Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This episode of the New Yorkers podcast is brought to you by newyork100.org recognizing excellence across New York City's five boroughs. Hello everyone and welcome to the New Yorker is a podcast by New York City Cop. I'm your host, Kelly Kopp, published photographer, New York City tour business owner, real estate content creator, podcaster and above all else, a New Yorker.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: Ladies and gentlemen, the next Brooklyn bound train in Mount Biden. Stand clear of the closing doors please.
[00:00:45] Speaker C: This is.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Transfer is available to the shovel to Grand Central.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: Foreign with me today I have president and CEO Michael Presser. He is the president and founder of Inside Broadway. He has worked with arts, management and large scales all over the world, served and led community boards across the city and is a member of many Broadway organizations. But above all else, Michael is also a New Yorker. Hey Michael, welcome to the show. How are you doing today?
[00:01:27] Speaker C: I'm great. Thanks for having me.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: Yeah, we're super excited to have you on the show. I mean, Broadway, I mean, how amazing is that? And you're a plethora of knowledge about Broadway and the information you're going to tell us about the programs that you do. So welcome my friend.
[00:01:42] Speaker C: Well, thank you. There's nothing more New York than Broadway.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: Perfect.
[00:01:47] Speaker C: Everybody, everybody loves Broadway all around. You know, when I travel, people always ask me about New York, but they always ask me about Broadway. What's happening on Broadway, what's new, how's it doing? They want to know the grosses. They're interested.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: Oh, I do too actually.
Yeah, that's, that's, it's really amazing. I'm actually going to see the Michael Jackson show to Thursday night and so I'm super. That's one I've heard is amazing and I can't believe I haven't seen it yet, but I'm super excited. But let's talk about you. Let's, let's start from the beginning.
Where were you born?
[00:02:20] Speaker C: Well, I was not born in New York. I was born in Philadelphia where I spent my childhood and after graduating from Temple University, nice. Came right to New York and I've been here.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: And what age were you then?
In the early 20s.
[00:02:39] Speaker C: Early 20s. Early 20s. So I've been here long time and my friends in Philadelphia, the few that are remaining, say to me, you are a New Yorker, right? You are no longer a Philadelphian, you are a New Yorker, Right.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: And so did you take classes like acting classes or theater classes in Philadelphia at Temple University?
[00:03:02] Speaker C: No, actually I did business curriculum at Temple. But it's interesting. You Mention this because I actually happen to be right now writing a memoir about my life and my career.
And it's given me the opportunity to go back and to think about all of these years ago, things that happened, people that I met and so forth. And that is one of what you just asked, is one of the things that I was speaking to my writer about, because he was asking me about the same thing, actually.
I think my direction was not set by Temple University, although I have nothing against Temple.
But my direction, I think, was set by my two aunts, my father's sisters, who from a very young age started taking me to children's concerts of the Philadelphia Orchestra in Philadelphia, and my parents, who from a very young age also took me to various shows that would come through Philadelphia, because in those days, Philadelphia was a major tryout city for Broadway musicals before they came to New York. They would, you know, they would do two weeks in Philadelphia and then maybe two weeks in New Haven or Boston and then open in New York, because we don't do that anymore. It's too expensive to be. To be out of town. But certainly the early experiences with the performing arts definitely set my.
My direction, even though, quite honestly, I didn't know it at the time, but it definitely set my direction in life, which I now I've had the opportunity to actually have pursued. But it started when I was a boy.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: That's fascinating. And so your interest in fascination with, you know, theater, going to see the theater you carried here to New York City then.
[00:05:12] Speaker C: Yeah. And, you know, and I. I must. I must say that, you know, in going back and thinking about all these things for the, for the book brought back a lot of wonderful memories that I had. For instance, you know, I. I was fortunate enough to see the out of town pre Broadway tryouts of My Fair Lady.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: How amazing is that?
[00:05:33] Speaker C: A lot of wonderful shows, George M.
Fiddler on the Roof, all of which, you know, I saw as a. As a little boy, actually, and wonderful people in the, in the music world like, like Van Clyburn and, and Eugene Normandy and Marian Anderson, as a matter of fact.
So a lot of those people passed through Philadelphia and we had the opportunity to go into. To see them, and I still have wonderful memories of them. So that sort of set an education that was separate from the formal education that I had at Temple. But when I graduated from Temple, I think it was very clear in my mind where I needed to be.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Right.
[00:06:22] Speaker C: That. That was New York.
[00:06:24] Speaker A: Okay, perfect.
I want to go to how you use that, you know, then you Brought it to New York. Because what did you do between that and then how you started Kids on Broadway?
[00:06:39] Speaker C: Well, there's, There's a good 15 years.
Yeah. In between there.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: You're right.
