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[0:00] Martín Acuña: Hi, everyone. I am Martín Acuña and you are listening to Backstage Talk.

[0:19] Martín Acuña: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Backstage Talk. Today, I have the honor of having Blair Russell. He is a Tony Award-nominated Broadway theater producer and developer. He is a lover of theater whose experience ranges from French festivals to Broadway shows, including Slave Play and the critically acclaimed immersive off-Broadway production of Sweeney Todd. Blair, thank you so much for being here at Backstage Talk.

[0:50] Blair Russell: Thank you for having me, of course. I'm excited to be here.

[0:55] Martín Acuña: I am more excited to have you, trust me. Blair, first question about producing on Broadway. How was your experience working with Slave Play?

[1:04] Blair Russell: Yes, working on Slave Play was really exciting for me. So it was my first time co-producing a Broadway production. And for anyone who doesn't know, with any show, whether it's Broadway, a tour, any kind of commercial theater production, there are a number of producers involved, and each producer has their own responsibilities. So you have the lead producer or the general partners, which can be a number of lead producers working together. They're typically the ones who have found the show, who have optioned or licensed the rights to the show. And they're the ones leading the charge to take this project where it needs to go. And following that, they start to build a team of other producers to help support that project.

So for example, the lead producer on Slave Play is a producer named Greg Noble. He works, he has a company called Seaview Productions with Janis J. And I've known them for years because I have been involved in a lesser capacity on other shows that they have worked on. And I met Greg when I was working at Goodspeed Musicals. And so he invited me in summer of 2019 to become a co-producer on the Broadway production of Slave Play. And I'd never co-produced before. I had obviously worked on shows because I worked for Drew Jamsen Theaters, which is a Broadway theater owner. And so I was really excited to kind of bring all the skills and knowledge that I had learned as an investor and as a, you know, working for the theater owner and working on building new shows to be a part of this show.

And I had already seen the show. Greg invited me the winter previously to see the show. And so I was really excited for it. He said there might be plans for it. So I was really just waiting to get the call. And he called and said, you know, we've known each other for like five years at that time. And, you know, it's really time for me to join. So I joined the team and it was really focusing on, my job as co-producer was to focus on raising a certain amount of money for the show and then working on the advertising and marketing for the show as well.

[3:23] Martín Acuña: That's amazing. What was your favorite memory from this show?

[3:28] Blair Russell: Yeah, I have a lot of good memories. I mean, I remember the invited dress rehearsal, which was the first public performance in the space that I went to. And that was with students and people that we invited. And it was just such a lively, excited crowd. I remember we did a blackout night, which was an invitation night only to students and black creatives in the theater and people within the community. And that was just a completely unique and novel experience I'd never had in the theater before, because that's not what the Broadway theater typically looks like. And then opening night, of course, was just kind of magical. I was able to invite my mother and my sister that came to opening night.

And so, you know, I was finally able to tell and show my mother that I actually do work, and it doesn't matter, and it is real, and that there's some value in all the stuff that I do. So I remember enjoying the opening night party with my family around me, and that was just really great. That was one of my favorite memories.

[4:30] Martín Acuña: I love it. I love it. Blair, as a first-time producer, which was the biggest challenge you faced with Slave Play?

[4:38] Blair Russell: Well, it was challenging because the show itself was not an easy sell to investors or the audiences. I mean, we were, you know, it's thinking two years later almost to the day from when we opened. That type of show now would probably be something that people would be talking about and be ready for because we've had all those conversations, but we hadn't had those conversations when Slave Play opened. It was really pushing the boundaries of what makes a Broadway show, what's allowed to be on the stage, what audiences are willing to see. So even just talking to people about it, they were like, you know, trying to get an investor would be like, oh, well, it's not a musical, doesn't have a movie title, like it's new, it's challenging, it's difficult, the title is Slave Play.

You know, it was really difficult to get people on board because if they hadn't seen it, maybe they were able to read it, but it was really challenging people's expectations and challenging what they're willing to support. But it's the type of work that I had to support.

[5:42] Martín Acuña: I love it. And, you know, for me, I admire that you are one of the first producers of color on Broadway and working on a play like this, like Slave Play. And as you just said, we weren't having the type of conversations we're having today back then. So it just, it was, I would like to think about it as an uphill battle, but you tackled that challenge and the group of producers tackled that challenge.

