The New Yorkers Go Inside Broadway! -With Michael Presser

0:00This episode of the New Yorkers podcast is brought to you by NewYork100.org. recognizing excellence across New York City's five boroughs. Hello, everyone, and welcome to The New Yorker, a podcast by New York City Cop. I'm your host, Kelly Copp, published photographer, New York City tour business owner, real estate content creator, podcaster, and above all else, a New Yorker. Ladies and gentlemen, the next book looks about, Craig is now right. Stand clear of the closing doors, please.

0:45This is a time square. This is a time square. Transfer it down to the shuttle to grab the table.

1:03With me today, I have President and CEO Michael Presser. He is the president and founder of Inside Broadway. He has worked with arts management and large scales all over the world, served and led community boards across the city, and is a member of many Broadway organizations. But above all else, Michael is also a New Yorker. Hey, Michael, welcome to the show. How are you doing today? I'm great. Thanks for having me. Yeah, we're super excited to have you on the show. I mean, Broadway, I mean, how amazing is that? And you're a plethora of knowledge about Broadway and the information you're going to tell us about the programs that you do.

1:40So welcome, my friend. Well, thank you. There's nothing more in New York than Broadway. Perfectly said. Everybody loves Broadway. All around, you know, when I travel, people always ask me about New York, but they always ask me about Broadway. What's happening on Broadway? what's new how's it doing they want to know the grosses they're interested oh i do too actually yeah that's it's really amazing i'm actually going to see the michael jackson show to thursday night and so i'm super that's one i've heard is amazing i can't believe i haven't seen it yet but i'm super excited but let's talk about you let's um let's start from the beginning where were you born well i was not born in new york i was born in uh philadelphia where I spent my childhood.

2:28And after graduating from Temple University, came right to New York. And I've been here. And what age were you then? In the early 20s. Early 20s. So I've been here a long time. And my friends in Philadelphia, the few that are remaining, say to me, you are a New Yorker. Right. You are no longer a Philadelphian. You are a New Yorker. Right. And so did you take classes, like acting classes or theater classes in Philadelphia at Temple University? No, actually, I did business curriculum at Temple. But it's interesting you mention this because I actually happen to be right now writing a memoir. Wow.

3:14About my life and my career. And it's given me the opportunity to go back and to think about all of these years to go. things that happened, people that I met and so forth. And that is one of what you just asked is, is one of the things that, um, I was speaking to my writer about because he had, he was asking me about the same thing. Actually, I think my direction was not set by Temple University, although I had nothing against Temple, but my direction I think was set by, uh, my two aunts, my father's sisters who from a very young age started taking me to children's concerts of the Philadelphia Orchestra in Philadelphia and my parents who from a very young age also took me to various shows that would come through Philadelphia because in those days Philadelphia was a major tryout city for Broadway musicals before they came to New York.

4:22They would, you know, they would do two weeks in Philadelphia and then maybe two weeks in New Haven or Boston and then open in New York. Of course, we don't do that anymore. It's too expensive to be out of town. But certainly, the early experiences with the performing arts definitely set my direction, even though, quite honestly, I didn't know it at the time, but it definitely set my direction in life, which I've now had the opportunity to actually have pursued. But it started when I was a boy. That's fascinating. And so your interest and fascination with, you know, theater, going to see the theater you carried here to New York City then.

5:11yeah and you know and i i must i must say that you know in going back and thinking about all these things for the for the book brought back a lot of wonderful memories that i had for instance you know i i was fortunate enough to see the out-of-town pre-broadway tryouts of my fair lady how amazing is that um a lot of wonderful shows uh uh george m uh fiddler on the roof all of which you know, I saw as a little boy, actually. And wonderful people in the music world, like Van Clyburn and Eugene Normandy and Marian Anderson, as a matter of fact. Right. So a lot of those people passed through Philadelphia and we had the opportunity to go and to see them.

