Stuart Oken is a producer. He leads Elephany Eye Theatrical, whose projects have included An American in Paris, The Addams Family, Saved and Venice. As Executive VP at Disney, Theatrical, he produced The Lion King, Aida and Der Glockner Von Notre Dame. Mr. Oken founded Chicago's Appollo Theater Center and produced the motion pictures About Last Night, Impromptu and Queens Logic. He served as president of Witt-Thomas Films at Warner Brothers and founded and served as artistic director of the American Music Theatre Project at Northwestern University.
Stuart is another fantastic example of how everyone’s path to producing on Broadway is unique. I’ll leave the “tell-all” part to Stuart, but he went from small independent producer to movie producer to corporate theater producer all the way back to big time independent producer. And he has had success at every stop along the way.
What’s his secret? It’s all in the podcast. Listen in to hear Stuart talk about:
- Why his business plan only includes new musicals.
- How he set up his development company like a movie studio.
- His simple secret to raising money for Broadway shows.
- Why involving your producing partners is one of the most important things a Lead Producer can do.
- What it was like being the favorite to win the Best Musical Tony Award, and why he thinks Paris didn’t win.
Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway