This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:06] Gordon Cox: Welcome to Stagecraft, Variety's Theater Podcast, bringing you backstage and behind the scenes with the stars, creators, and producers of the hottest shows on Broadway, off Broadway, and beyond.

[0:16] Gordon Cox: I'm your host, Gordon Cox.

[0:19] Gordon Cox: On this episode of Stagecraft, I'm talking to the producer Eva Price. She's worked on Broadway for several years now and been on the producing team of shows that have ranged from Peter and the Starcatcher to Dear Evan Hansen to the recent revival of Angels in America. This year is a big one for her. She's the lead producer on the edgy new revival of Oklahoma! that opens at Circle in the Square in April. And then this fall, she's behind the Broadway opening of the Alanis Morissette musical, Jagged Little Pill. She's also something of a rarity in the theater industry. A younger female producer in a business that has for a long time been dominated by older men. Eva's here in the studio with me to tell us how she broke into the business. Hey Eva, thanks for being here.

[0:56] Eva Price: Hi, Gordon. Longtime listener, first time caller.

[1:00] Gordon Cox: We love to have you. So before we talk about the individual projects you've got going on, I'd like to start by talking a little bit about your background and how you came to be doing what you're doing today. I feel like for a lot of people outside the theater industry, and even for some inside the industry, producing is kind of this nebulous activity that's kind of hard to identify. And so I wonder if we could talk a little bit about kind of what it is and how you came to be doing it. Because I feel like that's another useful thing that might be that another thing that might be useful is that some people might think they might be interested in being a producer, but how do you go about that? You know, so talking to people like yourself is one insight into how that they might go about that.

[1:43] Eva Price: Sure, it's a great question, because when I started, I had literally no idea either. And that's actually a good thing because naivete is especially when you're young and you're heading into a risky business, is a great thing because if you don't know how hard it is, you're willing to give it a shot. But my background was I was living in New York, I was working as a journalist, I was concentrating mostly on politics. I was working for ABC News and I was in TV, yeah.

[2:13] Eva Price: In television. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I loved theater. I went to it all the time. I had a TDF membership, and I had a lot of friends in the business, and I yearned to be a theater producer only in idea, not actuality, because I didn't know what that meant. I never took a theater business class. And one day I was sitting with a friend and telling her this, and she was an actor doing some light producing on the side, and she just looked at me and said, If you want to do it, why don't you just do it? I realized in that moment that I could always go back to the news business, and I guess I could try. Worst case scenario, I called myself a theater producer for a few months and never told anyone about it.

[2:56] Eva Price: So I took CTI. That's the Commercial Theater Institute for folks who don't know. It's an annual, in fact, it's more than annual, it's sort of class presented by I don't know, a lot of folks in the industry, right?

[3:11] Gordon Cox: That's right.

[3:12] Eva Price: They do seminars sort of all year round now. Back then they did a three-day and a 14-week only. And now it's time for that again, actually. And I went on a lot of coffee dates and I picked a lot of brains.

[3:25] Eva Price: With producers. With producers, yep. I went up to them when I'd see them at either shows or opening nights that I got myself to because of my friends in the business, or at CTI, or at a reading, and I'd say, I'd love to take you for coffee, I'd love to pick your brain. And people were so generous and so welcoming and so open, and I'm actually trying to do that for the future producers because it meant everything to me back then. But then I figured it out by doing it. I mean, I sort of just called myself a producer. I was able to get my hands on the rights to a small off-Broadway play.

[4:01] Eva Price: I think what was it for people who don't? My first show was it was at the Actors Playhouse, which I now I think is a gay bar on Seventh Avenue South. Maybe that's what it is today. I think wasn't it before?

[4:14] Gordon Cox: I think it actually always was.

[4:16] Eva Price: Yeah, I think it was, yeah. It was called Joy. It was written by a professor at UC Berkeley, I think, named John Fisher, who also was a playwright. I made a ton of mistakes, but the one thing I knew was that my instincts for what I was doing felt right. My gut reaction to how I rolled with the punches felt spot on.

