From the July 29th Press Release:
"Memphis is produced on Broadway by Junkyard Dog Productions, Barbara and Buddy Freitag and Kenny and Marleen Alhadeff with Jim and Susan Blair, Demos Bizar Entertainment, David Copley, Dancap Productions Inc., Latitude Link and Tony Ponturo in association with Broadway Across America, Lauren Doll, Linda and Bill Potter, Chase Mishkin and Patty Baker/ShadowCatcher Entertainment."
Inspired by this photo taken at Sardi's the other night,
I think I will start with these Producers.
Left to right: Barbara Freitag, Randy Adams, Sue Frost, and Buddy Frietag.
Left to right: Barbara Freitag, Randy Adams, Sue Frost, and Buddy Frietag.
First of all, this picture was taken at the bar on the second floor of Sardi's. Its pretty crazy to be in that restaurant which is such an important place in Broadway's history and to have the view be pretty much only of Memphis. I have a feeling the bar will have many more visits from this crew. This is great news for me as they have cheese and crackers at the bar. Cheese and crackers can oft be consumed in lieu of an actual dinner. As was the case this night.
Fun Fact: Barbara and Buddy have been involved with Memphis since the March 2007 reading, which was my first day of work. Together, and individually, they have produced and invested in many shows including Tony winners like The Drowsy Chaperone and August: Osage County. My good friend Miz Molly has assisted them occasionally and I believe she has had the opportunity to hold one of their Tony Awards. Go to work, make some calls, hold a Tony...pretty standard stuff in New York.
Fun Fact: My favorite thing about Barbara is that she always has amazing jewelry on- she consistently has the best accessories. I can barely get earrings on in the morning.
Fun Fact: Besides having been a successful Ad Man for years, Buddy is best known for getting down- he is most often found in the aisles during the finale/bows of Memphis dancing away. So when you come to see Memphis, be sure to look for Buddy in the aisles.
Randy and Sue are my bosses. Together, with Kenny and Marleen Alhadeff (who are Seattle based), they make up Junkyard Dog Productions.
Fun Fact: Randy worked at TheatreWorks, Palo Alto, before starting Junkyard Dog. Randy has a thing for Diet Coke. He will occasionally mix it up with a Mountain Dew, but its mostly the DC. There is some story for his 20th or so year at TheatreWorks, he was given a case of Diet Coke for every year he had been there. Randy is the go-to guy for getting things done. I'm not sure how much of that is the Diet Coke.
Sidenote: Broadway runs on Diet Coke. Go to a meeting and you will be one of two things: water or Diet Coke.
Fun Fact: I have worked on three shows with Junkyard Dog: Make Me A Song: The Music of William Finn, Vanities, a New Musical, and Memphis. I have never seen Randy sit down at any of those shows. Even if he is there every night, he prefers to stand in the back. Come to think of it, he did this at TheatreWorks as well. So to recap, we have Buddy in the aisles and Randy at the back of the house.
Fun Fact: Sue Frost. A composer once said to Sue, "If I die, my show will still go on. If you die, my show will die too." Sue is to the creative process what Diet Coke is to Broadway. Essential.
I feel very lucky that these brilliant producers have taken me in and are showing me "the biz." Being a producer is a lot like being a wedding coordinator. There are a thousand if not millions of decisions to make the "event" go well.
I bet there were about 350 decisions pictured here;
Decisions that were made from about 2600 emails.
What did producers do before the Internet?
What did producers do before the Internet?
I suspect you went to Sardi's and made decisions over cheese and crackers.
