Meet Fran Weissler, Broadway Producer Co-owner of National Artists Management Company

You may not know her name but you definitely know the work of this Tony Award-winning Broadway producer. Fran Weissler and husband Barry have won seven Tony Awards in a career that spans 56 years. Incredibly, what she and her husband do is a mystery to most theatergoers.

Weissler, who co-owns National Artists Management Company along with Barry, explains, “As producers, we pick a show we feel is Broadway-worthy, material that will appeal to a contemporary audience and sell tickets, but the most important choice is the director. In collaboration with the director, we agree on the artistic vision for the production and assemble a creative and design team to fulfill that vision: choreography, costumes, sets, lighting, etc. Finally, we hire a cast of actors. Of course, probably the most important thing producers do is to find the money. We are responsible for raising all the capital to finance the production.”

Most members of the audience probably don’t care who produces the show. They should, though, as the producer is sort of the oil that makes all the gears of the production turn. It is the job of Weissler and those like her to make sure the directors have what they need to attract the best actors and others who work behind the scenes.

The Weisslers’ first Broadway production was Shakespeare’s Othello, starring James Earl Jones as the Moor and Christopher Plummer as the treacherous Iago. It earned the novice Broadway producers their first Tony. Their second show, Medea, also was a Tony winner.

Pretty nice beginning for the pair, who met when Barry was 26 and she was 37. The two met while she was subbing in the theater box office for an ailing friend. Barry was the producer, director and starred in the show. They became friends through their mutual love of the theater. He wanted to start a production company and offered her a job. They worked together for six months before friendship turned into love.

“I called up a friend and told her I’d met this guy who wanted to produce shows on Broadway and I think I’m in love with him,” Weissler remembers of their early days dating. “And we don’t have any money.”

Her friend suggested they consider putting on shows for schools as a way to get into the producing game. You can’t charge public school students during school hours, so her friend encouraged the pair to put on shows in the Catholic school system, a private institution that can charge students and families for school programming. They dramatized the works of Shakespeare, Sophocles and Shaw … all the plays that were required reading in Catholic schools. After 16 years, when their children were finally in college, the Weisslers decided that it was time to make the move to Broadway with the idea to produce a star-studded Othello.

“We’ve produced over 30 Broadways shows,” Weissler, 95, says of her collaboration with Barry. Chicago is currently the longest-running show on Broadway. Their previous shows include Waitress, Pippin, La Cage Aux Folles, Sweet Charity, Annie Get Your Gun, Grease, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, Fiddler on the Roof, Zorba the Greek and Cabaret, to name a few.

“It has been a great ride, and one that I have never taken alone,” she says. “We are fortunate to have each other to talk to, to make decisions with. It has been wonderful: to do what we love to do — and get paid for it. I’ve never felt alone in this industry because I have Barry at my side.”

She says the hard part of what they do is raising money.

“You pray that you’re going to get the backers,” Weissler says with a laugh. “We’ve been reasonably successful, so our investors have stayed with us. Eighty percent of the shows on Broadway do not pay back their whole investment. People have been kind to stick with us. We are eternally grateful.

“When we started, we didn’t have any money, and didn’t know what we didn’t know,” continues Weissler, adding that putting a show together takes from six months to a year. “It takes time. There is a lot to figure out.”

“It’s nice to get the recognition of your peers,” Weissler says. “And, the Tonys make it easier to raise money for future shows. After all, this is a business, as well as an artform. Producing is expensive. It is about filling seats. It is rare that someone goes to the theater weekly like they used to. I’d say, on average, a couple goes around three times a year. Once for each person’s birthday and then for their anniversary. Theatergoers may not get all dressed up like they used to, but they still see going to the theater as an experience.”

Weissler, who splits her time between New York and Palm Beach, says that it would be great if theatergoers understood more about what it takes to get a show from idea to opening night.

“I always am in favor of more knowledge,” says Weissler, who adds that she handles the artistic side of things and Barry deals with the commercial. “I am never going to say learn less. I also think that those people who may want a career in the theater need to understand all aspects of it. Everyone thinks about being an actor, or maybe a director, but there are a lot of positions in the theater that people don’t know about that are just as rewarding.”

What’s next for the Weisslers and the National Artists Management Company? They are in pre-production on two new musicals, Real Women Have Curves and The Bedwetter, based on comedian Sarah Silverman’s memoir.

Todd Shapiro is an award-winning publicist and associate publiusher of Dan’s Papers.