West End performers have demanded a 44 per cent pay rise amid growing anger over their rates.
Actors' union Equity has presented a formal request for the rise to executives at the Society of London Theatre.
The current minimum wage is £381 a week - less than £20,000 a year - compared with a minimum of £680 for musicians in the same shows. Although most chorus members earn above the minimum - usually between £450 and £550 a week - that figure is no higher than it was in 1997.
The union wants the new minimum to be set at £550, or £650 if a show runs on Sundays.
Industry insiders are saying privately that tensions are so high there could be a strike in the autumn.
"Once you ballot, the potential is there to pull a show down," one source said. Another added: "People feel pretty aggrieved really." Equity's Martin Brown said: "These are people at the peak of their profession and the best in the world.
"They should jolly well get paid properly for what they do."
Some shows are acknowledged to be worse payers than others. "Chicago is awful," one source claimed.
A recent union survey showed that two-thirds of members would consider some form of industrial action up to going on strike to achieve a realistic West End pay packet. Actors in plays thought £500 a week was a fair basic weekly wage, with musical performers wanting £600 as a minimum.
Musical cast members claim their equivalents on Broadway routinely earn around £700 a week. More than half of West End performers do a second job to make ends meet.
A spokesman for the Society of London Theatre said it did not discuss pay while negotiations were taking place.
The pay claim follows a recent row between some performers and the managers behind the George Gershwin musical Porgy And Bess.
Industry sources reported that managers were forced to pay an extra £7,300 after some staff took them to the theatre equivalent of a tribunal - the Theatre Council, which is run by Equity and the society.
The row centred on cast members known as swings, who are the understudies for members of the chorus and are expected to take on any role.
They were also acting as understudies for featured parts, but were not being paid for this extra work.
Do you work in theatre and think you should be paid more? Email us at westend@standard.co.uk
Who earns what
MINIMUM WEEKLY RATES FOR THE WEST END (EIGHT SHOWS)
Performer £381.13
Assistant stage manager £381.13
Deputy stage manager £476.40
Stage manager £533.58
Company stage manager £571.69
