NEW YORK (AP) — The union representing Broadway's musicians reached a tentative labor agreement with commercial producers on Thursday, averting a potentially crippling strike that would have silenced nearly two dozen musicals.
The American Federation of Musicians Local 802 — which represents 1,200 musicians — had threatened to strike if they didn’t have a new contract by the morning, after going into mediation Wednesday.
Early Thursday, the union said it had struck a tentative deal that includes wage increases and contribution increases to the health fund.
"This three-year agreement provides meaningful wage and health benefit increases that will preserve crucial access to healthcare for our musicians while maintaining the strong contract protections that empower musicians to build a steady career on Broadway,” AFM Local 802 President Bob Suttmann said in a statement.
The tentative agreement next goes to members for ratification.
The 23 shows that could have gone silent ranged from megahits like “Hamilton” and “The Lion King” to newcomers like “Queen of Versailles” and “Chess,” which are still in previews. Plays would not have been automatically impacted.
It was the second Broadway labor deal in less than a week. Labor tensions had already seemed cool after Actors’ Equity Association — which represents over 51,000 members, including singers, actors, dancers and stage managers — announced a new three-year agreement with producers over the weekend.
Members of both unions had been working under expired contracts. The musicians’ contract expired on Aug. 31, and the Equity contract expired Sept. 28.
The health of Broadway — once very much in doubt due to the coronavirus pandemic that shut down theaters for some 18 months — is now very good, at least in terms of box office. It has been a long road back from the days when theaters were shuttered and the future looked bleak, but the 2024-2025 season took in $1.9 billion — the highest-grossing season in recorded history, overtaking the pre-pandemic previous high of $1.8 billion during the 2018-2019 season.
The unions pointed to the financial health of Broadway to argue that producers could afford to up pay and benefits for musicians and actors. Producers, represented by The Broadway League, had countered that the restored health of Broadway could be endangered by potential ticket price increases to accommodate the demands.
The most recent major strike on Broadway was in late 2007, when a 19-day walkout by stagehands dimmed the lights on more than two dozen shows and cost producers and the city millions of dollars in lost revenue.
On Wednesday, three U.S. senators from New York and New Jersey — Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker and Andy Kim — wrote to both sides, urging them to “participate in good faith negotiations and continued communication.” The senators noted that Broadway supports nearly 100,000 jobs and is “an essential cornerstone in the economic well-being of surrounding businesses and sectors, including hospitality, retail and transportation.”
FILE - A Broadway street sign appears in Times Square, in New York on Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes, File)
New films by Polish filmmaker Paweł Pawlikowski, Japanese writer-director Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Spain’s Pedro Almodovar will premiere at the 79th Cannes Film Festival next month.
Organizers for the South of France festival, which runs May 12-23, laid out a lineup heavy on big-name international auteurs at a news conference Thursday in Paris.
Cannes’ most sought-after slots are in its competition lineup. This year, 21 films will vie for the Palme d’Or. That includes “Fatherland,” a Cold War drama starring Sandra Hüller by Pawlikowski (“Ida,” “Cold War” ); “Sudden,” the French language debut for Hamaguchi ( “Drive My Car” ); and Almodovar’s “Bitter Christmas.”
Cannes is so far light on Hollywood releases and American filmmakers. One exception in competition is Ira Sachs' “The Man I Love,” a New York tale starring Rami Malek set during the 1980s AIDS crisis. In the Un Certain Regard sidebar, Jane Schoenbrun will unveil their follow-up to 2014’s “I Saw the TV Glow”: “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” about the making of a slasher movie. It stars Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson.
A number of former Palme winners are in the mix. That includes Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu’s Norway-set “Fjord,” starring the recently Oscar-nominated Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan. Mungiu’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” won the Palme in 2007.
Also returning is Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose 2018 drama “Shoplifters” won the Palme. He’ll debut the sci-fi “Sheep in the Box,” about a grieving couple in the near future who bring home a humanoid boy as their son.
The specialty distributor Neon has already boarded “Fjord,” “Sheep in the Box” and “Sudden,” giving it a chance to extend its historic record of six Palme winners in a row. Last year, the Neon release “It Was Just an Accident,” by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, won the Palme.
Neon is also behind an out of competition selection in “Her Private Hell” by Nicolas Winding Refn, the “Drive” filmmaker. A thriller starring Sophie Thatcher and Charles Melton, it's Refn's first feature film since 2016's “The Neon Demon.”
The Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev is also back in the Cannes competition lineup with “Minotaur.” Zvyagintsev's last two films, “Loveless” and “Leviathan,” both debuted at Cannes and went on to land Oscar nominations.
Other competition entries include films by Asghar Farhadi (“Parallel Stories”), Lukas Dhont (“Coward”) and Lazlo Nemes (“Moulin”).
Thierry Fremaux, Cannes’ artistic director, announced the selections in a news conference alongside festival president Iris Knobloch. Fremaux said that 2,541 feature films were submitted for inclusion.
“In this moment, bringing together films and artists from around the world is not a luxury, it’s a necessity," Knobloch said. "Because when the world darkens, we lose our bearings. Showcasing films from all horizons is not a trivial act. It is defending what is most precious to humanity, its ability to dream and think freely.”
Cannes is coming off a 2025 festival that produced a number of Oscar contenders, including two best-picture nominees in Joachim Tier’s “Sentimental Value” and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent.” This year’s Cannes appears well positioned to continue the festival’s stature as the global launching pad of many of the year’s best international films, some of which are bound to show up at next year’s Oscars.
But Hollywood studios appear to be a no-show. Fremaux has said not to expect red carpet premieres like “Top Gun: Maverick” or “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” — both of which made splashy premieres in recent years. This year, Cannes announced ahead of the Paris news conference that John Travolta's directorial debut “Propeller One-Way Night Coach” will debut in the Cannes Premiere section.
“The United States will be present, but the studios will be a bit less so,” Fremaux said. “It’s important to know that when studios are less present at Cannes, it means they are generally less present with the type of cinema that used to allow them to thrive.”
Two prominent American directors will debut documentaries in special screenings: Steven Soderbergh with “John Lennon: The Last Interview” and Ron Howard with “Avedon,” about the photographer Richard Avedon.
Opening the festival, out of competition, is the 1920s French film “The Electric Kiss.” Cannes requires its opening movie to release the same week in French cinemas. And entry to its prestigious competition lineup requires theatrical distribution, a stipulation that — given France’s laws guarding theatrical windows — has excluded Netflix movies and other streaming titles since 2017.
This year, the Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook will preside over the nine-member jury that will decide the Palme. And a pair of honorary Palmes will be handed out, to Barbra Streisand and to Peter Jackson.
Cannes film festival president Iris Knobloch, right, and Cannes film festival delegate general Thierry Fremaux attend a press conference to announce the International Cannes film festival line up for the upcoming 79th edition, Thursday, April 9, 2026 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Cannes film festival president Iris Knobloch, right, and Cannes film festival delegate general Thierry Fremaux attend a press conference to announce the International Cannes film festival line up for the upcoming 79th edition, Thursday, April 9, 2026 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Cannes film festival president Iris Knobloch, right, and Cannes film festival delegate general Thierry Fremaux pose after a press conference to announce the International Cannes film festival line up for the upcoming 79th edition, Thursday, April 9, 2026 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