[00:06:46] Speaker C: I think, you know, I think sometimes people, particularly young people, are sometimes a little disillusioned with careers because they seem to think that there is a straight line progression in the development of a career.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:07:00] Speaker C: It don't work that way. Correct. Life does not work that way.
And over the route to wherever you're going, there are turns and highs and lows and all kinds of things within that 10 year period.
Those are years of struggle. But they were also years in which I was meeting people. I was learning a lot of things that would be very important in my, you know, my. What would eventually became the career? As a matter of fact, I think my parents during that period were, were a little nervous that I would never hold a job in my life longer than six months at a time, you see. But they, they were.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: I can kind of remember those days too. My parents thinking that, you know, I.
[00:07:52] Speaker C: I give them credit for, for staying. For staying quiet and not interfering and, and just letting whatever was going to happen happen. You see?
[00:08:02] Speaker A: Right. I love that. I think a lot of people can relate to that. So you felt, did you feel.
[00:08:09] Speaker C: Incidentally, I'm giving you my book, so.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:08:12] Speaker C: So you're getting an advanced copy.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: I'm still gonna read it. Cause I know it's gonna be amazing.
So did you feel, from what I understand, that New York City needed something like, was lacking something or. How did you come up with the. Let's talk about the program with kids on Broadway.
[00:08:32] Speaker C: Well, the, our program is called Inside Broadway.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: Right.
[00:08:37] Speaker C: Which is the great name it developed from. The name actually developed through a lot of different stages before we wound up with the name Inside Broadway. But here, here is really where this whole thing began. And this was quite, this was quite by accident. Oh, wow. I, I was member of the Midtown Community Board Board five. Community Board five, which is the business district of Manhattan.
And on the, on the board, a colleague of mine was the vice president for community relations at the Shubert Organization. Now the Shubert Organization is the largest theater owner on Broadway.
They are probably the largest theater owner across the United States as well.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: They think of the, the what? You know, the Schubert Theater right there on set. 44th.
[00:09:34] Speaker C: 44Th Street.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: I instantly thought of that. Yep.
[00:09:36] Speaker C: So that is the flagship theater. Actually there are 17 theaters that they own.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: I saw that.
[00:09:42] Speaker C: And we will sometimes. We should sometimes discuss the Shubert Organization because it's a fascinating history. It goes all the way back to the turn of the last century, right, when when three brothers came over from Eastern Europe and they are the ones that developed what became the Shubert Organization.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: Fascinating.
[00:10:02] Speaker C: At one moment, in the 20s, they were controlling, owner, owning or booking over a thousand theaters across the United States. They were it for live entertainment in the United States. And then, of course, the depression came and so forth. And at the moment, there haven't been actually for quite a while now any members of the Shubert family. Of course, it is now actually a foundation. At any rate, that's a long diversion here.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: Fascinating.
[00:10:35] Speaker C: The.
The Shubert Organization was looking for someone to organize and put together what was an idea that Bernard Jacobs, who is the president of the Shubert Organization, late president, had, which was. He was in the process of bringing to New York the British musical Cats, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats.
And he. He was convinced from seeing it in London that it was a perfect vehicle to introduce young people who had never been to Broadway before the opportunity to come and see a Broadway show.
And he wanted to find someone who would be able to organize a program whereby the Shubert organization could donate 50 tickets to the Wednesday matinee performance of Cats.
And that a different. Because in that day we were just working with high schools, but a different high school would come every week, courtesy of the Shubert organization, to see Cats on Broadway.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:11:50] Speaker C: So that was the basic concept, quite honestly. I walked in the door, I walked in the door and I figured, you know, if I do a good job, maybe they'll give me something else to do.
Literally. Okay. And, you know, and I'll be quite candid and honest, that in no way did I anticipate, nor did Schubert, that 40 some years later we would be here discussing this program. But this program has grown and developed. We are now in over 125 schools throughout the five boroughs of New York. We have over 100,000 children each year in our program. Our programs have moved from just ticketing into teaching, artist programs and our own touring, production and workshops on working in the theater. And a whole variety of different things to educate students in theater, both as a career and also as an industry, an important industry and a workplace here here in New York. So all of that developed out of the 50 tickets to Cats every week at the Winter Garden Theater. 19October 1982.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: That's fascinating. And so kids, you know, these high school kids, right, they.
They actually get up and act.
[00:13:22] Speaker C: Well, now we go, we Go down almost to kindergarten now.
[00:13:26] Speaker A: Oh, down to kindergarten.
[00:13:27] Speaker C: I mean, our programs now have an enormous range of different kinds of activities related to theater, related to live theater that give children both the opportunity to be in a theatrical presentation, but also to learn a little bit about working in the theater as well. Because a lot of times children don't have.
Most adults for that matter too, don't have a sense of all of the different people who are making it possible for the actors to do their job. You see, because kids usually think that the actors come on the stage and we turn the, the lights on and we have a show.