6:04And I still have wonderful memories of them. So that sort of set an education that was separate from the formal education that, you know, that I had at Temple. But when I graduated from Temple, I think it was very clear in my mind where I needed to be. Right. And that was New York. Okay, perfect. I want to go to how you used that, you know, then you brought it to New York because what did you do between that and then how you started um kids on Broadway well there's there's a good 15 years yeah in between there you're right I think you know I think sometimes people particularly young people um are sometimes a little disillusioned with careers because they seem to think that there is a straight line progression in the development of a career.

6:59Exactly. It don't work that way. Correct. Life does not work that way. And over the route to wherever you're going, there are turns and highs and lows and all kinds of things. Right. And within that 10-year period, those are years of struggle, but they were also years in which I was meeting people. I was learning a lot of things that would be very important in my, you know, my, what would eventually became the career. As a matter of fact, I think my parents during that period were, were a little nervous that I would never hold a job in my life longer than six months at a time, you see, but they, they were.

7:48I can kind of remember those days too. my parents thinking that, you know? I give them credit for staying quiet and not interfering and just letting whatever was going to happen, happen, you see. Right. I love that. I think a lot of people can relate to that. So did you feel... Incidentally, I'm giving you my book. Yeah, yeah. So you're getting an advanced copy. I'm still going to read it because I know it's going to be amazing so did you feel from what i understand that that new york city needed something like was lacking something or how did you come up with the let's talk about the program with kids on broadway well yeah the um our program is called inside broadway right which is a great name um it developed from the name actually developed through a lot of different stages before we wound up with the name Inside Broadway.

8:48But here is really where this whole thing began. And this was quite by accident. Oh, wow. I was a member of the Midtown Community Board, Community Board 5, which is the business district of Manhattan. And on the board, a colleague of mine was the vice president for community relations at the Schubert organization. Now, the Schubert organization is the largest theater owner on Broadway. They are probably the largest theater owner across the United States as well. I instantly think of the Schubert Theater right there on the set, 44th? 44th Street, yes. I instantly thought of that, yep. So that is the flagship theater.

9:38Actually, there are 17 theaters that they own. I saw that. Isn't that amazing? We should sometimes discuss the Schubert organization because it's a fascinating history. It goes all the way back to the turn of the last century. Right. When three brothers came over from Eastern Europe, and they're the ones that developed what became the Schubert organization. It's fascinating. At one moment in the 20s, they were controlling owner, owning, or booking over a thousand theaters across the United States. They were it for live entertainment in the United States. And then, of course, the Depression came and so forth.

10:22So at the moment, there haven't been actually for quite a while now, any members of the Schubert family. Of course, it is now actually a foundation. At any rate, that's a long diversion here. Fascinating. The Schubert organization was looking for someone to organize and put together what was an idea that Bernard Jacobs, who was the president of the Schubert organization, late president, had, which was he was in the process of bringing to New York. the British musical Cats, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats. And he was convinced from seeing it in London that it was a perfect vehicle to introduce young people who had never been to Broadway before, the opportunity to come and see a Broadway show.

11:20And he wanted to find someone who would be able to organize a program whereby the Schubert organization could donate 50 tickets to the Wednesday matinee performance of Cats. And that a different, because in that day we were just working with high schools, but a different high school would come every week, courtesy of the Schubert organization, to see Cats on Broadway. I love it. So that was the basic concept, Yep. Quite honestly, I walked in the door. I walked in the door and I figured, you know, if I do a good job, maybe they'll give me something else to do. Literally. Okay. And, and, you know, and, and I'll be quite candid and honest that in no way did I anticipate, nor did Schubert, that 40 some years later, we would be here discussing this program.

12:22But this program has grown and developed. We are now in over 125 schools throughout the five boroughs of New York. We have over 100 ,000 children each year in our program. Our programs have moved from just ticketing into teaching artist programs and our own touring production and workshops on working in the theater and a whole variety of different things to educate students in theater, both as a career and also as an industry, an important industry and a workplace here in New York. So all of that developed out of the 50 tickets to Cats every week at the Winter Garden Theater. October 1982. That's fascinating.

