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NARRATOR: Leonard Soloway has been a producer
and general manager on Broadway for the last half century.
MICHAEL WILSON: He's the Broadway of its golden age.
And through him, I feel like I was there.
JOHN SLATTERY: He was a gentleman.
And that's sort of... That was my first impression.
It remains my impression.
MANNY AZENBERG: He was the first genuinely shameless gay man I ever met.
And I say that with admiration.
NARRATOR: The plays and musicals
that are part of Leonard Soloway's Broadway history
have won every prize the theater can give.
And he's worked with some of the most distinguished talent on the Great White Way.
ELIZABETH ASHLEY: I value him, I respect him.
And God knows, I wish there were more people like him in the theater.
DEBBIE GRAVITTE: Leonard is the person in our business
who always tells the truth.
Sometimes it's brutal,
most of the time it's funny.
ROBERT E. WANKEL: He always has that smile,
and he's got a good sense of humor and good personality.
So everybody likes him and he stands out.
He's tall.
NARRATOR: At the age of 90, he remains a familiar face on the Broadway scene.
BILL EVANS: Here's the truth. Everybody on Broadway loves Leonard.
He really is a Broadway legend.
He tells me that over and over
He says, "Bill, I'm a Broadway legend."
AZENBERG: So, you get to a certain age and you're still coherent,
then you should do a documentary about it.
Well, we better hurry 'cause I don't have that much time left.
NARRATOR: As he has countless times over the course of his career,
Leonard Soloway is scouting his next show at a regional theater.
He finds an exciting prospect in a show called Tappin' Thru Life,
the musical based on the life and career of show business veteran Maurice Hines.
Played to sold-out crowds on tour for more than a year.
Well, hey, everybody.
NARRATOR: Hines was joined on stage by young tap dancing stars,
brothers John and Leo Manzari.
Leonard saw the show's potential
and decided to help bring it to Broadway.
I'm ready to go to Broadway. For him, I'd go anywhere.
That's eight shows a week.
I don't mind it. I don't mind eight shows a week.
NARRATOR: Leonard's office is in a building close to New York's Theater District.
SOLOWAY: Are you working on the director's contract?
NARRATOR: Judith Drasner, another Broadway veteran
is Leonard's company manager.
I love working for him and I just enjoy being with him.
And somehow, it just clicked and we just kept on
working together through
a variety of different shows.
You know, it's just a synergy that worked.
SOLOWAY: I made some corrections in this, and I can't find them.
Oh, here it is.
JUDITH DRASNER: When he's in go mode
working on a show or anything, we're in go mode,
and that can be exhausting but it's always worth it.
Can you set it up for me to use...
On your phone.
...my subscription to the New York Times on my iPad?
What I'm probably gonna need
is your password for your New York Times account.
-How the fuck do I know that?
I was afraid you were gonna say that.
I keep looking at you
because I... You look so familiar to me.
Indeed I am familiar.
I go back, what, 60 years?
Sixty years? It's like whenever I run into anyone on the street
they just say, "We're still here."
-It's true.
You have some salad in your tooth.
-Oh, thank goodness. -Good.
It's nice seeing you. Please say hello to Jack. I'd appreciate it.
-JANE A. JOHNSTON: I will, Leonard. -It's nice seeing you.
-MARGOT MOSER: Thank you so much. -You're welcome.
-As ever a gentleman. -Oh, please.
-It's my pleasure. Enjoy. -JOHNSTON: Goodbye.
JEFF WOLK: So how's the producing business this week?
Well, I have a project for you if you're interested.
Yeah?
I'm doing Maurice Hines
in a review called Tappin' Thru Life.
-Tappin' Thu Life? -ROB ANZALONE: That's Gregory Hines' brother.
-Oh, really? -Yeah.
Maurice Hines.
It's sold-out everywhere in regional theaters.
So I need $20,000 to do it in, uh,
Wilmington.
WOLK: And you could do it for how long, a week?
-Four weeks. -How long does $20,000 go?
20,000 would cover four weeks?
Yeah, and then the plan is to come to New York.
For a couple of... For like, six or eight weeks.
And then go on the road.
That might be interesting. That's a great idea, though, Rob.
Now who you gonna blow to get $20,000?