[4:43] Gordon Cox: How could you tell?

[4:44] Eva Price: I made zero money. I made less, I'd made less than zero money. Yeah, you lost some money.

[4:54] Gordon Cox: I made negative money.

[4:56] Eva Price: I think I could tell because the experience felt right. So even when the decisions we were making proved in failure, the process of making those decisions and the way that people reacted to me and the way I reacted to situations felt spot on. And that was a feeling I hadn't felt before. Even when I worked in politics and even when I worked in news, I was doing a good job. I was ascending, you know, I was an assignment editor at ABC News at 26 years old or 23 years old when I started, 22 years old. But I had never felt instinctually that the choices I was making and the work I was doing was leading me to something right and good. So I dealt with that feeling and let that drive me to keep trying.

[5:44] Gordon Cox: Right. And how hard was it to how hard did you find that sort of starting out process? And do you think it's any easier these days?

[5:54] Eva Price: Oh man. It was hard. It was very, very hard. I think there was an allure to it though. And it was so the dream of it was so fantastic and what I thought it could be. And when you're young, your eyes are wide open. There's a youthful exuberance to everything you're doing. So it didn't actually feel hard, even though I know it was. Every little success actually felt much bigger. And I think also that naivete made me think, I'm really close. I'm really close to winning a Tony. I'm really close to getting a theater for this nothing show written by nobody that will never go anyway. You know, I think that it felt all very, very possible. And I was so optimistic too, that the harsh reality of the challenges of it didn't feel impossible or in a way could get me down.

[6:50] Gordon Cox: Right. Do you think it's has it has the situation changed at all for young producers now? Do you think? Is it any easier or harder?

[6:57] Eva Price: There are more opportunities to get a show up because of the advent of all the festivals of Nymph and NAMPT and Mid International Midtown Fringe and other organizations that now exist. 54 Below allows people to put up shows and some of these other smaller theaters. So I think the proliferation of shows being able to get up has increased. I think the likelihood of breaking over or crossing over from off off Broadway or even off Broadway to Broadway is harder. There are less buildings that are available. It is more expensive. There's more of a backlog of shows that need homes. So I think that reality has made it harder. But I do think the amplification for young producers and for smaller shows has grown with podcasts, with YouTube. There's more ways to get your material in front of more eyeballs, even if it's not on stage.

[8:00] Gordon Cox: Yeah. It seems like there sort of aren't so many young producers around these days. And their particular there aren't you know, in a business that has been dominated by sort of older men for so long, like here you were a young producer, and what did that how did that dynamic play out? Or did you find it playing out as you got started?

[8:18] Eva Price: You know, it's funny. I think about my early mentors. And my early mentors were older white men who frankly were the age of my father. And the difference between how they treated me and my father treated me is they actually were very encouraging. They really made me feel I mean, that's what my dad's super encouraging. But in terms of But no father's gonna tell you to be a Broadway producer, right?

[8:42] Gordon Cox: Correct.

[8:42] Eva Price: Or, you know, treat you like a full-on colleague, you know. And I'm thinking about, you know, two men in particular that made room for me on projects that I had an active producing role on, really encouraged me to make my choices and take risks and be a thought leader in the strategy and in the process. And so I think that boosted my confidence, certainly. But that what you're asking is very smart and interesting because I would sit, especially in the early days when I was a co-producer, which I spent a lot of time doing, which I think is vital. I think to be a lead producer, you should spend time as a co-producer on big musicals. That makes perfect sense to me.

[9:27] Gordon Cox: Yeah, it's a huge house to learn, right?

[9:29] Eva Price: That's right. That's right. And I would sit in those meetings, those very scary, stressful ad meetings and giant boardrooms where everyone around the table was probably worth a million dollars. And early days didn't want to say much. Wasn't sure what I was gonna say, wasn't sure if what I had to say was worth anything. And over time, I was really taught to feel more confident and feel good about my ideas and the things I had to say. And that was largely some of the older men that were in charge that made me feel that way.

