Broadway Bullet Interview: Dori Berinstein
By: Michael Gilboe May. 07, 2007
We talk to Three Time Tony Award Winning Producer Dori Berinstein about the new documentary "ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway." She also talks about her new production "Legally Blonde" and the changing role of the Broadway producer.
Dori Berinstein won a Tony Award for her producing efforts on "Thoroughly Modern Millie," "Fool Moon," and "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." Her current show "Legally Blonde" is playing at the Palace Theatre. For tickets and more info click here.
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You can listen to this interview and many other great features for free on Broadway Bullet vol. 113. Subscribe for free so you don't miss an episode.
Broadway Bullet Interview: Dori Berinstein of ShowBusiness
BROADWAY BULLET: Every fan of the show definitely knows the trials and tribulations that go into producing theater, whether it's at a Broadway level or at their community theater. But there hasn't been a film that's quite captured the franticness of an entire season before, but just now we have the documentary "Show Business" directed by Dori Berinstein. And Dori's here to talk about that in the studio; how are you doing?
DORI BERINSTEIN: Excellent, thanks for having me.
BB: I'm glad to have you here. Anyone who has three Tony's lined up on their wall is welcome to come on by.
DORI: Thank you.
BB: So I imagine those three Tony's had a little bit to do with you getting access to do this amazing documentary.
DORI: I think it did help in a number of ways to be a Broadway insider. I did know a lot of people in the community, and so it helped with access. But also, I think for me, it helped being part of the community for fifteen years before I made the movie, I knew what I wanted to make. I knew the story I wanted to tell, and I knew the community well enough and the process of creating theater, so I felt that I could be responsible with this incredibly precious subject matter.
BB: Now the movie follows, predominately, four of the main musicals of the 2003-2004 season, especially the Wicked, Avenue Q showdown. Now you did like 250 hours of footage over the season?
DORI: A little more than that, yes.
BB: How? I mean, that seems incredibly daunting. Did you have people just constantly going out? How are you keeping track of the footage? What was all the process going into this?
DORI: Well, I had a very small team, but a very dedicated team. And you know, when you're set out to capture a Broadway season, you don't know what's going to happen. You don't know if the big shows they're talking about coming in are really going to come it; and then of course there are little shows that come in and take Broadway by storm and no one even predicted, Avenue Q for example. And so we really had to be there throughout the entire season, and capture everything that was going on because we didn't know at the end of the day in the editing room what configuration, what stories we wanted to tell to make the strongest film. So we had to be everywhere.
BB: And how did you label all of this footage, and where did you stack it?
DORI: We took over my home, let's put it that way, but also I had an incredible editorial team that was very anal and was very good at labeling and that definitely saved the day.
BB: What were some of your personal favorite vignettes and snippets and things that you've captured?
DORI: There are many, and many that aren't even in the movie. For me, the most magical moments were when we were really able to capture genius at work, and the creative process in motion. So, for example, Jeanine Tesori, the composer of Caroline or Change she's now composing Shrek, conducting the Caroline orchestra for the first time; George Wolfe directing the cast of Caroline or Change; Stephen Schwartz working on compositions for Wicked, or even more so, in the recording studio doing the CD for Wicked and he could hear one tiny note that nobody else could hear that was wrong. And he just had this amazing gift where he knew that something wasn't right, they went back, spotted it, re did it. Moments like that, that are really true genius at work, it was magical to see and I was really honored to be able to be there and capture it.
BB: I kind of particularly enjoyed the round table discussions with the critics, seeing their faces as they gave their sniping comments. What was that like? I'm guessing they don't normally just sit all together at Sardis discussing old shows.
DORI: I think they do get together and I think they're all friends and they do get together. Maybe not in that group and maybe not four times a year, but sure they go out to lunch and dinner together and talk about what's going on. I felt that, wanting very much to capture – honestly – what goes on behind the curtain of a Broadway season, that there's no way to do that and be honest about it without including the press. And so they were so generous to let me capture their honest, candid commentary throughout the season.
BB: What was your inspiration for putting together this documentary? Did something inspire you that said I want to capture this madness?
