(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-29 20:31

NEW YORK - Curtain up. Broadway raced to reopen for business Thursday after stagehands and theater producers reached a tentative agreement, ending a crippling strike that kept more than two dozen shows dark for 19 days.

Jim Claffey, center, president of Local 1, celebrates, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007, in New York, after Broadway stagehands and theater producers reached a tentative agreement to end a strike that has shut down more than two dozen plays and musicals for more than two weeks. [Agencies]

The settlement came Wednesday night, the third day of marathon sessions between Local 1 and the League of American Theatres and Producers to end the lengthy work stoppage that has cost producers and the city millions of dollars.

Most plays and musicals that were shut during the walkout, which began November 10, were expected to be up and running Thursday evening.

"The contract is a good compromise that serves our industry," said Charlotte St. Martin, the league's executive director. "What is most important is that Broadway's lights will once again shine brightly, with a diversity of productions that will delight all theatergoers during this holiday time."

Union President James J. Claffey Jr. was equally effusive in signing off on the agreement, saying, "The people of Broadway are looking forward to returning to work, giving the theatergoing public the joy of Broadway, the greatest entertainment in the world."

Details of the five-year contract, which must be approved by the union membership, were not disclosed.

But negotiations, which began last summer, were difficult, right up to the last day, as both sides struggled with what apparently was the final hang-up: the issue of wages. It concerned how much to pay stagehands in return for a reduction in what the producers say were onerous work rules that required them to hire more stagehands than are needed.

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