[10:03] Gordon Cox: Right. Do you find it changing now?

[10:05] Eva Price: Yes, absolutely. I think I I've I think it's changed really since I started too. I mean, you know, you have amazing trailblazing producers over the last 20 years with Daryl Roth and Robin Goodman, certainly Stacy Mindich. I mean, these are all people that are friends and colleagues and mentors now. They weren't in my very early days because I hadn't met them yet, but you know, certainly became. And I think the work that is getting produced by the female producers is work that might not have gotten produced if we didn't have female producers in those roles. So I think it is changing, and I think it'll just change for the better even more.

[10:42] Gordon Cox: There's an impression that in order to be a Broadway producer, you have to be very wealthy. Do you?

[10:49] Eva Price: Well, as I like to say, I have neither a rich father or a rich husband. And I have figured it out. But the other thing I always like to say, which is not what I was taught when I first began, you know, someone very clearly said to me when I was starting out, you will never make a living, but you will make a killing. And the one thing I have actually figured out is I have no idea how to make a killing, but I have absolutely figured out how to make a living.

[11:19] Eva Price: Oh so, you know, do the work, roll up the sleeves, take the chances, and you can survive. Maybe you'll get a wicked, but or maybe you won't, and you'll have a salary, right? You know, exactly. Exactly. I have health insurance.

[11:35] Gordon Cox: Right.

[11:35] Eva Price: So exactly, yeah.

[11:38] Eva Price: Um and what trends have you seen in the business uh over the last I don't know, 10 years um I have certainly seen a trend for I I've seen two divergent trends actually, which feels like they are in um incongruous to each other.

[12:04] Eva Price: Um, is there is a proliferation of major brands on Broadway, right? You can't really walk down the street without seeing Harry Potter or Frozen or a movie, right? And that can be scary, especially for the independent producer. But the other thing that I've seen, which is amazing and is incongruous to that, is the independent, emotional, small, urgent story also being told. The Dear Evan Hansens, The Come From Aways, The Band's Visit. So it's actually very encouraging to an independent producer that both of those types of plays and musicals are alive and well on Broadway right now. And I think that is maybe thank you to Netflix, and maybe thank you to the increased avenues for interesting, challenging stories that are now out—podcasts, for example. I mean, there's just new ways of getting stories told, and those need to touch someone emotionally, and those need to connect the audience to each other and to a greater good.

[13:15] Gordon Cox: Speaking of a show that might be both a brand and a small, urgent, risky story, let's talk about Oklahoma!.

[13:22] Eva Price: So, heard of it. So, yeah. So I mean, as brands go, it's a pretty big one in the sort of musical theater world, but this is a production that takes sort of one of the best-known classics and kind of strips it down and makes you look at it with new eyes and kind of refocuses it and, you know, makes you hear it with new ears also. Um, tell me about how you got involved with it and when you first saw it.

[13:44] Eva Price: Um, so I am a graduate of the 2006 CTI 14-week seminar. And um, one started a listserv from that seminar that I randomly am on. Um, I don't even remember adding my name, but I've been getting emails since. Um, and in 2015, someone sent an email to that listserv about their experience seeing Oklahoma! at a summer festival at Bard College.

[14:12] Gordon Cox: Who is this person?

[14:13] Eva Price: Is this a fellow?

[14:15] Gordon Cox: He's an investor or someone who's, uh, dabbles in the business.

[14:19] Eva Price: Correct, correct. Lovely man, but an investor, not a producer, not involved in that many things, um, but a lover of theater and, uh, clearly a resident of a nearby town in upstate New York.

[14:20] Eva Price: In upstate New York, right? And I got the email and read it and thought, um, how on earth can you make Oklahoma! this interesting, this different, this surprising, you know? I’d seen many productions of Oklahoma!, and all lovely, and I love the score. Um, I hadn't seen one that made me feel the way this email says this production made them feel. Um, and I happened to be working with um, the Rodgers and Hammerstein um organization, who also runs the Irving Berlin estate.