NARRATOR: Maurice Hines dedicated Tappin' Thru Life to his late brother, Gregory.
They had co-starred in Hollywood films as well as Broadway musicals.
Maurice is a know quantity.
His brother was a known quantity.
We were involved in a couple of shows that his brother did.
It was a good story, Gregory and Maurice.
And we enjoyed the performance.
Tappin' Thru Life.
The general manager handles the day-to-day operations of a show,
including putting the show together
and running it while it's playing.
You'll engage all of the creative team
but most producers are also artistic.
And so, Leonard has played both roles
and in many cases, he's usually
the GM of shows that he's also the producer.
Keeping it in the family.
NARRATOR: Leonard's family started out far from the bright lights
and razzle dazzle of Broadway.
His father immigrated from Russia in the early 1920s.
SOLOWAY: And when my father arrived in New York,
the people that he was staying with sent him to Cleveland.
Because my father wanted to be in the building business,
and their relatives in Cleveland were in the building business.
My mother was born in America and lived in Cleveland.
So that's where my father and mother met.
And my mother did not want to get married,
but in those days, you did what a Jewish father told you.
I had a grandmother and aunts
who were used to running the family.
And I think they scared my father away from
even handling me when I was a baby.
Today you see guys walking on the street with their sons.
There's no attempt at hiding they love somebody in the family.
Well, not those days.
I had been the editor of the high school paper
when I was in the 11th grade.
And then, when I went back the next season,
prepared to continue being editor
they said, "Well, you can't be the editor anymore."
So I said to my mother, "I'm not gonna finish high school."
She said, "Yes, you are". Of course.
And for some reason, I don't know why, she said,
"Why don't you go down to the Cleveland Play House?"
So I went the next day and I was as tall as I am now.
They handed me a can of paint and a brush and said,
"Paint that." And I heard bells ringing and everything.
They did tease me. Before one performance,
they said, "Oh, my God, we can't find the key to the curtain."
They said, "Leonard, see if you can find it."
I'm running around the theater looking for it.
I mean, there was no key to the curtain,
I finally figured out.
I was in several plays,
and I mean, listen, as far as education,
there's no better place than Cleveland.
'Cause we were taken to the opera and to theater.
We were exposed to everything.
And I couldn't wait to get out of there.
I wanted to go to Carnegie Tech.
And I went and auditioned and much to my surprise,
I got in.
The thing about Carnegie Tech was they didn't like me.
Because I was always telling them
that they're training people for the wrong reason.
That they made... People who had voices that were distinctive,
they would wipe that out.
And I said, "You can't do this. What you're doing is
"is training everybody to be in some repertory company
"when they want to go to Broadway and be a star.
"And what's different about them that will get them a job on Broadway,
"you're taking away from them."
And, uh...
They didn't like that.
They said, "We know there's a place for you somewhere in the theater,
"but we don't know where it is.
"So please don't ask to come back."
I went home and said,
"You know, you were gonna go for more college years. Let me go to New York."
And I did get to New York.
I was living on 55th Street and Eighth Avenue on the fifth floor.
I had one bedroom.
You couldn't open the door all the way in.
It hit the bed, and there was a 40-watt bulb hanging.
And my mother came.
She walked into the place and burst into tears.
She said, "You can't live like this."
I said, "I don't care. I'm never here."
Oh, my God. Look at the line.
WOLK: Do we have to wait in this line?
SOLOWAY: If we're picking up tickets, I hope not.
NARRATOR: As a member of the Broadway league,
Leonard attends every Broadway show every year
and therefore, is eligible to vote for the Tony Award,
Broadway's highest honor.
Hi. Soloway tonight.
-How are you? -How've you been? All right?
Yeah. How about you?
-Good. -Hi there. How are you?
I hear you have a big hit here.
-We hope so. You have a good evening. -I hope so, too.
I hear such fabulous things about it.
-We'll see you. -You, too.
Hi, Leonard. You still look great.
-So do you. -Time has never changed you.
-Oh, you're so sweet. -How you feeling, brother?
-Very good. -Good. You're gonna have a great time.
-I hear so. I'm looking forward to it. -Have a great time.