13:15And so kids, you know, these high school kids, right? They actually get up and act. Well, now we go down almost to kindergarten now. Oh, down to kindergarten. I mean, our programs now have an enormous range of different kinds of activities related to theater, related to live theater that give children both the opportunity to be in a theatrical presentation, but also to learn a little bit about working in the theater as well. Because, you know, a lot of times children don't have, most adults for that matter too, don't have a sense of all of the different people who are making it possible for the actors to do their job, you see, because kids usually think that the actors come on the stage and we turn the lights on and we have a show.

14:11You're right. Okay. But there are, there is an army of people that are making it possible for the actors to do their job. That's incredible. So how, how do these kids, you know, is it through this, I guess, probably from, I'm just guessing that they just through their school, they get involved into the Broadway program. They contact someone through school or their schools do something to connect that. Well, we work, uh, we work directly with the school, uh, because it is a school day activity that, that we are doing. Um, and incidentally, as I, I, I think I did say, we do now go from, uh, kindergarten all the way up to high school.

14:54I love that. So there's a whole range of different kinds of things, you know, that we can, we can do. In fact, we even have some programs for senior citizens too. sign me up and the scene i will tell you the seniors same program that the kids do and the scenes the seniors love it as well oh i bet so um but in answer in answer your question um we have to work through the structure of the schools correct um because the schools are highly highly regulated they're also incredibly bureaucratic as well so um we We select schools based upon the funding we have, based upon recommendations from council members, for instance.

15:41The children are always selected by the school, usually by a principal and a coordinating teacher. Many times we have students that are interested in the theater. Many times we have children that have had no exposure to theater. We have children that are taking lessons and want to be in the theater. But many children have had no exposure to the theater. So this is their first opportunity to look at, to be part of theater and to participate in a theater activity. I think it's amazing, too, and beautiful because children from all socioeconomic groups, in a sense, can become an actor, right? And perform on stage in Broadway.

16:26Well, I think that, you know, going back to the Schubert invitation to organize this, Bernie Jacobs' concept was that he wanted all kinds of kids to come to Cats, that he wanted all kinds of different schools to come. I mean, yes, there were going to be performing arts programs and schools that specialize in art and so forth. Yeah, there would be those schools, too. But there would be an opportunity to really reach deeper into the youth population and into the Board of Education to give schools and children that may not have had the opportunity previously to be exposed to theater. This was a program, this is, incidentally, this is populism at its finest, really.

17:19This was a program that was always from the beginning. Our roots are based in the concept that we want to bring theater to the largest group of young people possible. We are not necessarily training the actors of tomorrow because there are many school programs and conservatories and universities that do beautiful work in preparing young people for careers in acting or music or whatever. No, this was going to be, from the very beginning, a program in which children would have the opportunity to be exposed to theater. If they never went to a theater again in their life, so be it. But they had at least had the opportunity in their school day to come and experience live theater on Broadway.

18:12That's such a brilliant idea. and so now these kids are performing on stage and they have an audience correct with in their school in their school auditorium right and it's also it's in their school auditorium because they also come to broadway for various activities that we organize right as well but in their school auditorium we send our broadway teaching artists into the school to work with the children and getting them ready to be on the stage. I mean, the little kids can do like, you know, a 15-minute song medley Salute to New York. Right. The older kids can do Oklahoma. Or cats. Or cats.

18:54Yeah. You see? I think it's such a brilliant idea, you know, and it really inspires kids and opens their minds to, you know, learning more about Broadway and their passion for what they want to do. I think it's really brilliant. Well, you know, we sit here in the theater capital of the United States and probably the world. And yet a good portion of our residents here have never been to Broadway. Or it may seem to them like Broadway is light years away because wherever you are, you know, you're not, if you're not connected or having, or if the school experience is not giving you the opportunity to feel connected, then all of this that I'm talking about here is from another planet, practically.