DORI: Yes. Well I grew up just loving theater, so much, and I knew early on that I was not destined for the Broadway stage, I was definitely going to be a behind the curtain player. So I was very captivated with everything that went on backstage and how that magic was created and the process of creation. And when I read William Goldman's book The Season, in college, which is a book that chronicles the 1968 Broadway season, I just was completely hooked and wanted so much, dreaming at that point of one day a Broadway producer and a filmmaker, wanting to bring that book – in essence – to life, and to be able to show this magical world behind the curtain. When I read it I hadn't even been to New York and seen a Broadway show, but I just fell in love with it so much, it was a dream I had and hoped that one day I could make it real.
BB: Tell us about producing here in New York, not just this film, but like I've said you've won three Tony's as a producer.
DORI: Yes.
BB: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Thoroughly Modern Millie.
DORI: Full Moon
BB: Yes Full Moon, for the special event.
DORI: Yes.
BB: That's more than a lot of people get. But also I'm thinking you might be in a position to comment on, there seems to me to be a big changing role in the producer. I'll specifically point out, my jaw kind of dropped when I went to Spring Awakening and in the playbill read through four or five pages of producer bios.
DORI: Sure.
BB: I still think about, maybe you've read the books too... the days of David Merrick. Is there a changing role; are we past the days again where we'll see a David Merrick a one, kind of, producer above the playbill?
DORI: You saw that in Taboo with Rosie.
BB: Yes that was in the movie.
DORI: Rosie put her own money, ten million dollars, on the line.
BB: But David Merrick didn't put his own money in, he just the classic producer, he arranged and did all of the business and got it in.
DORI: When David Merrick was producing, it was very different. There were tax incentives for investors, there was support for the arts from the government, it was a very different time, and it's very challenging to raise money for a Broadway show. Something that has commercial hit written all over it is a lot easier than some of the more challenging fair that comes up, but you don't want to hold a show back just because it may not be the biggest commercial hit of the time. If it's great art it needs to be seen; and sometimes, on shows like that, it takes a village. You've got to get a lot of people together to help put on the show. At the same time there may be a lot of producers there, but there usually are one, two, three, at the most four – typically – lead producers who, from day one, are shepherding their project, every moving part of it, from the beginning all the way through to the end. And the producers that join later on certainly have a lot of great value to add and are extremely helpful in financing to help put up the show.
BB: Now you're currently working on one of the new shows that just opened.
DORI: Yes.
BB: As a producer, Legally Blonde.
DORI: Yes.
BB: Where did idea come from to turn Legally Blonde into a musical?
DORI: Well over five years ago my partner Hal Luftig, who's produced many many amazing Broadway shows including Movin' Out and we worked together on Millie, he came up with the idea to turn Legally Blonde into a Broadway show and he invited Fox Theatricals, who is also a partner of ours in Millie, and I was invited, to be in the courtier that would ultimately bring the show to Broadway. And Hal fell in love with the ideas, and we did as well because Elle is such a universal character that has such an arc and an adventure discovering who she is and learning that it's cool to be smart, and you have to be true to yourself, and it's such a great story and she's such a compelling character and it's such interesting worlds the sorority world and Harvard. We just immediately were passionate about it and all deeply committed to seeing it all the way through.
BB: What is the process like in terms of auditioning and finding the right creative team? I think you put together a very interesting mix which shows a lot of foresight and that's why I'm kind of curious what the process was and the thinking.
DORI: Sure, every show is different and so every one of the shows I've worked on has been a different evolution in terms of how it all came together. But specifically for Legally Blonde, Jerry Mitchell was somebody that we all admired tremendously and Hal knew that Jerry was ready to make his directorial debut, he had just been a brilliant choreographer for The Full Monty, and Hairspray, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and La Cage Aux Folles had just won the Tony, he immediately connected with the material and had a great vision for how to bring it to life. We talked with a lot of composer/lyricists, many well-known Broadway composer/lyricists, prepared a few songs. Larry O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin, Larry had done Bat Boy.
