THE musicians’ union is trying to stir up trouble for “Contact,” Susan Stroman’s hit dance show at Lincoln Center.

Last week, the Tony Award rules committee made “Contact” eligible to compete for the Tony for Best Musical.

In a letter to a top-level Tony official yesterday, Local 802 president William Moriarity protested the decision because “Contact” uses recorded music instead of live musicians.

“No music, vocal or instrumental, has been created for this production,” he said in the letter. “No work has ever been considered for a Tony – an award ostensibly for creative merit – that contained no creative musical elements,” he added.

A spokesman for the Tony Awards said: “We acknowledge his points, but the committee made its decision last week. Period.”

Judy West, a spokeswoman for Local 802, said the union has no plans to protest “Contact,” which is currently running at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.

“We are simply stating that it is not musical theater,” she said.

Privately, theater sources said the union was simply taking a public stance to make sure that “Contact” does not set a precedent for the use of recorded music in Broadway theater.