[6:10] Blair Russell: Well, it's sad to say back then, back then is two years ago, right? But that's like, that's how far things have come in the last just year. And it was a huge challenge, but I'm happy to have been on the forefront of it. And we actually did a panel, you know, sometime in the last year, who knows when, but some of the producers from Slave Play and like people were asking questions and it was a little bit weird to answer the questions because they were all in light of, you know, the current conversations around equity in the theater. But we were also like, yeah, we already asked these questions. Like we already did these things. We already challenged ourselves on these assumptions. So it was, it didn't feel like they were fresh ideas to us.

It felt like we already did that. We're ready to move on to the next part of this conversation, but yeah, it's good that it happened. I'm really glad that I've been a part of that and I'm glad to see the next wave of those kinds of conversations.

[7:01] Martín Acuña: I want to like double click on the craft of producing. So what does it take to be a Broadway producer?

[7:12] Blair Russell: I appreciate that you called it a craft because not a lot of people would say that. There are a lot of misconceptions about producing and what being a producer is. And a lot of that comes from the fact that there's not one answer, just like there's not one answer to what you can be as a performer. Sure, you're an actor, but like, what is your specialty? What do you like to do? What are your skills? What are your talents? Do you do film? Do you do television? Do you do all of the above? And producers are exactly the same. There are a lot of high-profile producers. Those high-profile producers are powerful and knowledgeable and well-connected and generally, they're very wealthy. And all of those, if you can have all of those things in one package, great, like that's a perfect producer.

But there are a lot of skills that are needed from producers. There are producers who are purely money raisers. There are producers who have knowledge of advertising and marketing. There are producers who have knowledge of production. There are producers who have knowledge of dramaturgy. The reason why there tend to be so many producers, there are more producers now than ever on a show and that shows cost a lot of money, but also there's a lot of knowledge out there. And so my particular skillset, I would say, is I am a connector of people. So I tend to know a lot of different people who can do things and I like that. I come from a background as a stage manager. So I understand what actually happens backstage.

I understand what happens behind the scenes. I understand what it means to actually make a show. And not all producers really do. Some producers can look at a budget and say, okay, you need all this stuff. And some can say, literally down to the dollar, why does this cost so much? I have a producing partner who used to be a costumer. So whenever costume things come in, it's like, this is too expensive. We can make this cheaper. I know somebody who can get that cheaper. So there are so many different types of producers and we need all the types. I think what's important is a commitment to supporting the work, no matter what you believe that work is. And there is a part of it that you need to have a lot of flexibility.

Being a Broadway producer is a job that inherently comes with having some privilege, the ability to put your own money into things. Saving money or raising money and putting it into things, especially in the early days of a project. Knowing people who can be investors. That's just not a huge amount of people. You have to do a lot of networking or you have to have a lot of people in your life who can do that, maybe family or friends or family friends. And it also takes a lot of time and a lot of energy. I tend to think of producing as an additional full-time job to the full-time job that you probably have to do to support yourself unless you have a hit. And those are so far between that there's not a lot of people who are literally just supporting themselves that way.

But really, it's about your commitment. It is about caring, about getting that work up no matter what, and being willing to do what it takes to get it there. Because it's going to be long. It's going to take years. It's going to take money. It's going to take time. It's going to take a lot of setbacks, a lot of no's. So you have to have a really strong resolve to be able to do it.

[10:34] Martín Acuña: I love it. I love it. And I always think about producers as superheroes. And as you just said, people don't really realize the amount of time and money and skills needed to be a producer. So I just think that they help and they make the magic happen. And yeah, it's just like crazy to me. Because as a performer, you only think of what's going on on stage sometimes. But when you open that vision and you understand all the things that happen to make a show, it's just mind-blowing.

[11:22] Blair Russell: Well, and I think people are so used to producers sort of walking in. I'm like, the first day and opening night, you're like, oh, I love it. It seems a little bit like, oh, thanks. You raised a lot of money and now you're here. But it's like, no, they've been working behind the scenes pretty much tirelessly. They should be relatively invisible until—I mean, if they're not, then you've probably done something wrong if they're in your face. And that's part of it. I mean, I guess that's part of the sort of superhero. It's almost like you have a secret identity, which is on the one hand, you show up in a suit and tie and wave and say, OK, put on a great show. And on the other hand, you've been up all night trying to figure out calling people, raising money, trying to figure out where the next dollar is going to come from, trying to figure out how to keep the show open or how to get to opening night or making really difficult decisions sometimes.

