The Producer's Perspective Podcast with Ken Davenport

Latest Episodes:

126 - Randy Buck Aug 20, 2017

Show notes

Randy Buck is the CEO of Troika Organization for which he has produced over 50 productions across the globe. Before joining Troika in 1999, Mr. Buck was vice president and general manager for Livent in Toronto. While working for Livent, he managed productions such as Fosse, Ragtime, Show Boat, Music of the Night, and Kiss of the Spider Woman. Mr. Buck was a stage manager for more than 20 years, surviving a year with Mary Martin & Carol Channing in Jimmy Kirkwood's Legends!, a year in Japan with Siegfried & Roy, opening The Phantom of the Opera Music Box Company and opening Show Boat! on Broadway.

Listen in to hear Randy chat about . . .

What a tour can mean for a show’s Broadway Investors.
Why on the road, a good TV commercial can mean more than a good show.
When you should plan your national tour.
Can a show go on the road without a Broadway brand?
An easy way to save money for touring productions.

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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125 - David Javerbaum Aug 13, 2017

Show notes

David Javerbaum is a comedy writer. He has won 13 Emmy Awards in his career, 11 of which he received for his work on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He runs the popular Twitter account @TheTweetOfGod, an account known for its anti-established-religion tweets which served as the basis for his play An Act of God, which opened on Broadway in 2015 starring Jim Parsons, and again in 2016 starring Sean Hayes. Javerbaum was hired as a staff writer with The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in 1999. He was also one of the three principal authors of the show's textbook parody America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. He left the show in 2010. In 2016 Javerbaum co-created the Netflix sitcom Disjointed with Chuck Lorre.

He called in from his home in Hollywood and we talked comedy and drama and . . .

How he decides whether an idea is a show, a TV show, book . . . or yes, a Twitter account.
The most important skill he learned in graduate school.
What he thinks about the current state of comedy on Broadway.
The role of irony in writing.
Ego . . . when to set it aside, and when NOT to.

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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124 - Scott Elliott Aug 06, 2017

Show notes

Scott Elliott is an artistic director and the founder of The New Group, a non-profit company with a commitment to developing and producing powerful, contemporary theater. He has directed shows such as Avenue Q, Present Laughter, The Three Sisters, Barefoot in the Park, and The Threepenny Opera. His company has produced shows such as Hurlyburly, This Is Our Youth, Buried Child, Rasheeda Speaking, and more.

Scott and I chatted about where he got his “I’ll just figure it out” attitude on this week’s podcast, as well as:

Why The New Group doesn’t want a Broadway Theater.
What happened to commercial Off Broadway.
Why you can’t be afraid of “no” when you’re raising money.
Thinking about starting a theater company? Here’s his shocking opinion.
The reaction he hates from audiences.

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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123 - Irene Sankoff and David Hein Jul 30, 2017

Show notes

Irene Sankoff and David Hein are a Canadian librettist and composer-lyricist couple, best known for co-writing the Broadway musical Come From Away. After spending several years studying and working in New York the couple returned to Toronto where Hein wrote a song, "My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding", about his mother and her later life partner. Sankoff and Hein expanded the song into a play that became a hit at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2009 and then picked up by Mirvish Productions for a run at Toronto's Panasonic Theatre before touring Canada. As a result of My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding's success, theatre producer Michael Rubinoff approached Hein and Sankoff with his idea about a show based on Operation Yellow Ribbon in which residents of Gander, Newfoundland, housed 7,000 airline passengers who had been stranded at Gander Airport as a result of the grounding of all North American air flights following the September 11 attacks. The couple visited Gander in 2011 during the 10-year reunion of passengers and locals, and subsequently wrote Come from Away based on the stories they learned there.

Listen in to hear them talk about…

Why they became musical theater writers solely to spend more time together.
The Rules they have as a writing team to make sure they stay married…and stay writing together (these are worth the price of this podcast alone!).
How to stand up for your script against big time Broadway veterans when you’re a rookie, and its importance to your show’s success.
Why they never thought that Come From Away would play Broadway, and how that attitude helped get the show here.
The importance of a day job as you’re on your way to write for the theater… or do anything in the theater!

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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122 - Sara Fitzpatrick Jul 23, 2017

Show notes

Sara Fitzpatrick is a marketer and founder of the advertising agency, Art House. She has been in charge of marketing for shows including Lennon, The Color Purple, Lestat, Stomp, A Chorus Line, The Times They Are A-Changin', and Come From Away. Her company also advertises for other businesses and events such as Rouge makeup salons, dance competitions and even the World Science Festival.

Sara and I chat a lot. This time we recorded it. And now you can listen in as we talked . . .

How she learned marketing from managing her dad’s restaurant.
What she learned about selling theater tickets by setting up a booth in Malls on Long Island.
Why a creative team should be involved with your marketing campaign . . . especially if you have no money.
The biggest mistake big Broadway shows make in marketing, and how you can avoid making the same one.
Will we be all digital soon? Or is there still room for print and TV?