19:46So we want all, and incidentally, there are a million and a half children in the New York City public school system. Wow. We're only touching, you know, the top, the tip of that, but surely being exposed to art, not just Broadway, all kinds of art, museums and dance and opera and symphony and music and so forth, should be part of the school experience. So that if you've gone through 12 years of education, you will have at least learned and experienced something in the world of culture and humanities that I like to think makes you a better person. Right. Certainly the art world does. Right. And we in the theater world do as well.

20:40So Inside Broadway is every year. Every week, practically. Well, I know there's a season coming up right now, I should say. Can you tell us about that? Well, yeah, we do have cycles. That is true. During the summer, it is slower, except that we do have a professional acting camp that we run here. And that's for children that want to be actors, because that is two weeks of intensive work in scenes and acting and directing, a little choreography as well. So it gives those children, and it's a smaller group of children we're talking about, it gives them the opportunity to work with theater professionals on the craft of being an actor.

21:27But when Labor Day hits and the schools open until the end of June, when they close, except for Christmas week, we are in operation in schools throughout the city. And as I said, we have about 120 some schools now that we have programs in. Our teaching artists are out there every week. We're in the process right now of organizing the events that we're going to do in Broadway theaters during the course of the year because we do want the children in our programs to come to Broadway to experience Broadway. So that is pretty much the next 10 months of activity. Fascinating. I mean, I work, well, I don't say work in theater, but I've put on a few shows.

22:19I went to school for playwriting and screenwriting. Nice. film and it was awesome growing up around the city and my grandmother loves theater so she took me to a bunch of shows like growing up and that's how I got to become exposed to theater and what I thought was cool too you said that the kids get to work in uh again they get to learn about other aspects like uh I went to purchase and like the DT program there the DT stands for design technology is like really big um and what i thought was really cool is that a lot of it's like a very like hands-on like physical job that you can learn um that is also like art based and it provides a lot of like opportunity or it can provide opportunities for kids to like well i think i think if you look at uh theater uh theater is a trait right And the people that everyone that works in the theater, the actors, the technicians, so forth, these are people with particular skills, trade skills, if you will.

23:29And those trades. And so they are trades people who collaborate to produce something. They make they make it, you see. And one of the wonderful things about theater, whether it's on Broadway or wherever, is that it has to be reassembled and remade every night. You know, we cannot we cannot push a button and have it come out again, you see. And when it and when it's remade, it's always a little bit different because it's people and it's people creating what you're going to see on on the stage. And another issue, too, is that it's not only the performers and the technicians on the stage or behind the stage, it's also the audience.

24:18Because the experience of live theater is very much involved with the interaction between what the actors are doing, saying, and what the audience is receiving and responding to. There is a dialogue that's going on between the stage and the audience. Maybe people are not necessarily aware of it, but it's happening. It's happening. And that's why theater is a medium, if you will. It's a form of communication. Yeah, I've absolutely noticed one of the coolest experiences having put on one of my own shows is being in the audience and observing the audience's reaction to what's happening on stage and then you get to see like different audiences reaction like every night uh and how that changes the show and how that changes the like comedy or the pacing or the actors that's right yeah And actors will definitely tell you that they are always feeling the audience.

25:29They're always feeling whatever reaction is coming back to them. It is communication. The energy of the audience, I'm sure, is so important. Can you tell us a little bit about the Cat's Ticket Program? I'd love to hear about that. The Cats ticket program was such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, okay? Yeah. Not only for me, but for, we think, close to about 300 ,000 children, okay? Cats actually, well, not actually, Cats did run on Broadway for 18 and a half years. I am so sad to say that I've never seen it on Broadway. Well, I can assure you it's going to come back. It's going to be coming back.

26:23So you'll have it. Oh, great. Good to hear. Good to hear. It's now and forever.

26:30And 18 and a half years at that time was the longest running Broadway show. Of course, it's now been passed by Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera, which just did 30 some years. Wow. And coming up is Lion King and, you know, a couple of other, Chicago, actually. So it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that it was so rare that a major Broadway producer would be willing to make that type of a commitment to the city's schools to enable, you know, children to come to a Broadway show complimentary. Because remember, by taking 50 tickets for the children every week, Schubert was effectively taking the gross right off the top of the gross of the week, you see.