[00:14:11] Speaker A: Right, okay.
[00:14:12] Speaker C: But there are, there is an army of people that are making it possible for the actors to do their job.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: That's incredible. So how, how do these kids, you know, is it through this? I guess probably from.
I'm just guessing that they just, through their school, they get involved into the Broadway program. They contact someone through school or their schools do something to connect that.
[00:14:37] Speaker C: Well, we work, we work directly with the school because it is a school day activity that we are doing.
And incidentally, as I think I did say, we do now go from kindergarten all the way up to high school.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: I love that.
[00:14:55] Speaker C: So there's a whole range of different kind of things, you know, that we can, we can do. In fact, we even have some programs for senior citizens to sign me up. And the scene, I will tell you, the seniors, same program that the kids do and the scenes, the seniors love it as well.
[00:15:11] Speaker A: Oh, I bet.
[00:15:11] Speaker C: So, but in the answer your question, we have to work through the structure of the school.
[00:15:19] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:15:20] Speaker C: Because the schools are highly, highly regulated. They're also incredibly bureaucratic as well.
So we, we select schools based upon the funding we have, based upon recommendations from council members, for instance.
The children are always selected by the school, usually by a principal and a coordinating teacher.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:49] Speaker C: Many times we have students that are interested in the theater.
Many times we have children that have had no exposure to theater. We have children that are taking lessons and want to be in the theater. But many children have had no exposure to the theater.
[00:16:04] Speaker A: That's amazing.
[00:16:05] Speaker C: So this is their first opportunity to look at, to be part of theater and to participate in a theater activity.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: I think it's amazing too, and beautiful because children from all socioeconomic groups, in a sense can become an actor. Right. And perform on stage in Broadway.
[00:16:26] Speaker C: Well, I think, I think that, you know, going back to the Schubert invitation to, to organize this Bernie Jacobs concept was that he wanted all kinds of kids to come to Cats, that he wanted all kinds of different schools to come. I mean, yes, there were going to be performing arts programs and schools that specialize in art and so forth. Yeah, there would be those schools too. But there would be an opportunity. There would be an opportunity to really reach deeper into the youth population and into this, into the board of education to give schools and children that may not have had the opportunity previously to be exposed to theater. This was a program. This is, incidentally, this is populism at its finest, really. This was a program that was always from the beginning. Our roots are based in the concept that we want to bring theater to the largest group of young people possible.
We are not necessarily training the actors of tomorrow because there are many school programs and conservatories and universities that do beautiful work in preparing young people for careers in acting or music or whatever. No, this was going to be, from the very beginning, a program in which children would have the opportunity to be exposed to theater. If they never went to a theater again in their life, so be it. But they had at least had the opportunity in their school day to come and experience live theater on Broadway.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: That's such a brilliant idea. And so now these kids are performing on stage and they have an audience.
Correct.
[00:18:21] Speaker C: In their school. In their school auditoriums.
[00:18:24] Speaker A: Right. So it's in their school auditorium. Right.
[00:18:26] Speaker C: Because they also come to Broadway for various activities that we organize as well. But in their school auditorium, we send our Broadway teaching artists into the school to work with the children and getting them ready to be on the stage with. I mean, the little kids can do like, you know, a 15 minute song medley, salute to New York.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: Right.
[00:18:50] Speaker C: The older kids can do Oklahoma, Arcada or Cats.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: Yeah, you see, I think it's such a brilliant idea and it really inspires kids and opens their minds to learning more about Broadway and their passion for what they want to do. I think it's really brilliant.
[00:19:08] Speaker C: Well, we sit here in the theater capital of the United States and probably the world, and yet a good portion of our residents here have never been to Broadway. Or it may seem to them like Broadway is light years away. Because wherever you are, if you're not connected or having. Or if the school experience is not giving you the opportunity to feel connected, then all of this that I'm talking about here is from another planet, practically. So we want all. And incidentally, there are a million and a half children in the New York City public school system.
We're only touching the top, the tip of that. But surely being exposed to art, not just Broadway, all kinds of Art museums and dance and opera and symphony and music and so forth should be part of the, the school experience.
So that if you've gone through 12 years of education, you will have at least learned and experienced something in the world of culture and humanities that I like to think makes you a better person.
Certainly the art world does.
[00:20:35] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:37] Speaker C: And we in the theater world do as well.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: So inside Broadway is every year, Every, every week, practically? Well, it does. Like, I know there's, there's a season coming up right now, I should say. Can you tell us about that?
[00:20:50] Speaker C: Well, we, yeah, we do have cycles that, that is true. During the summer it is slower. Except that we do have a professional acting camp that we run here and that's for children that want to be actors because that is two weeks of intensive work in scenes and acting and directing, little choreography as well.
