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Tom Viertel (#226) - October, 2008

Tom Viertel (#226) - October, 2008

FromATW - Downstage Center


Tom Viertel (#226) - October, 2008

FromATW - Downstage Center

ratings:
Length:
59 minutes
Released:
Nov 3, 2008
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

Prolific producer Tom Viertel, who with his partners Richard Frankel, Steve Baruch and Marc Routh have been responsible for such shows as "The Producers", "Hairspray", and the John Doyle-directed "Company" and "Sweeney Todd", talks abut producing on Broadway and the pending closing of the long-running "Hairspray". He relates his own theatrical heritage -- his grandfather was a contractor who built the Mark Hellinger Theatre, among many others, and his father was a playwright -- and how he began his own theatrical career as a hobby while working at the family real estate concern. Among the shows he discusses are his first theatrical foray with two magicians he first saw in a 50 seat theatre in Los Angeles -- Penn and Teller; the extraordinary auditions of two now well-known actresses, Donna Murphy and Laura Benanti, for "Song of Singapore" and "The Sound of Music" respectively; the counterintuitive decisions that led him to produce Theatre de Complicite's "Mnemonic" as a commercial production and to revive "Gypsy" with Patti LuPone on Broadway only five years after the prior production; the travails of producing "Smokey Joe's Cafe"; and why in his spare time he's so committed to his volunteer role as chairman of Connecticut's Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Original air date - October 31, 2008.
Released:
Nov 3, 2008
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

The American Theatre Wing presents Downstage Center a weekly theatrical interview show, featuring the top artists working in theatre, both on and Off-Broadway and around the country.