[15:06] Gordon Cox: Yeah.

[15:06] Eva Price: Um, I happened to be working with them on an Irving Berlin show. So I called up uh, Ted Chapin.

[15:12] Gordon Cox: Yep.

[15:12] Eva Price: Um, and I said, the head of the Rodgers and Hammerstein organization, for people who don't know, and also administers everything Irving Berlin. And I said, what is this? What is going on? How is this in existence? This is to clarify, this production is up at Bard College in 20, I think 15, if I remember correctly. And uh, and word of it began to trickle down. Um, and he said, I don't know what to tell you. It's special, people love it. I have no idea what its future is, we don't know. But go see it. Go see it, go see it.

[15:43] Eva Price: So um, I went up to see it actually on my birthday. Oh, with my girlfriend and not my rich husband. And um, and she had never seen Oklahoma! before ever, didn't even know it.

[15:56] Gordon Cox: Wow.

[15:57] Eva Price: Um, I had known it very well. Um, and my mind was blown. Um, and we spent the entire drive coming back, uh, back down to the city with me saying, I can't believe that was Oklahoma!. I can't believe I just saw Oklahoma!, and her saying, what else could you possibly do? What else makes it Oklahoma! if not that?

[16:19] Eva Price: Wow. And it was that mashup of two very different experiences that said to me, this is the Oklahoma! that I have to allow another 75 years of the title to exist with. From that point on it became my mission to figure out a way not only to get the rights, but to produce it, um, hopefully one day on Broadway.

[16:44] Gordon Cox: And was the plan all along to take it somewhere smaller first?

[16:49] Eva Price: Uh, it was at St. Anne's um, in the fall. Was that always, if not St. Anne specifically, was that always kind of the idea to start it in an off-Broadway space and then see what happened?

[16:59] Eva Price: Yes, that's exactly right. You know, that w what Ted said to me that day on the phone when I called was true. You know, the state had no idea what to do with it and what should happen to it and what would happen to it. So, um, you know, together with their blessing and their partnership, we sort of tried to figure out a way to let this version of Oklahoma! both breathe and succeed. And perhaps it would never have gotten any farther than a St. Anne's warehouse or another downtown theater, um, or perhaps more was in store for it, but we were willing to take the risk together to see what the world had to say about it. And thankfully, the world also changed a lot since 2015.

[17:42] Gordon Cox: Yeah, tell us a little bit about that, actually.

[17:44] Eva Price: Well, if you resonance is different now, right? If you recall.

[17:48] Eva Price: The summer of 2015, we had a different president.

[17:53] Gordon Cox: True.

[17:54] Eva Price: Yeah. There was a different climate, um, both politically and socioeconomically. Um, the commentary and the challenges of outsiders and frankly gun violence was not that different, but was different. Um, so what we realized as, you know, because it took time to get everything coordinated and get to St. Anne's in fall of 2018. What we realized was the identity of an outsider in a community has only gotten more potent and vital and frightening. Um, and what it means for a community when an outsider comes. America got darker since 2015. The culture of what makes us an America today got harsher. Um, so in a lot of ways, the show became more important and more vital.

[18:52] Gordon Cox: Yeah, we should say that the production was always sort of grappling with those ideas, right? Like that you saw the show grapple with those ideas in 2015.

[19:00] Eva Price: They just felt different, right?

[19:02] Gordon Cox: That's right. And frankly, these ideas were being grappled with in 1943.

[19:05] Eva Price: Also, of course.

[19:06] Gordon Cox: Yeah.

[19:07] Eva Price: But the backdrop was different. And in 1957 and in 1998, when Hugh Jackman did it in London and 2002. I mean, those ideas had always been there, but both the prism in which the director's vision had brought those ideas out, along with the backdrop of what was happening in the nation, were all very different.