BB: Yeah, I wasn't even interested in Legally Blonde until somebody said that.
DORI: Larry's doing the music.
BB: That's a good match.
DORI: Well, day one they hit it out of the park. We just the second we heard what they had prepared it was extraordinary, they just got it. Basically all three songs that they wrote as demos are more or less in the Broadway show. And Heather Hach who is our book writer, comes from the world of the movies, but she is just a perfect fit. She had done Freaky Friday, she gets that world, she speaks that language, but she also is this brilliant, brilliant woman and rounded out the team perfectly.
BB: Wrapping back around, we talked a little about the production and now we're going back to the documentary, what legal hoops do you have to jump through? I know for the press they had a bill with thanks, and stuff, and there were thanks for about ninety unions. But I'm guessing legally this is a place where you have to deal with a lot of people claiming their own turf.
DORI: Well, you know, Broadway unions and guilds – and there are seventeen unions and guilds – were completely supportive of this project, and there's no way this movie would ever have been made without their support. They were tremendous every step of the way, as was AFTRA, and I'm deeply grateful to them.
BB: So you're going on tour with this now, is that the right word?
DORI: Yeah.
BB: Is it a documentary tour? So it's not just for our New York listeners.
DORI: Yes.
BB: Where is it all going? What is it like setting up a documentary tour?
DORI: Well it's a little more complicated than a touring Broadway show.
BB: Really?
DORI: Because we're opening in several cities at the same time, which we don't do with a Broadway show. But we open in Los Angeles in June, and then we on June 8th we open in four cities – Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, and Rochester. And then we continue to roll out cross country from there. And so we want very much, the film benefits and celebrates Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and that's such an important organization considering how much they continue to do for the Broadway community. We're eager in every city and everywhere we go to celebrate that organization and do things for them. Opening up in multiple cities at a time, it's a challenge, it's not like a touring show when you're in one city then another and then another, it's movies, it's the world of movies. So you can be in many cities at the same time, which is very exciting.
BB: Is the ultimate goal to get it on an even wider release and distribution, or is this release platform more of a PR hype for building towards a DVD release?
DORI: I think, financially, the place the film stands to make the most money, and hopefully able to make a nice contribution to Broadway Cares is with the DVD. Btu for me, because Broadway is so visual and vibrant and gorgeous you know I want as many people as possible to see it on a large screen because that's the world. It's not, I think it's still captivating, but on a small screen you're not going to be able to appreciate the lushness and beauty of the costumes, of the sets, and everything else that's in the film. So I'm hoping that it's seen by as many people as possible in the theater.
BB: One example, for our listeners to catch the movie, the detail that you've caught, and the coordination. It seems that you've caught footage from every Gypsy Robe Ceremony that year and showed it in the thing, and I imagine that must have taken a little coordination to make sure you had a camera guy on hand.
DORI: Oh yes. And you know capturing the Gypsy Robe, for me, was it's my favorite moment in the film because it's such an insider Broadway moment, it's a beautiful, beautiful moment. We just had the Gypsy Robe for Legally Blonde on Sunday and everyone was crying. It's such a wonderful tradition when the Gypsy, the performer who has been in the most Broadway shows, is honored and the robe gets passed from one Broadway musical to another, to another, to another. And they run around, everyone gets in a circle around the stage before it opens that night, and they run counter clockwise three times around the stage and then in the gown that they are wearing that has beautiful patches from every show that's opened that season, they have to run around to every dressing room. And it did take a lot of coordination to make sure that we were in the right place at the right time, didn't miss the Gypsy Robe, and that we were invited to be a part of it was really a lovely thing, I'm so excited that that's part of the film.
BB: Alright, so is there a website where people can catch more information and find out if it's coming near where they are located etcetera?
DORI: Absolutely. It's www.showbusiness-themovie.com.
BB: And I know you've got a lot of projects coming up in the future, hopefully you'll get a chance to get you back on the show. But I thank you for stopping by at a busy time for you.
DORI: Well thank you so much.
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You can listen to this interview and many other great features for free on Broadway Bullet vol. 113. Subscribe for free so you don't miss an episode.
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