So it gives those children, and it's a smaller group of children we're talking about, it gives them the opportunity to work with theater professionals on the craft of being an actor. But when Labor Day hits and the schools open until the end of June, when they close, except for Christmas week, we are in operation in schools throughout the city. And as I said, we have about 120 some schools now that we have programs in Our teaching. Artists are out there every week.
We are in the process right now of organizing the events that we're going to do in Broadway theaters during the course of the year because we do want the children in our programs to come to Broadway to experience, to experience Broadway.
So that is pretty much the, the next 10 months of activity.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: Fascinating.
[00:22:14] Speaker D: I mean I work well, I don't say work in theater, but I've put on a few shows.
I went to school for playwriting and screenwriting. Nice film. And it was awesome growing up around the city and my grandmother loves theater so she took me to a bunch of shows like growing up. And that's how I got to become exposed to theater. And what I thought was cool too. You said that the kids get to work in, they get to learn about other aspects. Like I went to purchase and like the DT program there stands for design. Technology is like really big.
And what I thought was really cool is that a lot of I, it's like a very like hands on, like physical job that you can learn that is also like art based and it provides a lot of like opportunities or it can provide opportunities for kids to like.
[00:23:11] Speaker C: Well, I think, I think if you look at theater, theater is a trade, right? And the people that everyone that works in the theater, the actors, the technicians, forth, these are people with particular skills, trade skills, if you will.
[00:23:28] Speaker A: True.
[00:23:29] Speaker C: And those trades. And so they are tradespeople who collaborate to produce something.
They make it, you see. And one of the wonderful things about theater, whether it's on Broadway or wherever, is that it has to be reassembled and remade every night.
You know, we cannot push a button and have it come out again, you see? And when it. And when it's remade, it's always a little bit different because it's people and it's people creating what you're going to see on the stage.
And another issue too is that it's not only the performers and the technicians on the stage or behind the stage, it's also the audience.
Because the experience of live theater is very much involved with the interaction between what the actors are doing, saying, and what the audience is receiving and responding to.
There is a dialogue that's going on between the stage and the audience.
Maybe people are not necessarily aware of it, but it's happening.
It's happening. And that's why theater is a medium, if you will. It's a form of communication.
[00:24:53] Speaker D: Yeah, I've absolutely noticed. One of the coolest experiences having put on one of my own shows is being in the audience and observing the audience's reaction to what's happening on stage. And then you get to see different audiences reaction, like every night, and how that changes the show and how that changes the like comedy or the pacing or the actors.
[00:25:19] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:25:20] Speaker D: Yeah, it's.
[00:25:20] Speaker C: And, and actors will definitely tell you that they are always feeling the audience. They're always seeing what they're always feeling. Whatever reaction is coming back to them from them. It is communication.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: The energy of the audience, I'm sure is so important, you know? You know, can you tell us a little about. A little bit about the Cats ticket program?
I'd love to hear about that.
[00:25:47] Speaker C: The Cats ticket program was such a once in a lifetime opportunity. Okay.
[00:25:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:56] Speaker C: Not only for me, but for, we think close to about 300,000 children.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:08] Speaker C: Cats actually. Well, not actually. Cats did run on Broadway for 18 and a half years.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: I am so sad to say that I've never seen it on Broadway.
[00:26:18] Speaker C: Well, I can assure you it's going to come back.
It's going to be coming back, so you'll have it.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: Oh, great. Good to hear. Good to hear.
[00:26:25] Speaker C: It's now and forever and 18 and a half years at that time was the longest running Broadway show. Of course, it's now been passed by Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera which just did 30 some years.
[00:26:42] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:26:42] Speaker C: And coming up is Lion King and a couple of other Chicago actually.
So it was a once in a lifetime opportunity that it was so rare that a major Broadway producer would be willing to make that type of a commitment to the city schools to enable children to come to a Broadway show complimentary. Because remember, by taking 50 tickets for the children every week, Shubert was effectively taking the gross right off the top of the gross of the week, you see. So it took the tickets out of the gross and that was a direct donation to the children of the city. A very, very rare opportunity.
Something that had not been done and I don't think has ever been done since. You see, not that giving tickets away was, was unique.
Theater owners have always on occasion given tickets away, but on that type of a regular, on the ongoing basis and for a show that was a big hit, mind you, from the very beginning of its run here in New York. So that was a major, a major achievement in its own right.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:28:16] Speaker C: From my perspective, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to take something and to really create something around the opportunity. You see, sometimes you get opportunities and they either pass you by or you don't see them or you miss them or whatever. In this particular case, I just sensed that there was a possibility there.
What I wasn't sure and didn't know what it would be, but having the opportunity I felt was at least a foot in the door and that to see where I could go from there. And I would say too that over those years, you know, all of the people that we have worked with, beginning with the Cats program and continuing today, because today we work pretty much with every major musical playing on Broadway. But over these years, not only Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cameron McIntosh, Trevor Nunn, Michael Bennett, Andrew Bernadette Peters, all kinds of people who have been on Broadway during this, this period have helped to make Inside Broadway the, the, the prestigious and the, the, the exciting program that it is. Because I think all of them in their own ways have somewhat of an understanding of the importance of, of this particular industry.