[19:26] Gordon Cox: Right. I feel like getting the show to Broadway involves a very specific set of challenges, just given the difference in the audience in the Broadway audience and the possibly probably more adventurous audience at a place like St. Anne's. Like I feel like you there is a solid chance that someone is going to come into a Broadway production of Oklahoma! with a very clear set of expectations. And like part of your job as a producer is to, uh, adjust those expectations for them, right?

[19:54] Eva Price: Yeah, it's a great question. I’m figuring it out. We're definitely figuring it out. There are people that came in early into St. Anne's who weren't expecting our version of Oklahoma!. Um, and we heard from them. Some of them were upset. Some of them thanked us and were very happy. Um, so it's our job from this point forward to make sure that an audience is ready, willing, and able to understand that this is a very different Oklahoma! than they saw in their high school or in their summer stock playhouse, uh, growing up. And you know, first of all, we're a cast of 12.

[20:32] Gordon Cox: Yeah.

[20:32] Eva Price: You know, eleven on stage and a dancer. Um, completely reorchestrated.

[20:40] Gordon Cox: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[20:41] Eva Price: And usually, um, usually it is a cast of 27 and a band of 30, uh, orchestra of 30. Um, so and so how do you warn—I mean warn is the wrong word—but how do you educate, uh, ticket buyers about what's coming?

[20:57] Eva Price: Well, you start with your image. Right. And I think we've done a really good job in our title treatment of the word Oklahoma! and the way it's laid on sort of an ominous sky. There's a hawk that kind of flies through the air. Um, there is a, um, sort of a black void down below. It feels um, a bit like you're on a farm, but you also could be somewhere in the, you know, in somewhere in the United States in Americana. Um, it could be today. It also could be 75 years ago, so there's a timelessness that needs to be in that image.

[21:36] Eva Price: So we start with that, with the, you know, what we call the key art in Broadway producing speak. Um, and then our photos. Um, you know, we did a really very cool um photo shoot during the St. Anne's run, right before the St. Anne's run with Brigitte Lacombe, who is this brilliant European photographer, um, and we did it at a horse stable. Um, and we sort of married our actors um, and who they are as people with who they are as their character, um, you know, sort of that space in between as a person and as the role they play. Um, and we allowed these photos, these very naturalistic um, sort of sexy photos. Um, I might call them brooding photos, um, I call them character-based photos, um, and we allowed those to live in the atmosphere so that there's a question being asked by both the image in the photograph as well as it garners a question to be asked by the patron looking at the photograph.

[22:43] Gordon Cox: Right. Let's also talk about the next one you got coming in because you got two kind of back to back as on Broadway producing timelines. This sort of counts as back to back, right?

[22:52] Eva Price: Uh, so Jagged Little Pill, uh, which uh premiered last summer at uh, ART in Cambridge.

[22:59] Gordon Cox: Um, who’s a great big name, um, and Diablo Cody uh wrote the book. What it tell me about how you got involved in that.

[23:07] Eva Price: Yeah, Diane Paulus.

[23:08] Gordon Cox: And Paul was directing, of course, yeah.

[23:09] Eva Price: Yeah, and Tom Kitt, music supervisor orchestrating.

[23:13] Gordon Cox: Yeah, I mean, what a creative team.

[23:15] Eva Price: And Larbi, Siddich uh, Larbi Cherkaoui, who's this brilliant contemporary choreographer from Europe, um, and Beyoncé's choreography.

[23:22] Gordon Cox: Yeah, I was gonna say, also works with someone named Beyoncé who's up and coming.

[23:25] Eva Price: She's up and coming. I think she'll be okay.

[23:27] Gordon Cox: Yeah.

[23:29] Eva Price: Um, so you didn't see it up in Boston.

[23:33] Gordon Cox: I didn't get a chance.

[23:33] Eva Price: No.