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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121 - Don Scardino Jul 16, 2017

Show notes

Don Scardino is a television director and producer and a former actor. His first Broadway credit was as an understudy in The Playroom in 1965. Additional Broadway acting credits include Johnny No-Trump, Godspell, and King of Hearts. Off-Broadway he appeared in The Rimers of Eldritch, The Comedy of Errors, and Moonchildren. On television, he appeared on the daytime soap operas The Guiding Light, All My Children, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, and Another World. Feature film credits include The People Next Door, Rip-Off, Homer, Squirm, Cruising and He Knows You're Alone. Following his acting on the network soap operas, he began to direct them. He directed episodes of Another World, One Life to Live, and All My Children.

He shared some great stories and some great tips you can apply to your career, as well as…

How he literally knocked on doors to get his start in the biz.
Why NOT getting the lead in a show ultimately led him to the career he has now.
What “being nice” has to do with making it…or not.
How Hollywood does a better job at THIS than Broadway…and what we can do to fix it.
A simple and powerful lesson in acting on television for theater actors.

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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120 - Lia Vollack Jul 09, 2017

Show notes

Lia Vollack is a record executive. In 1974, she moved to New York City, where she would find work as a sound designer for Broadway and Off-Broadway shows such as On the Waterfront and The Heidi Chronicles; she continued working as a sound effects freelancer and music editor until 1997, when she was hired by Sony. She has since become the main force behind the release of soundtracks and film scores for films released by Sony Pictures. She is the creator of the record label Madison Gate, dedicated to publishing film music that might otherwise go unreleased, and has been named to the Billboard Power 100 list on multiple occasions.

Lia runs the live entertainment arm of Sony Pictures, and I expect we’ll be hearing a lot from Lia and her corporate crew over the next decade.

In the meantime, you’ll hear a lot from her on this podcast including . . .

How being terrified as a child led her to fall in love with the theater.
How graduating from high school at age 15 prepared her for a career in film and on Broadway.
What Broadway can learn from the way Hollywood tests its products.
The best place to train (literally!) if you want to be a Producer. (Hint: it ain’t college.)
One of the best responses to the Genie question yet.

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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119 - Robert Fried Jul 02, 2017

Show notes

Robert Fried is an accountant who provides service to hundreds of theatrical productions, both in the United States and abroad. He currently represents some of the most prominent and successful Broadway shows, such as School of Rock, Rent, and Hamilton, and also provides cross border planning to both domestic and foreign producers for theatrical productions and licensing. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA), the NYSSCPA Tax Division and an affiliate member of the League of American Theatres and Producers.

He’s given me fantastic financial advice over the years, which is why I wanted you to hear his perspective on our business and where it’s headed. But we didn’t only talk numbers, we also talked about:

The one skill that separates some Producers from others.
What’s next for tax legislation on Broadway.
The current administration . . . good or bad for Broadway.
The most important part of any budget for any show on Broadway, Off Broadway or wherever.
The London business model versus ours. Which one is better?

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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118 - Nancy Gibbs Jun 26, 2017

Show notes

Nancy Gibbs is a producer and manager for theatrical shows. She won the Tony Award for Best Musical for her producer work in Fun Home. She also won a Drama Desk Award recently for Come From Away for Outstanding Musical, alongside her co-producer, Michael Alden. Other shows she has produced include Peter and the Starcatcher, All Shook Up, Man of La Mancha, The Big Bang, Smoke on the Mountain, and Over the River and Through the Woods.

Off Broadway and its current state is just one of the things Nancy enlightened me about, along with . . .

How one phone call started her career in New York.
The secret to increasing a show’s subsidiary value.
Why she won’t commission a show.
Who the most important person is when developing a show from scratch.
The challenges of adapting something from Hollywood for Broadway.

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

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117 - Eva Price Jun 04, 2017

Show notes

Eva Price is a Tony Award-winning producer of Broadway plays, musicals and concerts, a member of The Broadway League's Board of Governors, and on the producing team of Killer Content and Abigail Disney's venture Level Forward. Shows she has produced include Dear Evan Hansen (six Tony Awards including Best Musical), On Your Feet!, Peter and the Starcatcher (five Tony Awards), Annie (Tony-Nominated Musical Revival), The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino, and The Addams Family. Off-Broadway shows include Cruel Intentions: The '90s Musical; Drama Desk-nominated Found The Lion, and Small Mouth Sounds.

We talked about all things including:

How being bored in the news business led to a career in producing.
Why she’s glad her first show only ran 6 weeks and did NOT succeed.
How she raised the very first money she ever raised . . . with a COLD call!
The challenge of being a woman in this business . . . and being a woman Producer in this business.
What the hardest part was about breaking into the Broadway business . . . you’ll be surprised by the answer.

Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway

www.theproducersperspective.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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