27:30so it took the tickets out of the gross and that was a direct donation to the to the children of this of the city a very very rare opportunity uh something that had not been done and i don't think has ever been done since you see not that giving tickets away was was unique theater owners have always on occasion given tickets away but on that type of a regular on to ongoing basis and for a show that was a big hit, mind you, from the very beginning of its run here in New York. So that was a major achievement in its own right. From my perspective, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take something and to really create something around the opportunity.

28:30You see, sometimes you get opportunities and they either pass you by or you don't, or you don't see them or you miss them or whatever. In this particular case, I just sensed that there was a possibility there. what I wasn't sure and didn't know what it would be. But having the opportunity, I felt, was at least a foot in the door and to see where I could go from there. And I would say, too, that over those years, all of the people that we have worked with, beginning with the CATS program and continuing today, Because today we work pretty much with every major musical that's playing on Broadway.

29:24But over these years, not only Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cameron McIntosh, Trevor Nunn, Michael Bennett, Bernadette Peters, all kinds of people who have been on Broadway during this period have helped to make Inside Broadway the prestigious and the exciting program that it is. Because I think all of them, in their own ways, have somewhat of an understanding of the importance of this particular industry reaching out to children to bring children into seeing the industry, you see. Right. In their own ways, all of them, all of them. And, you know, that goes all the way up to Michael Jackson musical, to Moulin Rouge, which we just worked with.

30:23Love Moulin Rouge. To last year we did six, and we have coming up in November. um, Buena Vista Social Club and we'll have, we'll more to come that later in the year. But, but I think there is a sense there that we need to, uh, we need to do a form of education of young people to bring them into the world of art and, and, and culture. I'll say right here, the sports world, the professional, the professional sports world. I'm not as, I'm not a sports fan, but I do have tremendous admiration for the business of sports. And what I admire most about is that they understand and have for many, many years understood the importance of bringing young people into the sport, into the sport through little leagues, through junior, you know, basketball tournaments, through tennis.

31:31So their children begin to play baseball. They play, you know, tennis, whatever, golf, whatever it is. And as a result, they develop an interest in the sport, which then transfers into their adult life, you see. That's what fills up these stadiums, you see. We, in the arts, are only now beginning to sense the importance of planting those seeds in young people so that they will grow up and become interested in the art, in arts, in museums, in theater, whatever, whatever it is, uh, just like they have done in the sports, in the sports leagues. I mean, it's, I love listening to you speak. It's, you know, talking about, you know, sports and Broadway and how it's important it is to children.

32:24I just, it's just fascinating listening to you speak. Oh, sports are to be taken very seriously. They, they, as I said, I have great respect for the industry of sport, whatever it is, whether baseball or football or whatever. Because they understand very much the issue of audience development. They don't even call it audience. We call it audience development. They don't even call it anything like that. They understand immediately. Start children young, let them play the sport, and let them continue to grow up and follow the sport for when they become adults and then they start their children right one thing you see that is there that is audience development you see they don't call it that we we call it that right i think media access because i work in sports uh television film and there's so many projects for like any kind of fan of a team or a sport no matter how like niche or large it is uh even like specific coaches and specific players there's documentaries on them and so like theater is very live theater is very important but it's also like how can we distribute it to a wider audience to get more people interested and invested in the art uh you know yeah that's a very interesting question um that you raise because um you know going back to the age the beginning of the age of media.

33:57Okay. Right. It would have been like in the twenties, you know, when, when there was radio and sports were broadcast on the radio. Initially, the sports teams were very reluctant to allow that because they felt people won't want to come to the games because they can listen to the radio. But actually the result, the counter result of that was that people became interested and wanted to come to the games and so forth. And, and there's no doubt that the tremendous popularity and the tremendous value of sports and sports teams today has been developed through media and through the access that media gives the public to the product of sports.