[23:37] Eva Price: And um Alanis, um, Alanis was the soundtrack to my youth, um, not only musically but lyrically. Those songs tell stories. They told really important stories to me. Um, and it is it's amazing how nearly 25 years later those songs could have been written today or tomorrow. Um and so when and it was my partner, um, two two of my two of my um producing partners um uh that I'm working with, one of them had the idea in the shower ten years ago. Wow. Um and so talk about being prophetic. Yeah. Um so it was, you know, through the the obvious stories that are within the songs that made it so ripe and necessary to become a musical. Um so by the time it it got to ART um this summer, um, after several years of gestating, and then you know, really we got to work in uh in winter of 2016-2017 that season, that's when Diablo came on and the work in the book really began.

Um it felt the creative team felt and Alanis felt that it needed to be about this moment in the it with the backdrop of what was happening in America at that point. And so the show itself really reflects all the urgent and emotional things that American families are going through. The the story centers around uh a family of four um who are living in a suburb of New York, uh likely uh Connecticut. We sort of base it off of um Greenwich. Um and every song feels like it was written for the show. It's remarkable how that turned out. Were any of them written for the show? Is there is there any new material? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there are two new songs that are really brilliant. Um you'll have to come and see it.

Yeah, I'm not I'm not gonna sing them for you. No well. Um and so it got a really strong response uh at ART over the summer. What do you feel like you've gotten right about the show? Um I think I think what we got right about the show is the fact that we have really laid bare what people today are going through within their families and their relationships and with society. Um and so everyone that has come, including my Trump supporting brother. Oh yes, yes, I've laid bare to your audience everything about my family and my relationships um um it it ha it speaks to him. I mean, that that's my point, is like it, you know, it it speaks to every walk of life because it's about human beings, it's about what it means to be a dad a husband a wife a brother a sister a neighbor in America in this moment and how we deal with the uncomfortable truths that we face every day as people in a society and so what we got right and why it resonated one of the fastest selling most successful shows at the American Repertory Theater of all time is because audiences came in saw themselves on stage with songs they love felt something were moved by something made them think about something and then left actually feeling uplifted and inspired about what America still can be and will be and can and should be and I think I think that combination of both hard truths and uplift is why we go to the theater to begin with. We need to have a cathartic experience but we also need to feel good about what's to come and we do that in Jagged Little Pill it's pretty remarkable.

[27:25] Eva Price: And so now in the as you move toward the Broadway production how do you work with you know your artistic team as a producer in terms of because your job as a producer is to you know sort of find the balance between the sort of creative needs of a piece and also kind of the financial viability of a piece right so how do you first of all how do you sort of you know negotiate that as a in your head and then how do you work with artists as you sort of create this thing that you're bringing that you're all putting together?

[27:54] Eva Price: Yeah it's it's a balance of getting out of the way and knowing when to get in the way and and I I'd like to say that I struggle with it, but I but I don't. You know, I I actually and again it's this instinctual thing, this gut check that I was talking about before I you know, the giving the right note at the wrong time is the wrong note. Right. Right. So, you know, it's it's really about giving the artists the room they need to get the work done and to get it right, and then to come in with strategy and viability questions and practical concerns that help formulate and and guide the piece to where it needs to go next. Um and that's instinct for me that's instinct.

[28:42] Eva Price: It's gut check. Yeah. I mean, listen, I have an amazing team. I have two partners on the show. So we we're all talking together all the time. No, of course, yeah. You're it's it's everybody's instincts, right? Yeah. Yeah. But you know, it's also our general manager, and it's also our marketing company and our press agent. I mean, it's it's you know, the good news is you you ha in theater, I can't speak to other um spaces, but in the in the theater space, your team is all in, even when you're a year away from opening. It's as though they're getting paid by the hour. Right. They're definitely not, just to be clear. Yeah. Um but y th they're their emotional investment and their and their passion for it is as though, and so you you ideate and you brainstorm and you sidebar and you you think about how to how to take on every issue that comes up head on. And and yes, where that comes from, I suppose is instinct for me.

