Yesterday, I posted an entry on my personal blog about how to “get things done”. If you want to read it, click here. If not, the general idea was that you needed to do just one thing to make any project successful:
Find someone you believe in who’s ready to take your project on, give them as much control as possible, and push them to do better (while also giving them the tools and resources to do so).
My words, not my idea. So when my friend Jeff called me out on the lack of originality, I figured I would write about the specific situation that led me to say such a thing. And, seeing how the reason I wrote all this in the first place was because of the Follies insofar as thinking about how to make Urinetown as successful as (if not more than) Cabaret, I figured I’d repost a modified excerpt here:
After producing the UC Follies‘ 2008 musical, Cabaret, and bringing the student company out of debt, I’ve had tons of people ask me variations of “how did you do it?”, only to be disappointed with my usual answer: “I happened on a couple of a good decisions. I’m still trying to figure out which ones they were.”
I signed back on, hoping to repeat history, for this year’s production of Urinetown (shameless plug; the information and image are still in progress). But, until yesterday, I had been worried: I still had no clue what I did that made things work.
Yesterday, I was thinking about what was special about Cabaret, and what’s special about Urinetown: I fully believe in the people who I was and am working with. I’d let them dogsit for my two dogs. I’d want them to turn this - or any other - blog post into a production in its own right. If they were confident in their abilities, I would let them fly the plane that will bring me back from Idaho in 8 days.
Stephen, Neil, Lily, Tara, Graeme, Meira, Luke, and all you other Production Team members… thank you for letting me believe in you, thank you for making all of the right decisions, as well as learning from and adapting to the wrong ones, and thank you for bringing me along for the ride.
So there you have it. The first step in producing a successful musical (or anything else you deem worth your time) is to surround yourself with people you believe in. If you feel confident enough in your actors/actresses, choreographer, TD, Lighting Designer, MD, Stage Manager, and everyone else involved — especially your Director — to step away for a month or seven, letting them make their own decisions without any input from you whatsoever… you’ve got yourself everything that will make a great musical.
Or, at least, everything that will make a great musical easy to make.