Reaching out to children, to bring children into seeing the industry, you see, right. In their own ways. All of them, all of them. And that goes all the way up to Michael Jackson musical the Moulin Rouge, which we just worked with.
[00:30:23] Speaker A: Love the Moulin Rouge.
[00:30:26] Speaker C: Last year we did six as then we have coming up in November, Buena Vista Social Club and more to come later in the year.
But I think there is a sense there that we need to do a form of education of young people to bring them into the world of art and culture. I'll stay right here.
The sports world, the professional sports world.
I'm not a sports fan, but I do have tremendous admiration for the business of sports. And what I admire most about is that they understand and have for many, many years understood the importance of bringing young people into the sport, into the sport, through little leagues, through junior, you know, basketball tournaments, through tennis. So their children begin to play baseball. They play, you know, tennis, whatever, golf, whatever it is. And as a result, they develop an interest in the sport which then trans. Transfers into their adult life. You see, that's what fills up these stadiums. You see, we in the arts are only now beginning to sense the importance of planting those seeds in young people so that they will grow up and become interested in arts, in museums, in theater, whatever it is, just like they have done in the sports leagues.
[00:32:16] Speaker A: I mean, I love listening to you speak. It's, you know, talking about, you know, sports and Broadway and how it's important it is to children. I just. It's just fascinating listening to you speak.
[00:32:27] Speaker C: Oh, sports are to be taken very seriously. They. They, as I said, I have great respect for the industry of sport, whatever it is, whether baseball or football or whatever.
[00:32:38] Speaker A: Right.
[00:32:40] Speaker C: Because they understand very much the issue of audience development.
They don't even call it audience.
[00:32:46] Speaker A: We call.
[00:32:47] Speaker C: We call it audience.
They don't. They don't even call it anything like that. They understand, immediately, start children young, let them play the sport, and let them continue to grow up and follow the sport for when they become adults and then they start their children.
You see, that is there. That is audience development. You see, they don't call it that. We call it that.
[00:33:10] Speaker A: Right.
[00:33:10] Speaker D: I think media access, because I work in sports, television, film, and there's so many projects for, like, any kind of fan of a team or a sport, no matter how, like, niche or large it is. Even, like, specific coaches and specific players. There's documentaries on them. And so, like, theater is very live. Theater is very important. But it's also like, how can we distribute it to a wider audience to get more people interested and invested in the art, you know, like.
[00:33:44] Speaker C: Yeah, that's a very interesting question that you raise because, you know, going back to the age, the beginning of the age of media.
[00:33:56] Speaker A: Okay, right.
[00:33:57] Speaker C: Could have been like in the twenties, you know, when. When there was radio and sports were broadcast on the radio initially, the sports teams were very reluctant to allow that because they felt people won't want to come to the games because they can listen to on the radio. But actually the result, the counter result of that was that people became interested and wanted to come to the games and so forth. And. And there's no doubt that the tremendous popularity and the tremendous value of sports and sports teams today has been developed through media and through the access the media gives the public to the product of sports.
We in the arts world have been very gingerly approaching this. And, you know, I'll give you an example. For instance, in the old days, I mean, like in 19. In. Like in 1955.
[00:34:57] Speaker A: Yeah. I was wondering where it was.
[00:34:59] Speaker C: Or even 1965.
In the sound of Music.
[00:35:05] Speaker A: Right.
[00:35:06] Speaker C: For instance. The Sound of Music. Okay. The Sound of Music is probably one of the most popular and successful movies of a Broadway show that has ever been made.
[00:35:17] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:35:18] Speaker C: But only because Rodgers and Hammerstein were very astute about the marketing of their things was that movie made. You see, the west side Story, another probably second most popular movie of a Broadway show ever made. And yet neither of those shows had runs on Broadway that could equal cats at 18 years. You know, I mean, they ran three, four years, and then they ran. And then they, you know, did a road company which came to Philadelphia or. Or they went. Or they did production in London. Right. Yeah. But the use of the media made those shows cultural landmarks, if you will.
So it brought the art out to the larger audience much the same as radio did with sports in the 20s or television and so forth. So in this industry today, there is an enormous debate going on about how much of media can Broadway absorb and. And without.
Without impacting the actual live product itself.
And we're. I think they're beginning to see now that it doesn't. It doesn't.
It doesn't hurt the product. It increases the interest in that.
[00:36:52] Speaker A: I agree.
[00:36:53] Speaker C: In the product. You see, recently, particularly during the pandemic. As a matter of fact, I was.
[00:36:59] Speaker A: Going to ask Hamilton.
