John Breglio, producer/author of “I Wanna Be A Producer"

·27 min·2 clips

John Breglio reveals why producing a Broadway show can mean making a killing or getting killed.

Broadway producing sounds rough here, and nobody lets it stay romantic for long. The conversation opens with the old Hollywood picture of the producer, then moves quickly into the less glamorous work behind Broadway risk. Breglio wants producing treated as an art form. Riedel pushes the harsher version: it may be the hardest job in theater, and the same show can make money or wreck you. Haskins and Riedel keep that pressure on him. Taste gets discussed, but not worshipped. Breglio says it matters, then adds that commercial sense and development work matter too. The questions keep poking at the neat version of the job. Producing starts to sound less like one perfect instinct and more like a string of calls, compromises, and nasty surprises. Money is where Breglio gets most direct. He has no patience for clients who let a general manager build the budget, then assume the lawyer and manager will handle everything else. That, to him, is irresponsible. A producer has to know how money is raised, spent, projected, and sometimes massaged so a show can look possible. That is not side paperwork. It is part of getting the piece onto the stage. By the end, the glamour has almost vanished. Stars, power players, capitalization, technique, logistics, and a thick hide all belong to the job. Riedel's closing jab about surviving his column lands because the whole episode has that same bite: warm, skeptical, and serious about Broadway craft.

As heard by us

A Broadway producer's job comes into focus through taste, money, investors, and the stamina the work demands.

Broadway producing comes across as a practical art: part taste, part nerve, part financial discipline. Instead of staying with the old cigar-and-corruption image, the discussion reframes the producer as someone who has to understand why a show costs what it costs, how money is…

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Why you'd press play

Press play when Broadway mythology makes you curious about the money, judgment calls, and emotional toll underneath.

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