The workers will get full benefits (health, pension, and 401(k)) for those two and a half weeks, and after that will get only health benefits through April 12; the two sides agreed to talk before then about whether those benefits can be further extended if the shutdown continues.

“It’s the best deal we could get under trying circumstances,” said the actress Kate Shindle, the president of Actors’ Equity Association, which represents 1,142 actors and stage managers working on affected productions. “We’ve been trying to find the sweet spot between getting the greatest number of benefits for our members, while still trying to make sure we don’t bankrupt the individual shows in the process. Our members would like to have jobs to go back to.”

The producers argued that they could not afford to do more, given that they have no current box office revenue.

“We worked really hard with our colleagues in all 14 unions to come up with a fair and generous contract that we hope will tide everyone over until other forms of support can be developed,” said Charlotte St. Martin, the president of the Broadway League. “Our goal was also to get as many shows to come back as possible, and with the slim margins for 90 percent of the shows on Broadway, we had to take that into consideration.”