Masters of the Stage

At its 3-day Musical Theatre Symposium in June of 2002, SDCF hosted a panel on assembling creative teams moderated by Arthur Bartow. Speakers included producers Marty Bell (Ragtime) and Sally Campbell Morse(Urinetown), choreographers Larry Fuller (Evita) and Daniel Pelzig (33 Variations), Roundabout Artistic Director Todd Haimes, directors Christopher Ashley (Memphis) and David Warren (Summer and Smoke), and composer Lucy Simon (The Secret Garden). These speakers provide case histories of collaborations that they put together that were either successful or dire failures, and include tales of Ragtime, the 1998 Revival of Cabaret, Urinetown and the original collaboration on the Maltby/Shire musical Take Flight, which had a successful run at the McCarter Theatre Center in April of 2010 with a different creative team. Other topics include the role of the producer in initiating projects and finding good collaborations, the function of the director as part of a team, and the importance of workshops in the creative process for everyone involved. Listen to this podcast for an informative conversation with fascinating anecdotes on what it means to find the right people to make it to Broadway.