And I think that—I wouldn't call myself a superhero, but I definitely think that there are a lot of challenges and it does take that kind of like superhero resolve and sometimes it takes some magic powers to make it happen.

[12:24] Martín Acuña: I agree. So what does it take to take a show to Broadway?

[12:36] Blair Russell: Yeah, this is the—this is something I think about all the time as somebody who's developed shows, who's worked with writers, who have a show that they think, you know, they want to go to Broadway or—there are a lot of different things that can be the answer, but you do have to check a lot of boxes. For me, and I think for a lot of people, the box we really want to check is that it's just a great piece of work, right? Like it's great writing or it's a musical, it's great music, all of those things. But just being a good show, honestly, is not enough. Because Broadway is one market. Broadway is a very particular market for theater. And if you want to serve that market, you have to serve the audience, you have to serve the people that it plays to.

You know, not all—if you think about like film and television, they make something and they make it with the intention of it going somewhere. Is it an HBO show? Is it a network show? Is it going to Netflix? Is it for children? Is it, you know—and Broadway is one of those options. It's not all of those options because it appeals to tourists, because it needs to appeal to either tourists or New York locals, or if you're very, very lucky, you can bring together both quality and commercial appeal into a specific package. I think we normally get one of those, maybe two of those a year, right? And it typically wins the Tony Award. That's the musical. Wins the Tony Award, stays open for two or three years, and then it closes while the show that people—wasn't as critically acclaimed, but has commercial appeal—runs for, you know, 10, 15 years or whatever. And so I always say that a show needs three things.

[14:15] Blair Russell: To start, it needs family, friends, and fans. Without those three things, you cannot make a show happen. And when we talk about family, we talk about the people who are doing it. We talk about the producers and the creative team. And you can write a great show, but if you don't know any directors and you can't get any directors on board or any great actors who want to perform it or creative team members, it's not going anywhere, right? So you need that family. You need friends, and friends are people in the industry who are talking about your show and who are advocating for your show. Because you're going to need to go to a regional theater and test it, or you're going to need to do a workshop, or you're going to want to do a reading in town and invite a bunch of people to come see it.

Or, you know, when you go looking for co-producers, you need to have friends who know the show. So you want to make sure that you have those people in your camp who are talking about your show. And then fans are just people who are excited to see it, who, for whatever reason, be it the cast, the title, the composer, the story, that there are people who are waiting for this thing to come. Without those three things, you can't make a Broadway show. You'll put it up, it'll fizzle out, and it will disappear without anybody having noticed it. I think if you have family, friends, and fans, and you have the support group that you need and you can raise the money, you should be able to make a Broadway show happen.

And those things really only come when you have something that's special and that people want to see. There are a lot of great writers out there, and there are a lot of other places to put on shows and make money. But if you want it to be a Broadway show, it has to have that particular magic. There's something about it, and I think all producers, that's maybe the superpower for a producer, is being able to say, that show has it. Especially when it's not a movie, right? Or it's not based on something that people already know. To be able to say, I can shape that and make it into something that will fit into this box, that is kind of magical. I love it. I absolutely love it. And I think that this was just a short master class about producing. Thank you for that. For you, what is the best thing about being a Broadway and a theater producer?

[16:22] Blair Russell: Yeah. I mean, the best thing is watching your own show, hands down. There's no other reason. I think, like I put in my bio, I do this because I am a really big fan. I just love it. I want to be able to put things on stage that I want to see. And so when you've done all the work and you're able to sit in the back of the house and watch your show happen, that is really, really exciting. And especially when other people enjoy it. There's nothing else to it. Yeah, there's nothing else to it. I was thinking about that. And yeah, it must be so fulfilling watching a show. And as you said, putting on stage things that you would have loved to see, that is just the best. If you could say something to young Blair today, what would it be? How young are we talking? Pre-college? Entering college?

