A hit like Hamilton can come from nowhere while a sure bet can lose $20 million in a flash. We speak with some of the biggest producers in the game — Sonia Friedman, Jeffrey Seller, Hal Luftig — and learn that there is only one guarantee: the theater owners always win. (Part two of a three-part series.)
- SOURCES:
- Debby Buchholz, managing director of La Jolla Playhouse.
- Sonia Friedman, Broadway producer.
- Rocco Landesman, Broadway producer, former owner of Jujamcyn Theaters, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.
- Hal Luftig, Broadway producer.
- Luis Miranda Jr., political strategist, founding president of the Hispanic Federation, the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, Viva Broadway, and The Public Theater.
- Michael Rushton, professor of arts administration at Indiana University.
- Jeffrey Seller, Broadway producer.
- Richard Winkler, Broadway producer.
- Stacy Wolf, professor of theater at Princeton University.
- RESOURCES:
- Theater Kid: A Broadway Memoir, by Jeffrey Seller (2025).
- Relentless: My Story of the Latino Spirit That Is Transforming America, by Luis Miranda Jr. (2024).
- Beyond Broadway: The Pleasure and Promise of Musical Theatre Across America, by Stacy Wolf (2019).
- “‘Hamilton’ Inc.: The Path to a Billion-Dollar Broadway Show,” by Michael Paulson and David Gelles (New York Times, 2016).
- “On the Performing Arts: The Anatomy of Their Economic Problems,” by W.J. Baumol and W.G. Bowen (The American Economic Review, 1965).
- EXTRAS:
- “How to Make the Coolest Show on Broadway,” by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
- “You Can Make a Killing, but Not a Living,” by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
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