[00:37:00] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:37:01] Speaker C: Hamilton put the entire show on Disney on tape.
[00:37:06] Speaker A: Right.
[00:37:06] Speaker C: And played it on Disney Channel.
[00:37:08] Speaker A: Right.
[00:37:09] Speaker C: And Hamilton just celebrated last week, like their 10th anniversary on Broadway. I mean, it's still. It's still grossing millions of dollars a week here on Broadway, not to mention the tours. And so, so, so, you know, we're further behind things like sports, but slowly the industry is catching up. Now, this is a long way from the Cat's Ticket program and so forth. But. But the concept of that Schubert had, that I developed through the program was that if you introduce people to the experience, that they will enjoy it and want to Come and see it again. And I always felt that it was from our perspective at Inside Broadway, it was sort of like throwing a pebble into a pond, you know, and you got ripples that came out from, you know, from. The children would come to see Cats, and then they would tell their parents, they decided, well, you know what? I think we're going to go for your birthday to see it. Or the grandparents. We're going to take you to your.
Like, my grandparents love grandparents. We love grandparents.
The greatest invention ever. So.
So, you know, all of that is part of. Of our mission at Inside Broadway.
As I said, this is.
I'm not raving or bragging here, but this is populism.
And. And the. And I think. I think in this country, we have never totally gotten over seeing culture as part of our society.
We are still stuck with seeing culture either as elitist or we see it as entertainment.
But things like the Cats program, the Cats ticket program showed that, yes, it's entertainment. Yes, yes, it's audience development. Yes, yes, it's also educational.
So it's. Serving culture can serve a lot of different purposes in a society.
[00:39:26] Speaker A: Wow. Well said. Well said. You know, it's interesting because, you know, I go. I get invited to the Broadway shows, too.
And how do you feel social media affects Broadway now in this day and age?
[00:39:39] Speaker C: Well, just like in every other aspect of our society today, it impacts.
It is as revolutionary as broadcasting Baseball in 1920.
[00:39:50] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:39:51] Speaker C: You know, was. Was in a different generation, in a different period, but nevertheless the same.
What we're seeing now. And I think Broadway is on the game in this area. I think we have producers now that very. That are really savvy with marketing. You know, it used to be, you know, you take a couple of ads in the New York Times, you take some billboards on the railroad, you know, out in Long Island.
[00:40:20] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:40:20] Speaker C: On the Metro north or Metro North.
[00:40:22] Speaker D: You know, I always remember as a quick story, whenever I. I went to a private school, maybe like 15 minutes away from where I lived, and every single morning we'd hear the Dear Evan Hansen ad as we were going up, and it was the same ad every single morning. So that's.
[00:40:39] Speaker C: So that's. We're past that, right? That. That's. And Evan Hansen is like 15 years ago, right?
[00:40:47] Speaker D: Yeah, right.
[00:40:48] Speaker C: We're very past that. And as I said, we now have. We now have very sophisticated and pretty savvy producers who are really looking at the social media as ways in which to market, because social media basically is, in terms of selling Broadway or whatever is basically doing what has always been the best way to sell anything, which is word of mouth, you see? And that's really what it's doing. It's creating word of mouth.
Now, shows and the unions are much more flexible about allowing film experts from shows to be in.
Almost every Broadway actor has their own social media outlets and so forth. We do.
One of the things that I'm stressing in our social media is I want to see more of our children on the social. You know, it's nice when I'm meeting the mayor and we put that, okay, that's nice, but not a lot of people are concerned about that. But moms and dads and kids, they want to see the kids, and so get the kids, you know, out there. And I think that in terms of marketing the shows now, social media has been extremely helpful in marketing shows like Moulin Rouge shows, shows like Will Hamilton, certainly the Disney shows, Aladdin and Lion King and so forth. Yeah.
It is an essential element of the marketing campaign. I'll tell you something else, too, about marketing today on Broadway that we started with the Cats program. One of the first things that we did with the Cats program with the tickets was that the schools that went to see Cats were calling and saying, you know, do you have any material about the show? We want to talk to the children about T.S. eliot and the program and the poems that it's based on and so forth. So we created what was the first study guide to a Broadway show. We called it the the Cat's Fun Book. You see, because it is. It's fun.
[00:43:19] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:43:19] Speaker C: It's not lesson plans and lesson plans. It's fun.
[00:43:22] Speaker A: It's got.
[00:43:23] Speaker C: It's got puzzles in it. It's. I looked at it the other day. It's got puzzles. It's got.
Interview with Trevor, and none. It. It. It's a whole part on there about makeup and how makeup is done.
[00:43:34] Speaker A: Fascinating.
[00:43:36] Speaker C: The point is, every Broadway show today has a study guide connected with it, regardless if it's a musical or a drama, because they all understand the importance of trying to accommodate school groups and school audiences. That started all the way back with the Cats program.
