ONSTAGE & BACKSTAGE: I'm Gonna Be a Producer; Wisdom from David Merrick and Annaleigh Ashford's Kinky Accent

By Seth Rudetsky
06 May 2013

Seth Rudetsky
Seth Rudetsky

A week in the life of actor, radio host, music director and writer Seth Rudetsky.

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OM to the G! It's really happening. No, not a day where I'm not constantly complaining about my weight, yet eating non-stop sugar because it's a "special occasion." It's something even more unexpected.

If you remember, James and I put up some plays in March for 16 performances each. After the first week of performances, an investor approached James and said he would put money into the show if it transferred. That was exciting, but where would it transfer? Oh, and who would produce it? Then, a few performances later, a woman told James she'd love to "be involved" if the show moved. We didn't know what "involved" meant. Did she want to start dating the show? As in, ‘We were involved for a few years back in the 70's'? Turns out, it meant she'd invest money if the show transferred!

But, again, what transfer? Then Kurt Peterson, who Broadway fans know as the original Young Buddy in Follies and the romantic lead in Dear World, came to the show. He's also a producer and recommended taking Unbroken Circle to St. Luke's on 46th Street. James remembered seeing Judy Gold's 25 Questions'For A Jewish Mother at that theatre when he first moved to New York and loving it. He met with Ed, the theatre manager, and found out that Ed uses a business model where he runs a few different shows at different times in the same theatre. It's essentially a shmorsgasbord of shows. They had a great meeting and by the end, Ed offered James a slot in the schedule!

But, encore une fois, who would produce our show? We decided to take a minute and think through all the things a producer does: contracts, ticketing, publicity, marketing and essentially general overseeing of everything. And, most importantly, a producer raises the investments that fund the production. We realized we had done all the things a producer does when we ran our shows in March. And, after we made a budget, we realized we had enough investors to fund the show. Turns out, we're producers! And the show is moving Off-Broadway!

That's right, Unbroken Circle will begin previews on May 29th and have its official opening on June 19th. And the whole cast is able to come back! Look at our sassy new website: UnbrokenCircleThePlay.com.

And, speaking of producers, I'm reading "The Abonimable Showman," which is all about David Merrick who produced Hello, Dolly!, 42nd Street and many other Broadway classics. He came up with the idea of having a "reserve" in the initial investment so a show can keep running until it finds its audience. So, besides raising that money, we're using another tactic that keeps a show running until it finds its audience—that's right, we're offering a ticket discount code to my fans. (And to my enemies.) Anyone can use it! Go to BroadwayOffers.com and put in the code UCSETH for ye olde cheap tickets.

The cast of Unbroken Circle.



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