NARRATOR: It was in 1947 that 19-year-old Leonard Soloway
launched his career in the New York theater.
He was hired as an assistant in the theater department of ANTA,
the American National Theater and Academy based at the Hudson Theater.
Later, he worked on ANTA productions
at the Maxine Elliott Theater on West 39th Street.
They included the historical drama Galileo, with Charles Laughton
and the play Skipper Next to God
with stage and screen star, John Garfield.
Leonard also took on a few small roles as an actor
but found his true calling backstage.
They came to me and said, "We need an assistant stage manager.
"Do you wanna do the job?"
I said, "Well, what's in it for me?"
And they said, "Well, it's another five dollars a week."
I said, "Okay, I'll do it."
The stage manager takes less shit from the producer than the actors get.
I was offered a job as stage manager
for the Chicago Fair of 1950. It was in a tent.
And I met my wife there.
She was the star of the show, Betty Gillett.
We went to Stony Brook, Long Island, where we got married.
And eventually, Betty came back to Cleveland with me
to meet my father and my grandmother.
Betty was absolutely gorgeous.
She was in South Pacific, playing one of the nurses.
She got a job for Drene Shampoo.
And Betty was on billboards all over the country
and in magazines.
And it said, "Betty Gillett, rising star of Broadway
"and Hollywood uses Drene Shampoo."
And actually, she
brought up the gay thing before I did.
I was working at a theater on Sixth Avenue, a small theater
and the guy I was working with was one of the most beautiful men
I had ever seen in my life.
So, Betty and I were walking down the street one day,
and I said to her that I think you're attracted to him,
and she stopped on the street and said,
"The only reason you would think that
"is if you're attracted to him."
She said, "Because I am not."
So we decided, you know, it wasn't gonna work.
And then, when we divorced my mother said, "What did you do wrong?"
NARRATOR: In 1958, Leonard was hired as business manager
on an off-Broadway production called Ulysses in Nighttown.
Based on a book by James Joyce,
it starred gifted comic, actor Zero Mostel.
SOLOWAY: The show was a huge hit.
It was one of the first really big off-Broadway hits.
The beginning of off-Broadway theater.
NARRATOR: Leonard moved up the ladder quickly
and he was always in demand.
SOLOWAY: I was managing five or six shows at the same time.
I would nap in a cab going from one theater to the other.
On a Saturday, I'd have a performance at 2:00 p.m.,
3:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m.,
6:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m., 9:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m.
I worked seven days a week
from morning until, like, 11 o'clock at night.
And I was making thousands of dollars a week.
NARRATOR: Leonard's social life also began revolving around the theater.
His new friends all had their names up in lights.
I was with a friend of mine
and the intercom rang at like one in the morning
and she came back from the intercom
and said, "Oh, it's Elaine Stritch and Ben Gazzara.
And I was a kid, and I thought, "Oh, wow.
"Elaine Stritch and Ben Gazzara."
The hostess said to Elaine, "Would you like a drink?"
And Elaine said, "Yes, I would, thank you."
She opens her purse, takes out a bottle of Scotch and a glass,
and pours herself a drink.
We used to send telegrams to people on opening nights
saying, "Have a good opening. Remember, nothing depends on tonight
"except your entire career."
So I sent it to her when she opened in Goldilocks
and she said, "How dare you send me that?"
And so she didn't talk to me for three months.
Hello?
That was my travel agent calling to wish me happy birthday.
WOLK: Your travel agent?
So, just before I forget, I just wanna write this down
That play is called Tapping Through Life?
-Tappin'. T-A-P-P-I-N with an apostrophe. -T-A-P-P-I-N.
-Tappin' Through Life. -Life.
T-H-R-U.
Okay. And can you just tell me a quick...
It would be in September in Wilmington.
I just wanted to make a few notes 'cause I wanna...
And my 20,000 would be the sort of seed money or something?
SOLOWAY: It'd be front money.
If the show goes through.
Would I be like an executive producer of that...
Well, it'll be presented by,
by arrangement of Leonard Soloway and Jeff Wolk.
WOLK: Okay. Okay.
And then, if we move to Broadway or go on the road,
which I hope we will,
it'll be like a $40,000 investment.
It's a wonderful show.
Well, hello, Wilmington.
