revival of ÿGodspellÿ and sings on the soundtrack of the hit movie ÿChicago.ÿþþÿThe phones ring and you go from one gig to the next,ÿ she said.þþLately she has turned down many of these jobs to attend rehearsals for ÿThe Look of Love.ÿ Now she is praying that she hasn't made a terrible miscalculation.þþÿPeople are really now starting to talk about the fear,ÿ she said. þþAs for the actors' decision to support the strike, Ms. Jenkins was ambivalent at first. The musicians, after all, have played nonunion productions on the road, she said, ÿso I didn't feel like I wanted to stand with them.ÿþþBut after talking with the union deputy in her show, Ms. Jenkins said she saw the importance of joining the picket line. ÿShe explained to me that Equity felt it was a good idea for us to stand with the musicians because our contract will be up a year from now and we're going to need to present a united front,ÿ she said. ÿThis is a good bargaining tool to get what we want.ÿþþMs. Jenkins also said that she and her fellow actors were concerned about the efficiency of going on with virtual orchestras, should they decide to cross the picket line. ÿYou can't hear the downbeat, there's no conductor, it's kind of a mess,ÿ she said. ÿThere's something about protecting the integrity of what we do on Broadway that separates it from a casino or a theme park.ÿþþThe CarpenterþþMr. Ngai can't remember how many Broadway shows he's worked on during his 20 years as a Broadway carpenter, but he remembers all too well the times he wasn't working.þþÿThere have definitely been months and months that I haven't worked,ÿ he said. ÿNo matter how good your efforts are, there's no guarantee the show is going to run.ÿþþHis current gig with ÿChicagoÿ seemed fairly secure, since as of last week, it was playing to 97 percent capacity at the Ambassador. (The musical version has seen a marked improvement in sales since the movie received 13 Academy Award nominations.)þþNow, as he and his fellow stagehands honor the musicians' pickets, he's out of work, forfeiting his net pay of about $150 per day plus benefits.þþWith one son attending Tufts University and two teenage daughters approaching college age, Mr. Ngai is more than a little concerned about a long strike.þþÿSimply put, it's not cheap to live in New York,ÿ said Mr. Ngai, who is 51 and lives with his wife and children in Palisades, N.Y. ÿAnd second of all, the nature of our business is that we're employed weekly.ÿþþMr. Ngai said that until he returned to Broadway he would try to get other jobs, anything from helping set up a concert at Madison Square Garden to assembling a set for a television show. Today, for example, he will be working a one-day job at the Lyceum Theater, one of the few Broadway theaters open; its current production, ÿThe Play What I Wrote,ÿ is not a musical, and therefore is not subject to the musicians' strike.þþÿYou keep your ears open and get word of where they need work,ÿ he said. ÿYou try to allow for these things, because that's just part of the business.ÿþþThe MusicianþþLowell Hershey is not big, but that's the way he likes it. At 148 pounds and a hair under 5 feet 10 inches, Mr. Hershey, a trumpet player, says his size is a bonus in the cramped confines of an orchestra pit.þþÿEverybody always says, `Lowell plays O.K., he gets along with everybody and doesn't take up a lot of space,' ÿ Mr. Hershey said. ÿI'm fine-boned.ÿþþThat and experience have made Mr. Hershey something of a rarity on Broadway: a fully employed musician with the comfort of job security.þþA large part of that has to do with the show he works on, ÿThe Phantom of the Opera,ÿ which has been playing on Broadway since January 1988 with a steady profit, until the strike shut down Broadway's musicals last week.þþMr. Hershey, 55, has been with the show since the beginning, sharing in its success. Under his current contract, he earns a little more than $1,300 for an eight-show week. The amount includes extra pay for instrument maintenance, being the lead trumpet, and his role as ÿin-house contractor,ÿ an administrative position within the orchestra. He also gets health benefits and pension payments.þþBut he is something of an exception.þþÿYou don't become a musician to make money, so I've been very lucky to live the lifestyle I live,ÿ Mr. Hershey said. ÿI make a lot more than many of my colleagues.ÿþþLike many Broadway musicians, Mr. Hershey also supplements his income with outside work, playing for the New York City Ballet and the Encores! musical comedy concert series at the City Center. His wife, Carol, gives piano lessons at their home in Flushing Meadows, Queens; both their children are grown, and college and car payments are behind them.þþThat said, much of the freelance work is seasonal; it's ÿPhantomÿ that pays the bills.þþÿI will be doing other things,ÿ Mr. Hershey said, ÿbut obviously I will be losing a large piece of income.ÿþþA graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, Mr. Hershey has been playing on Broadway since the late 1960's — ÿI have a great future behind me,ÿ he likes to say.þþHe doesn't like the prospect of being out of work too long, but he says he is much better off than many others on strike.þþÿThe future of Broadway doesn't matter to my personal security,ÿ he said. ÿAt the age I am, I have freelance work, I have the City Ballet, I have a pension. But I've been very very very lucky. Not everyone is like me.ÿþþ
Source: NY Times
