Broadway Musicians

[madsax]

I read somewhere about the strikes that happened awhile ago with the broadway musicians...it said their base salary was like $1350 a week. Is this about right? How hard is it to make it in this field and what other things can they do?

[Frank D]

I was hoping Tim Price would chime in on this one, but I'm guessing that while some musicians do Broadway shows exclusively, most of them are freelance musicians, meaning they play all kinds of gigs in addition to the shows.

[Danno]

Madsax,

I'm not sure of the current weekly pay rate for pit musicians on broadway. However, if you're looking for info regarding gigging in a pit orchestra on broadway, you can find info on the web site for the musicians union local 802 in New York City. There was a real nice article entitled "Working as a Sub on Broadway: A Survival Guide" -- you would initially start out working as a sub. Since I'm not sure of how to post the link, go to www.local802afm.org It's located under the "Publications" section. Allegro from February 2004. I think the full link that will take you directly there is:
www.local802afm.org/publication_entry.cfm?xEntry=44155542

Give that a try. Hope it works.