Broadway New York City

They added four new songs, lined up a big theater and psyched up their backers. The producers of "Vanities, A New Musical," originally staged at the Pasadena Playhouse, then announced it was opening on Broadway in February. But three weeks later, on Dec. 5, the producers issued a second bulletin: The show would not go on during this winter of economic discontent. This is not a season for new Broadway shows that might make it.

Broadway musicians, who staged a four-day strike in 2003 that cost New York City's economy about $10 million, agreed to a three-year contract with producers, both sides announced Tuesday. The contract requires producers to increase contributions to the musicians' health plan and expands the number of musicians eligible to participate. In return, musicians gave up two wage increases over the course of the deal.

Broadway sales set a record for the third straight season, aided by long-running musical hits such as "Wicked" and "Jersey Boys." Revenue jumped 8.9% to $939 million and attendance rose 2.6% to 12.3 million for the season that ended Sunday, the League of American Theaters and Producers, Broadway's trade association, reported Wednesday. Average ticket prices for the season were $76.27, up from $71.78 in 2005-06 and $67 in the season before that.

As Broadway prepares for its big night tonight, it has more to celebrate than the annual parade of self-congratulations that is the Tony Awards. For the second straight year, Broadway has registered record attendance and gross revenues at a time when other forms of entertainment are looking at bleak bottom lines. The League of American Theatres and Producers, a national trade association for the Broadway industry, reported recently that 12.

Three-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening, who has kept her stage legs limber with periodic roles in L.A., will face New York theater audiences next spring for the first time in 20 years in "The Female of the Species," a satiric comedy by Australian writer Joanna Murray-Smith.

"West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin's new play "The Farnsworth Invention" -- the filmmaker's first stage play since his 1989 New York hit, "A Few Good Men" -- will open on Broadway this year. An exploration of the controversial story behind the invention of television, "Farnsworth" was originally commissioned by Dublin's Abbey Theater and developed at the La Jolla Playhouse under departing artistic director Des McAnuff, who will direct the New York production for Dodger Theatricals ("Jersey Boys").

Broadway's most anticipated summer drama opened Friday, as producers and stagehands began contract talks. Their goal: Avert a strike like the one by musicians four years ago that cost the city $10 million in lost revenue and wages and shut down shows for four days. The stagehands' contract expires July 29. The League of American Theaters and Producers, the Broadway trade association, is seeking more flexibility in employing stagehands, who install and maintain scenery, props and lighting.

NEW YORK -- Mark Twain is a name not usually associated with Broadway, unless he is being portrayed by Hal Holbrook, the actor responsible for the one-man show "Mark Twain Tonight!" But now a play by Twain called "Is He Dead?" -- adapted by David Ives -- will receive its world premiere Nov. 29 on Broadway, producers Bob Boyett, Roger Berlind and Daryl Roth announced this week. Preview performances begin Nov. 8 at the Lyceum Theatre. "Is He Dead?"

Is there a possibility the fall Broadway season will stop before it starts? Talks between the league of American Theatres and Producers and the Broadway stagehands union have been inching along this month but are approaching a league-imposed deadline. No one is talking on the record, but the league reportedly will make its last offer Monday. What happens next is up in the air.