Broadway is booming.  And if you asked me to name names of the people responsible for that boom, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron would be right up there towards the top.

These two Producers, who bounce back and forth between Broadway and Film and TV (and in this podcast they tell you just how they’re able to maneuver through these three different minefields), are responsible for the revival of the movie musical (Chicago, Hairspray, etc.), the reinvention of the live telecast (The Sound of Music Live!, Peter Pan Live!, The Wiz Live!, etc.)  not to mention the Broadway revivals of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Promises, Promises.

Oh, and they also produced the Academy Awards, and, yep, Smash.

They’ve put Broadway on the minds of millions and millions of people, and they sat down with me to talk all about why the theater is important, and . . .

• The lesson Joe Papp taught them about how to pick a project.
• Just what is happening with the Broadway production of Bombshell and when???
• What Hollywood has taught them and what they think Broadway should learn.
• How they’ve managed to convince the biggest names in entertainment, from Barbra Streisand to Bette Midler, to do their stuff.  And how you can learn to convince people to.
• Which one reads the chat rooms and which one doesn’t, and how they feel about the social media audience.

We talk a lot about audience development in this business.  When anyone asks me what’s the most effective tool we have to develop the next generation of audiences, I always answer . . .

“Craig and Neil.”

Enjoy the podcast!

Click here to listen.

Listen to it on iTunes here.  (And if you like the podcast, give it a great review, while you’re there!)

Click here to read the transcript.