[29:36] Eva Price: Right, right. And what's next for you? What what other projects are you working on? You've got uh I feel like a lot of producers have a lot of plates spinning at once because you never know when one's gonna land. It's true. Multiple metaphors at once. You get what I mean. Yes, I do. Uh um well, I have I told you earlier I was a 90s girl. Um and I produced um last season an off-Broadway musical called Cruel Intentions. Um we're going on tour uh that that goes out in March, and um and we're we actually have some international productions in the works, so that's happening. Um I have something I'm very excited about, but I'm loath to to say at this moment, but it's based on um a pop culture entertainment item. All right. Could I be any any broader? Can it be any broader? Um and that's in that's in full force. Um we're hoping to be developing a draft of that this summer.

[30:38] Eva Price: Um that came to you, like producorial ideas, or are do you find that you work more as someone who uh you know meets an artist and hears about a project that uh you really respond to? It's both.

[30:52] Eva Price: It's definitely both. Um there's a project that I um had been excited about for a while based on a graphic novel that was given to me as a gift. And um and I saw a theatrical version of it and and have been working towards that. Um and that sort of came out of instinct, and just I was inspired one day by by something I'd thought about. Um sometimes the the unknown pop culture entertainment item that that you will be the first to know about when the time is right um came to me from someone that had had the idea already and had been working on it in its other um iteration. Um and they thought that it needed development and and and really had a question like, could this be a theater piece? And my answer was yes, and and so began working.

So it's it's both. It's it's both. It's nice when something exists in a form that I can then see the theatrical adaptation of it in our form. I'm not a brilliant TV writer or filmmaker. I've never done either of those things before. I like to read, but I'm I'm certainly not the the most read human. Um but when I do come across something that strikes a chord with me, even if it's in a different iteration, um I sort of know pretty fast with a gut check, oh, this could be theatrical.

[32:18] Eva Price: How long on average does each project take to come to fruition? Well, you know, they say seven years. Right. That's the that's the sort of that's the motto. Um I would say that's about right. I would say that's about right, from kind of option to opening, if we want to get academic for a minute. Um I would say that that really does hold true. I think um I think some shows, especially ones perhaps based on existing songs or ex you know, a film perhaps that you know is well structured and the plot already exists quite well and it can fit into the the musical theater space. Perhaps that could be developed in two to three years. Right. Um but I like to say seven.

[33:04] Eva Price: Right. And are there projects that does every producer have sort of a a group of projects that you know they sort of started on and then kind of just didn't happen for whatever reason? Are there those kind of misfire? I mean, misfires is the wrong word, but you know what I'm saying.

[33:19] Eva Price: Yeah, I call those um almost haves. Yeah. Uh-huh. Um, sure. We all have almost haves. Um, and I mean, that's the funny thing, is you you I'm very fortunate, right? 2019 is gonna exhaust me, but it also might be really exciting because of um these two shows. But there was there was no plan for that to happen in 2019, right? So you, you know, you ask any producer, you know, what's next year gonna be like for you. I guarantee you they'll name six things that they think they'll be working on, and two and a half of them will come to fruition. If they're lucky. If they're lucky because you just don't know. You you just don't know. So it is um, it's a combination of luck and timing, and you know, some of it's your own sweat and hard work.

But um, you know, the world is also really good at deciding when it's the right time for shows, as well as deciding when it's the wrong time for shows. Um, and so I I sort of like give up to that when I when I think about um when things will come to fruition if I'm bummed out that it's taking so long.

[34:26] Gordon Cox: Well, we look forward to seeing whatever comes to fruition next for you. Thanks, Eva.

[34:30] Eva Price: Thanks for being here. I loved it.

[34:39] Gordon Cox: That was Eva Price, the producer of Oklahoma!!, beginning previews at Circle in the Square March 19th. And she's also behind Jagged Little Pill, the new Alanis Morissette musical coming to Broadway in the fall. If you like what you've heard on this and other episodes of Stagecraft, don't forget to rate and review us on iTunes and subscribe wherever finer podcasts are dispensed. On the next episode of Stagecraft, I'll try to help us all understand the very important but not terribly well understood art of sound design with Broadway sound designer Gareth Owen. Until next week, see you at the theater.