Everything Zeiger touches is a hit

SORIYA DANIELS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

On West 42nd Street in the Broadway district, Scott Zeiger produces and presents the best possible musicals. With extraordinary pride, he marvels at the unprecedented success of producing the new Mel Brooks musical, The Producers, based upon the Academy Award-winning 1968 film of the same name. Completely sold out in New York shortly after its debut, the touring production is currently performing in the Midwest, on its way to the West Coast.

"We never dreamed that we would win more Tony Awards than any show ever," said Zeiger, chief executive officer of the North American theatrical division of Clear Channel Entertainment, one of the largest media companies in the world. The theatrical group, spearheaded by Zeiger and his Europe-based counterpart and longtime colleague Miles Wilkin, produces and presents Broadway productions, as well as first-class national Broadway tours replete with sporadic appearances around the world, and owns and operates 14 theatres in North America.

While Brooks's character sings "I want to be a producer" on-stage, Zeiger is off-stage creating upcoming Broadway plays. Zeiger weighs heavily on who will become the director of a Broadway production, rather than playing a major role in determining who the actors are going to be.

"The way things work in theatre," Zeiger explained, "there's sort of this grand illusion that there's a casting couch and that the producers pick who the next stars are going to be – when in reality, if you get a major director to run your show, you've got to be deferential to the director."

While Zeiger does attend the final callback audition for principals of major works and voices his opinion, he maintains that it is a coup to sign on a major director and tries to be very supportive of that director.

"I'm not going to tell Nick Hytner, for example, who's directing Sweet Smell of Success for us, who is one of the foremost directors in the world, that I don't like the girl he's choosing to play a part," said Zeiger.

A half-dozen unsolicited scripts a week pass through the theatrical division's production department, led by Beth Williams. They are all read, including additional scripts sent by agents. "We look at new material, see other people's workshops, and we have a development program where we see young and up-and-coming authors and producers to create new work from scratch," explained Zeiger.

A Broadway show in the making is no small task, and is accompanied by a $10 million price tag to mount. First, material is put through the ringer to ensure that it is worthy artistically. Even if the script holds out, Zeiger's division must determine that there is a marketing niche for it. In developing Dracula, for instance, based on the novel and written by Frank Wildhorn, the author of Jeckyll and Hyde, market research was conducted to determine an interest in the subject matter.

Next, a creative team is assembled, "the most important thing by far," according to Zeiger. The show is then "workshopped" following a series of readings around the table. Typically, this type of development involves investors, perhaps one or two strategic general partners or the forming of a joint venture. If the workshop phase goes exceptionally well, Zeiger invites potential large-scale investors to see the finished product in its workshop form in the hope of obtaining financial backing.

Creative financing is something Zeiger knows well. He garnered the North American, Japan and United Kingdom Broadway touring rights of the hit production Cabaret by putting enhancement money into the Round About Broadway production. "When Round About produced the show for Broadway, we gave a charitable gift, not an investment, because they are a not-for-profit organization," Zeiger explained with a smile, "and in exchange for contributing capital, we were able to garner these additional rights. It was such a tremendous success that the touring rights became extremely valuable."

Occasionally, said Zeiger, a production's run in New York on Broadway doesn't meet his expectations, such as Civil War. The company had serious hopes for the play and enlisted a leading director who had cast major pop stars. Unfortunately, Civil War did not attract the audience Zeiger envisaged would fill the Broadway theatre. Though disappointed, the theatrical division was still able to take the foundation of what they thought was a good show and exploit it on tour. The touring production, starring Larry Gatlan, played all over North America "quite successfully," according to Zeiger.

Approximately 80 per cent of the theatrical division's profit derives from touring productions. As a CEO of a Fortune 100 media heavyweight that is publicly owned and traded, Zeiger places great priority on growing his division to increase shareholder wealth. Correlated with this goal is his intention to bring theatre to more people over longer stretches of time.

"Theatre is a niche entertainment industry," said the 18-year veteran of this industry. "It's New York, Toronto and Chicago. Everywhere else across America, it depends on whether you have a hot show for a limited amount of time, and that doesn't happen too often."

Zeiger hopes to integrate theatre into the lives of all North Americans. He would like to play longer in each city and hopes to present 30 weeks of theatre instead of 10 in Louisville, Ky., and in other remote cities across North America. To accomplish this and grow his business, Zeiger recognizes that his division needs to seed new work. He also intends on using the Internet to promote efficiency in selling tickets and subscriptions.

Zeiger was first introduced to the performance industry while in college in Florida, where he derived great satisfaction from producing rock shows and stadium events. He left his graduate program when offered hands-on training promoting circus events for Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey, as well as Walt Disney ice shows. He was soon recruited by PACE Theatrical Group, which was starting a theatre company. Zeiger and his colleagues grew the company at an enormous rate and PACE was acquired three years ago by Bob Sillerman of SFX, an accumulator of entertainment companies, who placed the theatre company under the umbrella of Zeiger and Wilkins. Following that move, Zeiger and Wilkins make a number of strategic acquisitions and grew the business even more rapidly than before. A year ago, Clear Channel Entertainment, the largest contemporary music producer and presenter in the world, purchased SFX, a move that turned them into the largest theatre organization in the world.

Zeiger relishes the creativity of his position as CEO, knowing that each day presents new challenges and opportunities. "There is no set agenda; I don't know what's going to happen," Zeiger said.

Zeiger also serves on the executive committee of the League of American Theatre Producers, the trade organization that governs the industry. On weekends, he savors family time, where he and his wife, Kathy, and their two sons, Joshua and Ethan, play tennis, swim and participate in Little League games.

The nephew of Larry King, who is also a Jewish philanthropist, and son of an active member of Aish HaTorah, Zeiger enjoys participating in Jewish events on Manhattan's Upper West Side neighborhood. He is currently assisting his 11-year-old son prepare for his bar mitzvah at Rodef Shalom, located near his Central Park West apartment.

So where does the producer of The Producers go from here?

"If you're in this business and have a hit like this, it's only once in a lifetime," believes Zeiger.

Don't believe it. Given his record, anything in this business is for Zeiger's taking.

Soriya Daniels is a freelance writer living in Commack, N.Y.

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