NARRATOR: As he turned 30,
Leonard Soloway would encounter one of the most powerful forces in the New York theater,
the unions.
I was in the box office one day
and this guy in a suit and a hat arrives and says,
"You can't work here unless you're in the union."
And I said, "Well, how do I do that?"
He said, "Well, you have to apprentice to somebody."
So, fortunately, they sent along a guy named Richard Horner
and I was his assistant.
Richard was hired by Lester Osterman.
NARRATOR: Lester Osterman would soon be one of Broadway's top producers
and Leonard was taken along by Richard Horner to join the Osterman team.
It was fine, except I was making $85 a week,
as opposed to all that money I was used to making.
And then, the magical thing happened.
How to Succeed in Business was previewing
at the 46th Street Theater which is now the Richard Rodgers.
And Ernie Martin, who was the co-producer
was smoking a cigar in the lobby during the show.
Which you were allowed to do in those days.
But somehow, we got into a confrontation
with this idiot's house manager.
So Ernie called Lester at home
and said, "I want this guy fired."
And Lester said, "Okay, and he called me and he said,
"On Monday, you're going to the 46th Street Theater,
you're gonna be the house manager.
Well, I loved it.
Now I had to get a real salary because I was
the house manager and the union couldn't say no.
NARRATOR: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
became the must see Broadway show.
and was greeted by the entertainment community with great fanfare.
The musical would go on to win seven Tony Awards,
including one for its outstanding lead actor, Robert Morse.
SOLOWAY: How to Succeed got rave notices when it opened.
There was a line to Eighth Avenue every morning.
The producers never took an ad in The Times.
For one year, there was no publicity
on the show, and it sold out and sold out.
And then, we got the note that
the President was coming.
There were six secret service guys and they were all
movie-star grade looking.
And one of the guys, uh,
came and sat with me in my office during the show.
And...
We ended up having an affair that lasted for about six months.
♪ Everyday I have the blues ♪
NARRATOR: At the Delaware Theater Company,
Leonard's production of Tappin' Thru Life
was still working out creative issues in its try out.
♪ Speaking of hard luck and trouble ♪
Listen, do you like that fog that comes in?
I noticed it tonight for the first time.
-I don't like the fog. -I don't either.
I want to cut it.
-Can you tell somebody? -I'm gonna do it right now.
You tell them now and it's bad for my throat.
I wanna cut the fog.
-Somebody turned it on. -I'm happy to take it out.
Jeff pleaded with me to do it, so we do it.
-Take it out. -No, I had a big thing with him.
Well, tonight, because it was bothering my throat.
-Really. -I could hear.
It was the first time I'd ever seen it.
-I said, "What is all this smoke here?"
I know I'm hot but this is ridiculous.
NARRATOR: One fiery actor who almost stopped a show
was Oscar winner and Broadway star, Shelley Winters.
She was playing the lead in Saul Bellow's 1966 comedy, Under the Weather.
SOLOWAY: Finally, at about 8:10,
she still hadn't been there.
So I told the understudy to go on.
So around about 8:20 I hear this scream.
She's running down the hallway lane, "Stop the show! Stop the show!"
So I grabbed her, I said, "Shut up.
"We're finishing the first act."
She said, "No, you gotta stop it. We'll start over."
I said, "No. You can do the second half,
"but until then, just go to your dressing room."
So that's what happened, but she was screaming.
"Stop the fucking show!"
Um, I just saw something very interesting about a computer.
-Okay? -What?
When you're typing a word and you don't know how to spell it,
you spell it out and then, if you right-click on the word
it gives you all the suggestions of how to spell it correctly.
I'm saying, how do you spell glamorous? And you just right-click on it.
O-U-R.
G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S. Glamorous.
There's no U there.
Little facts you can use.
NARRATOR: During the early 1960s,
Leonard began working on productions in Canada.
At the O'Keefe Center in Toronto,
he produced a revival of the popular musical South Pacific.
SOLOWAY: The O'Keefe Center has over 3,000 seats.
And I wanted to do it with Joe Layton directing it.
Joe was a very hot director.
So we went to Toronto,
and he said, "I can't do the show here.
"The orchestra pit is so big
"that the first row is a mile from the stage."
