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'Grinch' Producers Sue To Allow Show To Run

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Nov 20, 2007 1:23 pm US/Eastern

'Grinch' Producers Sue To Allow Show To Run

NEW YORK (CBS) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: The Grinch may not be stealing Christmas this year on Broadway if the stagehands strike isn't resolved.
AP

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Broadway Strike Survival Guide

The producers of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" are going to court. They want the owners of the St. James Theatre to let the show go on.

In what might have turned out to be a happy ending, the Grinch might have escaped the Broadway stagehands strike.

But there is no joy in "Who-ville" on Tuesday; just a lawsuit and some angry producers.

"We feel the Grinch has been used as a PR football kicked around by both sides of the table, and we're not going to take it anymore," said James Sanna, producer of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."

On Monday, picketing stagehands agreed to return to work at the show, because its producers negotiated a separate deal with Local One.

But officials of the Jujamcyn Theatre chain said "no deal." They announced that the stagehands can't work at one of their theaters while striking the others.

"'The Grinch' will not reopen until the union signs agreements and ends the strike at all theaters and all the other shows that have been closed by their strikes reopen on Broadway," the theater chain said.

Producers now say they'll sue.

"We're seeking an injunction to require theater owners to re-open the doors of the St James because we have kids from all over the country who want to see 'The Grinch,'" Sanna said.

The show is only slated to run another seven weeks. Producers have already lost $1.5 million from the strike. And theater-goers may be in store for a Christmas bummer worthy of the Grinch himself.

Producers will seek an injunction Tuesday for theater to reopen, but for now, it will remain dark until the end of the strike.

The stagehands -- who include scenery and prop handlers, carpenters, electricians, and lighting and sound technicians -- have been working without a contract since the end of July. Negotiations have focused on how many stagehands are required to open a Broadway show and keep it running.

Before Saturday, the two sides hadn't talked since Nov. 8.

Eight shows, whose theaters have separate contracts with the league, remain unaffected by the walkout. They include four productions -- "Pygmalion," "The Ritz," "Mauritius" and "Cymbeline" -- playing at nonprofit theaters, and four other shows: "Young Frankenstein," "Mary Poppins," "Xanadu" and "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." All off-Broadway productions are open, too.

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