[NEohioPAL] "On the Wings of Angels: An interview with Fred and Randi Sternfeld"

[Bob Abelman via NEohioPAL]

What were they thinking: On the wings of angels



“Another op’nin’ of another show.” 

~ Lyric from Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me, Kate”



Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics



Not long ago, the backstage of the Longacre Theatre on W. 48th St. in midtown Manhattan was cleared out after “Nerds” – a musical about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs – abruptly cancelled its Broadway run less than a month before its first preview performance.  



It happened so fast that the theater marquee still promoted its previous tenant, “Allegiance,” a musical about the internment of Japanese-Americans in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor that closed after just four months on stage.



Actors and designers were released.  



The dreams of the show’s creators were dashed. 



And those who financially invested in those dreams, referred to as “angels” in the business of show, were on the hook for expenses already incurred, including theater rental, labor costs, and marketing.  



Just another day on the Great White Way, where most Broadway-bound shows fail in tryouts on regional theater stages before they even arrive in New York City and 80 percent of shows that open on Broadway close quickly and lose money.  



For every “Jersey Boys” – which earned 10 times its investors’ up-front financing from 4,642 performances on Broadway and several long-running international touring productions – there’s plenty of “Nerds.”



For every “Wicked” – which has been running on Broadway for 13 years and grossed over $1 billion in box office sales to date – there’s an “Allegiance” or two.   



Despite the odds, Fred and Randi Sternfeld of Beachwood have become first-time investors in a Broadway-bound musical.  Their dreams are tied to a revival of “The Secret Garden,” a dramatic work based on the 1911 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett that was subsequently turned into a film in 1919, 1949 and 1993.  



The show tells the story of a ten year old English girl born and raised in India, who is orphaned and sent to live in Yorkshire with relatives, including a sickly cousin and a despondent uncle she has never met.   The original 1991 Broadway production ran for 709 performances and won several Tony Awards.



The Sternfelds – she a former actress and he an award-winning theater director at the Cleveland, Seattle and Dallas Jewish Community Centers as well as many other professional venues – are more than silent shareholders.  By finding other investors to join with them, their collective assets allow them to be “above the title producers,” which – to borrow a line from the hit musical “Hamilton” that is averaging $1.9 million a week in ticket sales – puts them in the room where it happens.  



For more of this article,  go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/. 
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