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).
Full Episode
The people who make theater exist in a sort of parallel universe. From inside this universe, it can seem vast. There are so many projects. The work itself is so immersive. And let's be honest, there is a lot of gossip to keep up with.
But in reality, theater is a tiny universe when you compare it to all the other flashier forms of entertainment like TV and film, live music and sports, video gaming. the theater universe looks like a distant and dimming star. And yet, believers still believe. And every now and then,
Someone takes a shot that is so unlikely, so audacious, and if that shot lands, it rejuvenates the whole enterprise and makes the larger world take notice. In other words, this tiny universe really can produce one singular sensation.
I'll start from a personal note. My son had been on vacation and he came back And we're 15 blocks apart. So usually he comes for breakfast and says, well, my next show, it's Hamilton. And I'm like, the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States of America? He's like, yes, I just read this amazing... And as I'm reading it... This is the Ron Chernow biography of Hamilton, correct?
Of Hamilton, correct. He's telling the story to my wife and I. I see hip-hop singers jumping off the pages in my head. I'm like...
He went f***ing crazy.
That is Luis Miranda Jr. His son is Lin-Manuel Miranda.
I tell my wife, you got to read this book because you understand that this is a journey. We're all going to be in for a long time. And in my family, it doesn't matter if you disagree.
We all have to work together. Hamilton wound up becoming one of the most compelling successes in any form of entertainment at any time in history. It made the dimming distant star of Broadway shine very bright, and it gave Luis Miranda a new full-time job.
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