If You Won the Powerball and Could Mount a Production on Broadway... — Page 2

Well, joanf, it's kind of more of a risk to put your money in the show if you have a lot to lose. As the pot is currently $1.3 billion, I think the hypothetical winner could risk their own money on a few shows and still be able to invest the rest and live off the interest.

"Rebecca" with Colin Firth as Maxim deWinter, Rooney Mara as his new bride, and Meryl Streep as Mrs. Danvers.

I've decided that if I win, I'm purchasing Surflight Theatre on Long Beach Island, currently in auction limbo after going bankrupt. If that theatre gets knocked down and turned into ugly condos I'm gonna cry.

^^^^^I love that!

I would pay a huge sum of money to Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron to write and compose a musical based on Alison Bechdel's follow-up to Fun Home, her book about Helen, called Are You My Mother?

Updated On: 1/10/16 at 11:07 AM

And buy the Times Square Theatre and turn it back into legit use.

You wanna tear it down?

I'd definitely do a bunch of selfish revivals: Love Life, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Carrie circa 1988, Allegro, Merrily We Roll Along (as workshopped from the original text), and probably a bunch of early Robert Wilson works like A Letter for Queen Victoria and The Life And Times of Joseph Stalin (and film them, naturally!).

I'd also fund and produce a fair number of smaller revivals of personal favorites (and sponsor the creation of new works) with the intent of providing roles for people of all types and giving opportunities to fresh artists and designers. It'd be really cool to have the ability to get new voices heard, especially ones that usually aren't, with as little interference as possible. Just give them the money for supplies and the space for creating and see what happens, see what stories are told and what ideas are brought to life.

Since Dramamama beat me to the rights for The Princess Bride (the musical), I think I would work on mounting Drop Dead Gorgeous: the musical.

I would like to see the Simon Gallaher "Gilbert and Sullivan" trilogy running in rep with a similar American cast of theatre performers, comedians and rotating stable of celebrity guest stars.

Putting your own money into a Broadway Production is a bad idea. (Take my word for it, it really, really bad) But if someone else won the Powerball and gave me the money for Broadway the last thing I would want would be to produce a production with half the seats empty every night. Very dispiriting to everyone involved. So I would start by casting (and paying big time; whatever it took) the biggest stars to insure a full house every night. Say, Tom Hanks and Julie Roberts for starters. Then I would get the best commercial director around and ask all three what would they like to do together - old or new - and rely on their judgement. I'm sure there would be some good suggestions. Either that or just donate to ENCORES, as the previous poster suggests.

@tom5 "Putting your own money into a Broadway Production is a bad idea." Why? It's not like you are trying to make money; you are trying to spend money. And why would you rely on the judgment of others? The whole point is to spend your money on something you are passionate about. If you are not passionate about anything, do something else with your newfound wealth.

You'd be giving a bunch of people jobs for a few months, assuming you let the show die gracefully and not pump money into it and make it play to empty houses for your own enjoyment, like some kind of Citizen Kane megalomaniac.

Two productions immediately came to mind:

First, I would help fund the musical adaptation of Aimee Mann's concept album The Forgotten Arm that has been in limbo for the past few years. The last I heard of it, David Henry Hwang was writing the book, but that was many years ago.

Second, I would love to produce a Bart Sher revival of Sondheim's A Little Night Music. Based on what I've seen of Sher's work, I think that would be an ideal pairing of show and director.

Updated On: 1/10/16 at 04:25 PM