[17:17] Blair Russell: Well, I did not think it was possible for me to be a producer at that time. I really didn't. And I would have told young Blair that you cannot predict the way that your career is going to go. You cannot imagine the way that your career is going to go. My friend Brandon Power says, and this is, you know, many, many people think of it this way, but you can't really think of your career as a ladder. You really have to think of it as like a web. Because it's not, you go from this thing to the next thing, the next thing to the next thing. It's more like you start here and then you go in this direction and that branches out. And then you go over here and it branches out a little bit in this direction.

And these connections start to happen. And that is the magic of just knowing people and paying attention to everybody that you know and everybody that you work with. I hope maybe one day when I'm 70 years old and running around and producing shows that nobody wants to see anymore because they're so out of date, that I will still remember to acknowledge and think about every single person that I work with, because that's how I am where I am now. I've had the most random of connections lead to really great things, be it opportunities to produce a show. I mean, the show, some of the shows that I'm producing now, I met the writers of those shows, or I was first introduced to those shows six, seven, eight years ago.

And I didn't know at the time I was ever going to produce the show. I just thought, I really like this show. And then years later, I'm a producer and I'm thinking, what do I want to do? What do I want to put on stage? And I'm going and talking to writers that I met when I was an intern, you know, or an apprentice. And so I would have done more of that. I would have continued, like I would have not been afraid to meet people and talk to people because, you know, there's nothing else that is more important. It doesn't matter how talented you are, how skilled you are. It doesn't even matter how much money you have. People just have to want to work with you. And if they want to work with you, they'll support you.

[19:26] Blair Russell: I love it. And what would be a piece of advice you would give to a young thespian that wants to go into producing?

[19:36] Blair Russell: Just start putting stuff together while it's still cheap and while you can still get away with doing things that you cannot get away with when you are a full adult. Because one day you're going to have to pay people union rates and you're going to have to make sure that you have workers comp and insurance and all these other things that nobody cares about when you're like 18, 19, 20, right? When you're in college or when you're young in New York and you can just like put things up in somebody's basement. The best practice that you can have is putting something together no matter honestly how bad or shabby it is. If you can save $500 and get a space for a night and put something together, you will learn so much about working with people.

You will learn so much about just budgeting, the cost of things, and you'll make great connections and you'll have great stories. So if you feel like you want to produce something, there are no requirements. That's one of the great things about producing is you can't even get a degree if you wanted to. You can go to Columbia for theater management and that's about it, right? Otherwise you are free to make it whatever you want to make it. And that's again why we have so many different types of producers because there's no answer. There's no set of requirements. So go out there and do it, honestly. Thank you for that. I think that it's so valuable. What you just said is just so valuable. Can you tell us a little bit about your upcoming projects?

[20:59] Blair Russell: Sure. So the next thing I have coming up, I'm producing. I'm the lead producer of a show with my general partners Matthew Schneider and Carolyn Miller on a show called Lizard Boy. The show is written by Justin Huertas. He's a Filipino-American writer out of Seattle and it is a superhero comic book origin story rom-com action adventure musical with starring three actor musicians and that's the entire cast and pit. And it's opening at TheaterWorks Silicon Valley, which is the 2019 Tony Award winner for regional theater that's opening in this October, October 2021. I'm really excited because that's my first kind of production that's going to be back on its feet in the fall. And after that, we hope to take it many, many different places.

And who knows one day in New York, off Broadway, Broadway, that'll be great. I also, you don't know anybody who's listened to this. I am the producer of the musical For Tonight, which was written by Spencer Williams and Chanel Salcido. And we just had a concept album release that was produced fully in the UK remotely during the last six months, really. And that came out in July. And so that is out. You can stream it on all the places where you stream those wonderful things. It's a great show. I'm really, really in love with the music. I found that show when I, again, was working at Goodspeed as an apprentice many years ago. And now I'm the lead producer of it. Other than that, there's a couple, you know, exciting things coming up, but no plans in place.

But between those, honestly, that's enough. Just getting one show on its feet can be a challenge. And we start rehearsals on Monday for Lizard Boys, so that I have a lot of work to do between now and then.

