If the stagehands do walk out, it will be the second time in less than five years that much of Broadway has been shut down by a strike. The musicians’ strike in 2003, which lasted four days, was the first time in nearly three decades that Broadway was shut down by a labor dispute.

A strike would cause almost all Broadway theaters to go dark, shuttering 27 shows now running. Broadway’s four nonprofit theaters — plus the New Amsterdam, the Circle in the Square, the Helen Hayes and the Hilton Theater — all operate under separate contracts with the union, and the shows in them would remain up and running.