However, probably the highest known base salary for a celebrity Broadway star went to Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in The Producers, where their salaries were over $100,000 per week.
For each principal role that you are understudying, your minimum increases $33. For every performance in which you, as an understudy, actually end up playing that principal role, you get an extra 1/8 of your weekly salary. Tony nominated lead actors normally see a $500 per week pay bump while winners can see that number climb to $1000 per week.
Equity minimums can range from $440 to $763 per week. Couple that with the fact that fewer than 15% of dues-paying Actor’s Equity members work during a given week, and you’ve got a successful career as a waitress propping up your Broadway dreams. Ultimately, the way of the theatre does not differ too much
First we have the union-mandated minimum scale, which was $1,861 per week as of September 29, 2014. This is the baseline of everyone’s salary, and typically a principal actor in a super low-budget show or an ensemble actor with few cover assignments or specialties will make only a little more than this minimum.
How much does a Broadway musician make a week?
Focusing on the contractual weekly base pay for a musician, which assumes all shows are played by the same musician, the weekly wage for a Broadway musician is $1,885.77.
Stage Managers. The base weekly salary for a stage manager working on a Broadway musical is $3,342 a week, or $2,872 for a play . Assistant stage managers make a minimum of $2,649 weekly for a musical and $2,347 for a play.
The current minimum salary for an Equity performer on Broadway is $2,034 a week. But that figure can increase depending on the particular demands of any given track. For instance, a chorus role or specialty adds $20 to that weekly minimum, which is more or less standard across the board for Broadway ensembles these days.
Understudying roles also comes with additional pay. Swings, who understudy multiple ensemble tracks, earn $101.70 over the performer minimum, or $15 if a performer is only a partial swing. Understudying principal roles can add $54.50 to the weekly salary, while understudying chorus roles adds $15.
The base weekly salary for a conductor on Broadway is $3,300.
These figures are valid as of October 2, 2017, and are scheduled to remain through September 29, 2018, after which most of these rates will increase slightly. Musician pay rates comes from Local 802. Their rates are valid as of March 2018 and are scheduled to remain through March 3, 2019.
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