Podcast Episode 84 – Tony Award-Winning Producer, Barry Weissler
Barry Weissler gave me my start.
He didn’t know it because it was the great Production Stage Manager, Craig Jacobs, that actually hired me as the Production Assistant on the Weissler’s production of My Fair Lady. But Barry was the first Broadway Producer I watched in action. And I remember the first speech he gave on the very first day of rehearsal, and I also remember thinking, “I want to do what that guy does.”
What that guy does is produce shows like, oh, I don’t know, one of the longest running musicals in Broadway history (Chicago, in case you were living under a mountain of Playbills). But that’s not all. Barry and his wife, Fran, have also brought us fantastic musicals like Falsettos, last season’s Waitress, The Scottsboro Boys, the revival of Pippin, and oh so many more.
I’ve been waiting since 1993 and that first day of rehearsal of My Fair Lady to pick his brain. Took me 23 years, but I finally got my chance! Listen to Barry tell me all about . . .
- His journey from Actor to Director to Bullfighter (!) to Producer.
- How they turned the Encores! production of Chicago into the second longest-running Broadway show of all time.
- What he thinks about movie studios entering the Broadway game.
- His process of picking shows to produce and how that has changed.
- Why he doesn’t think Broadway is better off now than it was 20 years ago.
I got a chance to learn a heck of a lot from Barry as a PA on My Fair Lady, as one of his Company Managers on Chicago . . . and now, you’re gonna get a chance to learn from one of the best too.
Listen up! Here’s . . . . Barry!
Click here to listen.Listen to it on iTunes here. (And if you like the podcast, give it a great review, while you’re there!)
Download it here.
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Podcasting
Ken created one of the first Broadway podcasts, recording over 250 episodes over 7 years. It features interviews with A-listers in the theater about how they “made it”, including 2 Pulitzer Prize Winners, 7 Academy Award Winners and 76 Tony Award winners. Notable guests include Pasek & Paul, Kenny Leon, Lynn Ahrens and more.
