“A Battle for Survival”: Mandy Patinkin, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sara Bareilles Join Writers Strike Rally in N.Y.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sara Bareilles and members of the Broadway community serenaded Times Square Thursday in a show of solidarity with the Writers Guild of America.
At the themed WGA Broadway Day Rally, performers belted out classic show tunes with nods to organizing such as “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from Les Misérables, “Ya Got Trouble” from The Music Man, with references to residuals and streaming and “America” performed by Rent star Adam Pascal and Catch Me if You Can star Norbert Leo Butz, his original understudy. Members from SAG-AFTRA, Actors’ Equity, IATSE and Local 802 AFM, the musicians’ union, attended the rally led by Girls5eva star Paula Pell.
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“None of these streets exist. None of your favorite movies exist. None of your favorite TV shows exist without writers. We deserve to live with a living wage,” Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda said, before performing and playing “My Shot” on the keyboard. (Miranda is not a WGA member, but has been standing in solidarity with the union.)
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter before the rally began, as “9-to-5” blared in the background, Homeland star Mandy Patinkin, who is an Actors’ Equity and SAG-AFTRA member and more, said this is the third or fourth WGA event he has attended. Patinkin and his wife, Kathryn Grody, who is also a WGA member, keep attending to ensure that the writers get “a fair shake” from producers and to get people in power to share the wealth.
“If you’re making money off of the creative spirit and the ingenuity of the storytellers who give us the lifeblood that we live on, which are stories (we can’t breathe without them), you need to share those benefits with the workers all the way down the line,” Patinkin said. “Especially for the guy at the bottom of the totem pole, so that person has a chance to work up the ladder, too.”
Patinkin added that both he and Grody voted “yes” on the SAG-AFTRA strike authorization vote.
“We both voted to authorize the strike, if necessary, and we hope it isn’t necessary, that they’ll come to some resolution that will influence the negotiations for the Writers Guild and everyone can get back to work,” he said. “A lot of people are suffering. Even though you hear all the music, this is not entertainment, this is a battle for survival.”
The timing of the rally came days after the unscripted Tony Awards. The ceremony did not receive a waiver from the WGA, but was allowed to go forward, so long as producers did not use a script. Even so, ahead of the ceremony, the WGA asked members who were Tony Awards nominees not to attend the ceremony and to instead send in prerecorded acceptance speeches or have a non-WGA member accept on their behalf.
After the WGA sent out the memo, the Dramatists Guild, which represents playwrights, composers and lyricists, met with the impacted nominees and counseled them to still attend the show, but to voice support for the writers. Many attendees did so, including winning Leopoldstadt playwright Tom Stoppard and director Patrick Marber, as well as host Ariana DeBose.
Sara Bareilles, one of the Tony nominees who is also a WGA member, sang “Brave” at the Times Square rally and spoke about the importance of coming out to support the WGA, as well as voting yes on the SAG-AFTRA strike authorization vote.
“When I think about what’s going on, how they’re trying to take away the right to write human stories from human beings and how powerful we are when we all come together, it’s really thrilling and it’s really chilling,” Bareilles said. “So thank you for your energy and your efforts, and I stand with my writer friends.”
Jordan E. Cooper, who was a Tony nominee for writing and starring in Ain’t No Mo’ and a WGA member, as the showrunner of The Ms. Pat Show, also spoke to the need for solidarity, before launching into a version of “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.”
“This is so important to show that we’re standing together. It’s so important to show that we’re using our voices,” Cooper said. “Listen, there are so many writers right now who are struggling to pay rent, who have shows that they’ve written on Netflix, but their card is declined at the grocery store and it just don’t make no sense.”
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