I said, "All right. The orchestra pit is on an elevator.
"I intend to bring the orchestra pit up to stage level.
"Put the show on the orchestra pit.
"Put the band behind a curtain on the stage."
He said, "You can't do that. Nobody's ever done that."
I said, "Yeah, but we can do it."
And then it started this whole new thing on Broadway.
And to this day there are some musicals where the band isn't even in the theater.
NARRATOR: It was in Canada that Leonard first connected
with up and coming producer, Manny Azenberg.
AZENBERG: I was the company manager of the O'Keefe Center in Toronto.
And Leonard was touring with Carol Channing's
one-woman show called Show Girl.
That's when I met him. We, sort of, became friends.
We were relatively... He's older than I am.
And more goyish than you.
-No, he's... -He's more assimilated.
Soloway becomes Soloway chicken about eight seconds, you know.
He didn't run away.
One thing about Leonard,
-he never ran away from any identity. -No.
Leonard was gay Jewish before anybody was gay in Jewish.
SOLOWAY: So Carol and I became friendly and then she did a one-woman show
which I managed.
And Liberace was playing at the hotel
And, he... Of course, he knew Carol
so Liberace and I became friendly.
And it was my first experience with somebody
who was so completely theatrical.
You know, he had a long dressing gown
and was obviously gay and I liked him.
He really was a nice guy.
He had all day welcoming
for whoever wanted to come up.
There was food there and liquor, whatever you wanted.
He also had four beautiful men
that anybody could also have.
And every other day two of the men would go
and two new ones would arrive.
We used to go to gay bars and people would go,
"Is that Carol Channing? What would she be doing at a gay bar?"
We were going to drive back from some place in Pennsylvania.
So one of the stagehands said, "Listen, there's a shortcut."
You go this way, he goes, "Well, you know me, I have no sense of direction whatsoever."
So we're driving along the road, it gets narrower and it's more country.
And, finally, I didn't know where the fuck I was.
Then I saw a state police phone, so I pick it up and then I said,
"I don't know where I am. I'm lost."
Then he said, "There's a number there, tell me what it is?"
So I did and he said, "Where do you think you are?"
I said, "I think I'm in the north eastern corner of Maryland."
He said, "You're in the north western corner of Maryland."
We didn't get to New York till five in the morning.
Her husband was hysterical.
NARRATOR: In 1966 Leonard joined forces with Manny in New York.
It would take some luck for them to succeed.
But then one day, luck walked in the door.
SOLOWAY: He knew Hal Holbrook very well.
Hal Holbrook was a friend.
He came into the office one day and he said, "What are you going to do?
"Why don't you do me?"
And in those days we did a budget, $35,000.
And we didn't have $35,000. We borrowed it.
I came by railroad.
It's one of those trains that gets tired every seven minutes.
It has to stop and rest for three quarters of an hour.
One of the passengers advised the conductor
to take the cowcatcher off the front end and put it on the rear.
Because at the rate we were going,
we were not going to catch any cows.
SOLOWAY: We had no money.
We did the advertising on credit.
And if the show had not made it, we would've been in a shitload of trouble.
But it just got sensational notices.
I was running into people on the streets who would say,
"Why didn't you call me? I would've invested in the show."
And I said, "I did call you, and you turned it down."
But we weren't smart enough to do a contract with him
that allowed us to share in that after it closed on Broadway.
So he was doing it every year somewhere,
but we never got any money from it.
But listen, it was great for our careers to get going that way.
NARRATOR: Leonard and Manny later traveled to London
to work on the production of a play called Word War Two and a Half.
AZENBERG: So Leonard and I were in London.
Certainly, my first trip to London. And I think it was Leonard's as well.
And we were doing everything we...
British. Tea...
Little bit of pretense.
NARRATOR: One night after the theater,
they were having drinks at the Grosvenor House Hotel
with Leonard's good friend, British actress Adrienne Corri.
AZENBERG: And in the lobby
there was an argument going on between a Sheikh and a civilian.
And it was a very noisy argument.
And the guy that was arguing with the Sheikh had a German accent.
The Sheikh leaves and this guy who's drunk
comes over to us and he says,
"You're American. Yes?"