[00:43:58] Speaker A: So what do you see for the future of Broadway? Do you have any ideas or plans.
[00:44:03] Speaker C: Or us in general?
[00:44:07] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And you included what you think, you know?
[00:44:10] Speaker C: Well, I think the. Well, first of all, Broadway just finished one of the most successful seasons on the books, you see.
[00:44:19] Speaker A: Love to hear that.
[00:44:19] Speaker C: When we went into the Tony Awards in June, every Broadway theater had a show playing in it. You see that it's not that that doesn't happen, although it doesn't happen that often because shows come in and out of theaters. But nevertheless that shows you tremendous strength in the produce and confidence of producers in putting together these projects that cost multi millions of dollars. So that's impressive there. Also, undoubtedly, with dynamic pricing of tickets and so forth, the grosses for these shows are increasing. Incredible. But still are the cost involved in presenting these shows. So it is becoming harder and harder for shows to recoup.
And it's important also in terms of Broadway for people to remember that Broadway is a commercial business.
It is not, not for profit. I am not for profit. But Broadway is commercial and they have to sell tickets because they cannot go to a foundation or to a wealthy person and, and ask for a donation to make up the difference. You see, it's not, it's not Lincoln center or Carnegie hall or the museum and so forth, you see. So they are capitalism in its truest form. They have to sell tickets because if they don't sell tickets, they turn the lights off. It's very simple.
[00:45:53] Speaker A: Which actually kind of makes me think of, you know, the pandemic and how much, how, how difficult for the world it was. But for Broadway, obviously.
[00:46:00] Speaker C: Well, it was a disaster.
And it was also a situation that no one could have predicted or had ever experienced in which an entire industry was shut down. Shut down, you see.
But there were some things that did came out of it. I mentioned the Hamilton which showed the value of presenting a show on commercial television.
Incidentally speaking of commercial television, just this last season with George Cooney who was on Broadway in a wonderful show in which CNN broadcast a live performance of direct from the Winter Garden Theater. They took a Saturday night performance and they telecast it live from the theater. That's the first time that that has happened.
[00:47:04] Speaker D: I really wanted to see that show. I don't know how I missed that.
[00:47:07] Speaker C: And they estimated that. I think they said something like six if I'm wrong. Okay? But I think they estimated like 6 million people tuned in, more people that had been able to see the show live on Broadway.
Well, look at the power of the media. You see.
Now you could go back to 1950 and to the beginning of the television era.
And back in those days, I can even remember, actually, back in those days you had drama on tv, you had Ed Sullivan, who would have a whole sequence from a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical live on television. You know, that went out to the country, but we have not since then and of course developed commercial Television has become so much so different.
Had an opportunity where a live show on Broadway was, was. Was broadcast live from New York to the country.
Tremendous. And commercial television, not on public television or, you know, anything like. So there are, There are wonderful things that have been happening. Now can we build on them? I hope we can. You see, Broadway is always evolving, obviously.
And as I said, we have pretty savvy people now producing these things. Not just Walt Disney, not just. They're pretty savvy, too, but they're very savvy about marketing. They're very savvy about audiences and audience development. So the Cats program way, way back was a forerunner of a lot of the things that we see being done today in Broadway. And we at inside Broadway, of course, we have also evolved over all these years.
[00:49:09] Speaker A: Fascinating.
[00:49:10] Speaker C: You know, I think that it's extremely important in this country that we recognize the importance, the importance of art in our society.
As I said before, art is not elitist in any. There's no such thing as elitism in the art. There are elite people, but art is not elite.
Art is an opportunity for communication, a communication between the artist, the audience, the canvas, whatever.
And I think that art is an important part of a sophisticated and a respected democratic society.
We have to do, and we should be doing everything to encourage art as a part of our society.
Here in New York, we're ahead of the curve in a lot. We have always in New York been an arts center, and there's a lot of support for the arts here. But, you know, when I've traveled other parts of the country, I'm surprised at how little there is and how even fewer opportunities there are for children and young people in schools to. Should be part of every child's education.
[00:50:32] Speaker A: Nicely said.
Very nice. I want to say a couple of quick fire questions, though, real fast.
Do you have a favorite Broadway show of all time?
Might be a hard question.
[00:50:42] Speaker C: I would, you know, I was. Well, my favorite Broadway show is Cats.
[00:50:49] Speaker A: I have to see it.
[00:50:50] Speaker C: You will? Yeah, it'll be back, I can assure you.
[00:50:54] Speaker A: If, if you weren't in the arts, is there another career that you would have been interested in?
[00:50:59] Speaker C: Yes. You know, I'm glad you asked that question because.
Because I have, you know, now I've been doing the book and I've been thinking back on my career. So, you know, if I, if I didn't wind up in the. And I obviously wanted to be in the arts from, from being a little boy, although I didn't know it at the time.
