This blog was inspired by a Producer who sulked into my office yesterday, concerned that he had peed-off a few of the folks that were working for him.

So I asked him the same question as the title of this blog.

What does those four guys have in common?

Answer?

All four of them made some of the most significant contributions to the American Theater.

And all four of them were known as difficult personalities who were hated by a gaggles of people, included many that worked for them.

A woman once smacked Fosse with a dance bag after she felt poorly treated at an audition.  His response?  He stopped the audition and announced that dance bags were no longer allowed in the room.

Bennett was called “amoral” by James Kirkwood, co-author of A Chorus Line, who said, “Michael would do anything–anything–to get a show on.  The cruelty was extensive.”

Robbins named names when he testified before the House Un-American Activites Committee in 1953.

And Merrick?  Well, what didn’t he do.

While these are the extremes in behavior, they are also the extremes in success.  While I’m certainly not advocating cruelty or betraying your friends (as I also believe that every Producer should read this textbook), the message is the same.

In any business, it’s important that people like your product, not your personality.