And we're sort of taken aback.
And he says, "What are you doing here?"
And we said, "Well, we work in the theater."
He says, "Well, I was a flyer in the Luftwaffe,
but we had no petrol.
So I became a paratrooper."
I remember Manny. We were like...
He jumped to save Mussolini.
You can't make this story up.
And we're sitting there dumbfounded.
And he concludes by,
"And now I'm an investor in the New York Theater."
So Leonard said, "What show did you invest in?"
He says,
It really happened.
NARRATOR: In Delaware, Leonard's instincts about Tappin' Thru Life
seemed to be paying off.
We usually see or read every show we book.
So, therefore, we went down to Delaware to see the show.
Then Leonard said he was going to proceed with it.
And he asked us if we would
be an investor in the show and we agreed.
So we were wearing two hats, theater owner and as an investor.
NARRATOR: That investment propelled Tappin' Thru Life to New York,
but not to Broadway.
Instead, it moved into New World Stages
and off-Broadway venue,
owned by The Shubert Organization.
WANKEL: If someone doesn't drive the ship, it will never happen.
It was really Leonard's drive to bring it to New York.
Maurice certainly wanted to come to New York.
Everybody wants to come to New York.
You made all this possible. Stand up so that I can give you a hug for that.
-You know... Oh...
EVANS: Leonard knows exactly how to handle stars.
Even Marlene Dietrich.
He managed her last one-woman show.
SOLOWAY: Burt Bacharach, the famous song writer.
He was the conductor for Marlene Dietrich.
when she did her one-woman show at the Lunt-Fontanne,
and I was the house manager.
And I got a call one Saturday morning from the porter,
who said, "Miss Dietrich is here.
"And she would like to see you." It was eight in the morning.
So I threw on some clothes, I ran down the theater and she says,
"I need to get my dressing room painted."
I said, "Well, it's going to be painted Monday morning."
She said, "No, no, no.
"I'm opening Monday night. I need it painted today."
I said, "Well, I don't know if I can find anybody to paint it."
She said, "No, no. Just get me the paint. I'll paint it."
She climbed up on a ladder with some kind of disinfectant
over the walls and the ceiling. And then she painted the fucking thing.
Everybody in the world came and said hello to her,
but nobody ever asked her to go out for a drink or for supper.
And I think they just figured that she was busy all the time.
So she and I and the company manager would go to Sardi's.
And every matinee day, she would bring food for the band
which she cooked.
Dietrich was amazing.
She had a twenty-minute curtain call. Twenty minutes.
And then she hired somebody
to always come down and throw roses at her feet
at the curtain call.
And everybody said to me,
"That can't be her figure in that dress."
It was all her underneath.
And it was all real at her age.
♪ I can't give you anything But love
♪ But love
♪ But love ♪
DRASNER: Okay.
I don't need...
Okay. No problem.
Thank you, sir. Thank you. Talk to you soon. Bye.
-He's so cute. -So what's the problem with Jeff?
He feels that because they're coming, you know, after...
From two days off onto a matinee.
We don't have to give a shit about the matinee.
All right. Well, then there's nothing I can do.
That was what... I said I would check.
Well, he can rehearse on Tuesday if he wants to.
Oh, all right. But why don't you give a shit about the matinee?
-What? -It's our opening performance, that's why he wants it to be...
Well, it's a matinee.
-Who the fuck do you think is going to be there? -I know. Shh, shh.
They've been doing the show for how many fucking weeks?
I know, I know, but now he's suddenly getting nervous
about the time, and the girls, and the boy and all.
Well then, they have to start working earlier.
In fact, I think that they're coming in on the 15th.
I think Maurice said was when they wanted to start working with the girls.
Well, that's up to Joe, not up to them.
Yeah, I think he already spoke to Joe, but I'll check that out.
That they would have a space and the guys would just try tech.
Tech week is not a joy for anybody
because all the elements of the show
come together for the first time and they don't fit.
So all the amount of tinkering that you have to do
makes everyone crazy.
And it's not a good time.
So he can be a little intense at those times.
And , you know, you just know that about him.
And I understand that because this is it.
He's committed. He's the producer.
He's the one on the line.