[22:46] Blair Russell: Yeah, I work, I have a company called Resounding, which I started with my partner, Steve Wargo. We produce immersive audio entertainment and other types of sort of exploratory projects. And we're hoping to do some great new things later in the year and in the new year. And then I also produce with a company called Crux, which is a co-op of artists in XR, which is like virtual reality and augmented reality. And so I've been doing a lot of live performance explorations across those different platforms. So that's kind of thrilling. And new ways to explore and kind of get into live performance again. And I just, like with producing theater, I just decided to do it one day. And you've learned so much by just doing it. So, yeah.

[23:35] Blair Russell: That all of that sounds awesome. And I wish you the best. If someone would have loved to contact you, I know I reached out to you on LinkedIn, so people can find you on LinkedIn. But if people want to pitch you a show or a new project, where can they find you?

[24:00] Blair Russell: Yeah, so I'll first do a little short explanation, and then I will say. So my rule as a producer is if you're first, never pitch me a show the first time you contact me. Because the most important thing is not that I like your show, it's that I like you. So pitch me yourself. If you want to connect with me, let's have a conversation. And if that works, I'll want to support you, whether I produce it or somebody else does. You send me a show, it's just going to go on the pile of things I have to read, and I'll see you in three years when I get to it, right? So always reach. But I love people reaching out to me. I love having conversations. You can go to my website, which is BlairRussell.net, and you can see the links to all of my different, the different work that I do, my production companies.

And there's also a link there where you can set a time to meet with me or talk with me. It's totally open. My email's pretty public. You can find all of that. And I'm happy to talk or have a short chat anytime with anyone. And then I'm on socials, at BARussell4. I think I'm on Twitter. I don't tweet. I'm on Instagram. And I love TikTok. I don't post any TikToks, but I do like following TikTok. So send me your TikTok and I will follow you. Yeah, that's pretty much it. www.BlairRussell.net.

[25:04] Blair Russell: Awesome. One last question before we go, and this is a surprise question. Your top five favorite musical theater shows.

[25:13] Blair Russell: Okay, I can do three, and then it starts to devolve into madness. So I'm a huge fan of Sweeney Todd, hence why I was a producer of it. It's one of my favorite shows. I have seen it probably four or five times in different productions. Well, probably more than that, but I've seen four or five different productions, and I've seen those productions multiple times. I think one of the shows that inspired me to be a producer is Ragtime. It's one of my favorite shows, despite now we would look at it and be like, eh, a little problematic for reasons. But that's fine. We can still look back at things and judge them, but I also love them. I love the music of that show. I love the scale of that show. I love that it has such a diverse cast, such a large cast.

It's a creative way of bringing it together. I love the original production. I love the revival. I love everything about Ragtime. And then Chicago was probably the first, it was the second Broadway show that I saw, and I saw it after I'd already seen the movie. I think that that is an amazing score. I think that the production, the revival production is one of the coolest ways that, honestly, as a producer, I mean, that is a combination between a director and a producer saying, like, what can we do to transform this thing and make it into a bigger success than the original was? And I think that's what's so great about producing is that it's not, you know, it happened and somebody can take this thing and be like, okay, it's perfect, but let's make it better.

Let's make it even more perfect, right? And transform it into something that can be really successful and has been running for years. After that, after those three, which I always cite, I love, I just love, I love musicals. I've really been thinking a lot about Hairspray recently, more the movie than the stage show, only because it is, it's like a perfect musical movie if you watch it, because you basically get on this rollercoaster and you just go, go, go, go, go until the end, and you're like, I have no idea what happened, but I loved every moment of it, right? It's just so good, and more movie musicals need to think about moving in that way, just like getting people on the ride. We already know they're going to sing.

Just let them sing and let's go. And I had to think about a smarter choice than all of those, but I don't know. Those are all really good. What's something new that I really like? Oh, I spent a lot of the last year listening to A Strange Loop, which is Michael R. Jackson, so I love that, and then my own shows, which are absolutely my babies and my favorites. Obviously.

[27:53] Martín Acuña: Well, Blair, thank you so much for coming over. I wish you the best. I cannot wait to see where Lizard Boy and Fortnite go. Thank you for coming over to Backstage Talk.

[28:02] Blair Russell: Thank you. I had a great time.

[28:04] Martín Acuña: Thanks, everyone, for listening to this new episode of Backstage Talk. Remember to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Backstage Talk Podcast.