[00:51:18] Speaker A: Right.
[00:51:18] Speaker C: But if I were starting again. If I was a young, a young person starting again, I would go into sports.
Okay?
And the reason why is there is so much money in sports.
Also.
A young person starting who is ambitious and very ambitious and very directed can rise fast through the system. You see, whether it is in the teams or whether it is agents or whether it is marketing or television. Look at the different, all the different industries that are connected to the sports, Sports industry per se.
I think it's a great place for ambitious young people to be if they're willing to really get in and they really do it. I think, unfortunately, in the sports world, there still are a lot of people that are there because, you know, they're ex athletes or there's nothing wrong with ex at exact, ex athletes. But the business is too sophisticated now, too. There's too much money involved and there's too much expectations that the industries have.
A young guy, young girl getting in. Start, start at the bottom. Start at the very bottom and you'll go. If you're willing to move around, willing to change cities, you'll move up through the system. If you're any good, Just, just a matter of, of, of learning the ropes and building and building. So if I were starting over again, I wouldn't go into the theater. I, I go in, I go into sports.
[00:53:07] Speaker A: That's great. You'd be a, A quarterback?
[00:53:10] Speaker C: Well, no, no, I'd be a general manager.
Oh, smart. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah.
[00:53:16] Speaker A: Last question. Pizza or bagel?
What do you prefer? Pizza or bagel? New York, New York City pizza or New York? New York City bagels?
[00:53:23] Speaker C: I like bagels.
[00:53:24] Speaker A: Very nice.
[00:53:25] Speaker C: That's also from Philadelphia, too.
[00:53:27] Speaker A: Oh, true.
[00:53:28] Speaker C: Yeah, True, true, true.
One of my uncles always used to bring on Sunday morning a bag of bagels and drop them off at our house.
[00:53:37] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:53:37] Speaker C: That's the way we started Sunday.
[00:53:40] Speaker A: That's a good question. To end the show. I love it. We have one question we want you to answer though, right, Jay?
Okay, Michael, so before we let you go, we here at the New Yorkers podcast want to know what it means to you, Michael Presser, to be a New Yorker.
[00:53:56] Speaker C: You know, I'm proud to be a New Yorker.
Whenever I travel along, people are fascinated by New York.
People are fascinated by Broadway. They're fascinated by all of the things that they see on television. That show New Yorker, so forth. And I, you know, I also have always felt, from the, from the very first when I came as a, you know, as a young graduate, a college graduate here, I've always felt that There was opportunity here, you see.
And, and I remember in one of my first jobs that I had, which was at RCA and I used to have, there was another fellow that had the disc next to mine. And we were talking one day and he, you know, he asked me, he said to me, are you new in New York? And I said, yes. And he said, let me tell you something about New York. He said, whatever it is you want or you're interested in, you can find it here. But you're going to work like hell to get it.
That's the essence of New York.
If you're willing to work.
This is a place that has enormous potential.
Do we have problems? Yes, we have problems. We've always had problems.
But for young people, this is a great place to be and to start.
[00:55:20] Speaker A: Every word you said resonated with me right there.
Perfect.
So true.
Well, thank you, my friend.
This was really great talking with you.
[00:55:30] Speaker C: Pleasure. Pleasure talking with you guys. And let's go, let's have a good Broadway season and get into the Tonys in June.
[00:55:39] Speaker A: Perfect, perfect, perfect.
Thank you for joining us today, my friend. For this week's episode of the New Yorkers Podcast, why don't you let everyone know where they can find you on social media?
[00:55:49] Speaker C: Well, our website is inside broadway.org okay?
We are have, we are in all of the social media chapters. We are in all of the social media outlets, so you can find us all through there.
We're probably in the school that your child is going to, so look a little closer. About what? About what you hear that's going on in the class.
[00:56:15] Speaker A: Once again, I'm your host, Kelly Kopp, also known as New York City Cop, all across social media, please like and subscribe to the New Yorkers Podcast and you can follow the New Yorkers on social media. At the New Yorkers Podcast, you can leave a rating or a comment to let us know how you are enjoying the show. We read through all your comments and DMs, so please, we would love to hear from you. Thank you Elaine Day, Anna Montel Magnuson and Loretta Smith for your kind words on the last episode. If you want to be featured at the end of an episode, leave a rating on Apple Podcast or a comment on Spotify. And thank you also Gally Feliba, Tricia Zamp and Leanne Johnson for your comments on Facebook. Have a lovely day and we will see you you next time.
[00:56:58] Speaker C: Best of luck to everybody and let's see you on Broadway.
[00:57:04] Speaker A: Thank you New York 100 for sponsoring this episode.
To learn more about them, visit ny100.org.
[00:57:12] Speaker B: This is the last stop on this train. Everyone please leave the train. Thank you for riding with mta New York City Transit.