WANKEL: Off-Broadway is a little bit more challenging than Broadway these days.
Only because it takes longer for a show to take off.
You have to worry about the risk-reward factor.
SOLOWAY: All right, let me just preface this by saying
we are way over budget because of the set.
Okay.
And so, whatever we can cut,
I would like to do.
JACKIE LAVANWAY: Oh, how old is this budget?
-Older than you.
We can use this one.
-Can I get it in Hebrew? -Yeah, you can.
If we need to make cuts, um...
We can talk about that.
SOLOWAY: Okay, take care. Thanks. Bye.
It's very hot.
Hot.
They didn't want to give me an open-end...
Hot.
They didn't want to give me an open-end at the theater.
They wanted to give me ten weeks, I said that
I can't raise a million dollars
on a show that's only going to run ten...
Anyway, so they, you know, I met with Bob over the weekend,
ah, Wankel, and he said "I'll talk to them."
Okay, honey.
Anybody you know with money, holler.
There are certain things that you learn over time
what has to be done if a play isn't doing this well, this is what we'll cut back.
And what to do, he's very knowledgeable, but you have to be.
There's nothing to talk about.
DASNER: Well, here's my question, there is something to talk about.
They want to have a rehearsal room
-from ten to one on the 17th. -No.
-They want a rehearsal room? No. -Okay.
-They can't. -Okay.
It has to be done in the theater.
We don't have any money, Judith.
You don't have to tell me, I know.
So we're not going to spend $300 for a rehearsal room.
DRASNER: Okay.
SOLOWAY: I'm going to send Jeff a note.
DRASNER: Yeah, that would be great if you did. I would love that.
I hate this fucking business.
DRASNER: Sometimes, especially if it's going to be late at night
and, you know, it's not been a good day, and tempers flare.
-SOLOWAY: I want it out. -This is what I'm...
No, I want it out. I'm not paying for it.
-It doesn't work. -But it's already here.
Listen to me. I'm not the only person that wonders if there's a fire backstage.
I'm not the only person that thinks that.
-Leonard, it's not... -I want it out of the show.
Okay, this is where we have a problem.
No, I don't have a problem because I'm a producer.
-We do have a problem because... -I'm saying you can't have it.
I mean, hello and welcome to theater.
All right, then take my name off the show.
-Oh, don't be silly. -No. Forget it.
-You don't listen. You don't listen to me. -I don't ask for a lot.
SOLOWAY: You're fired.
CALHOUN: Okay. Thank you.
DRASNER: I mean, everybody knows Leonard doesn't blow up.
It's just a thing, you know. And then it's over with.
Seriously, theater people are different.
SOLOWAY: Let's see what you got, kids.
MAN: So, the front is the key art.
Oh, it's the same as... Yeah.
What's the difference in the price?
That package is just over $11,000.
SOLOWAY: So we're still on budget pretty much, right?
KEITH SHERMAN: PR and the theater go hand in hand.
It's changed a lot, predominantly with the use of social media.
Which has caused a lot of print media to go out of business.
We have dozens and dozens of websites now devoted to the theater.
So the mix has shifted but it's just a different way
to communicate with audiences.
NARRATOR: Though print media has dwindled,
The New York Times still holds great importance
in driving Broadway business.
A good review, or a well-placed ad
can be vital to a show's survival.
DRASNER: I'm very excited about this ad.
It looks beautiful. It really pops.
It's everything that it should be and that's why I'm in such a hurry to go get a paper.
Good morning. Oh.
Where did she go with the camera?
Gorgeous, isn't it?
Thank you.
Now that everybody thinks I'm a star
because I carry my own media with me
-SOLOWAY: That girl. -Mmm-hmm.
-Did you look at it? -Yes.
But I love the excitement of opening the page to you.
-SOLOWAY: Wow. -Mmm-hmm.
NARRATOR: At the start of the 1970s,
Leonard was producing and managing a heavy schedule of plays.
From comedies to historical dramas,
and from a rock opera to classics of the American stage.
WILSON: I was so thrilled to be able to see
Colleen Dewhurst and Jason Robards
perform live together on stage.
They famously did A Moon for the Misbegotten together
with Jose Quintero as director.
That Leonard was the General Manager for.
And that production of A Moon for the Misbegotten
was one of the landmark productions of the 20th century.
NARRATOR: A Moon for the Misbegotten
was an emotionally draining play.
With Jason Robards cast in the role of an alcoholic
haunted by the death of his mother,
it was not expected to have a long run.
But the explosive chemistry between Robards and Dewhurst
gave the production an unexpected charge.
What happened was the show just took off.
I mean, it was an enormous, enormous hit.
We kept extending the extension.
Jason was a great guy. Great.
But one night,
he went out after the Wednesday matinee
and got drunk. Came back bombed.
And I said, "Listen, what are we going to do?"
He said, "I'll go on, get Betty."
So I called Betty, Lauren Bacall, his ex-wife,
who showed up in a mink coat over a slip
with her hair in curlers.
And she was, you know, "Get me this. Get me tea.
"Get me water. Get me coffee."
And, you know, half an hour later
he came out of the dressing room.
And Colleen said it was the most touching performance she'd ever had with him.
'Cause it just broke her heart playing with him.
NARRATOR: During this time, Leonard often went to New Haven, Connecticut,
a Mecca for out of town tryouts.
On one trip with his business partner
Leonard reluctantly went to see a play called The Shadow Box
with a cast that included a young Mandy Patinkin.
SOLOWAY: Nobody wanted it because of the subject matter.
It was the first play to deal with terminal illness.
So we went to the theater
and at intermission I turned and I said, "We have to do this."
We not only won the Tony Awards, we won the Pulitzer Prize.
It was so far ahead of its time that it never did any business.
We lost every nickel.
NARRATOR: For Leonard's father
even winning Broadway's highest honor had little meaning.
SOLOWAY: His first sentence to me on the phone always was
"You making any money?"
He didn't understand what a Tony Award was.
And didn't care what it was.
Every Saturday I'd call my mother
and my father would get on the phone in the other room.
And one day, he ended his conversation by saying,
"I love you, Leonard."
And my mother said, "Better late than never."
NARRATOR: The truth is historically,
the odds of succeeding on Broadway are always against you.
Leonard's losers are enshrined at Joe Allen
with many others that failed to find an audience.
KEN BILLINGTON: Joe Allen's is a theatrical hangout.
And I remember going back there in mid 60s
when I just started working on Broadway.
Some show closed, that was a big failure.
And, I think, maybe as a joke and I may be wrong about this
but a poster for that flop was put on the wall
because it was so terrible.
And then over the years it just grew and grew and grew.
And, you know, as I always say about myself,
"I can throw a big potato over my shoulder and hit a flop show that I did."
NARRATOR: One flop that Ken Billington shared with Leonard
was a musical called The Story of My Life.
It ran for five performances.
SOLOWAY: The critics hated it and I'm convinced to this day
that the reason they hated it was that we never said what the show was really about.
Which was that these two guys grew up together
and were best friends.
But one of them was in love with the other.
I mean, it was implied but it never was stated.
And I think that that's what killed that show.
There's an intrepid quality to people like Leonard.
They're willing to take a shot, you know, over and over again.
And like anybody's career, you know, they're not all scores and the most interesting stories
are the ones that didn't go well.
SOLOWAY: Rockabye Hamlet was directed by Gower Champion.
And we had gone to Canada to see the show which was terrific.
But when we got to New York all of a sudden we're having
huge scenery and stuff being added,
so it became this big fucking production.
And I said to them we should really only have the music critics
instead of the theater critics.
'Cause it basically was an opera.
Well, we had the theater critics
and it was a major disaster.
NARRATOR: The New York Post's critic
Martin Gottfried, wrote,
A promising newcomer to theatrical heartbreak
was Bernadette Peters.
SOLOWAY: Bernadette and I became friendly
on A Mother's Kisses
on a show with Bea Arthur.
And, uh, we were in New Haven
and the show was too long and we had to cut
at least 20 minutes,
and what the creative people decided to do
was to cut a whole segment.
Well, that was the segment that Bernadette was in.
So, I was the company manager, I had to fire her.
And she was crying and I said,
"You know, Bernadette, everything works out for the best.
"You'll see, it's gonna be just fine."
So, we went to Baltimore where we closed
and she went to New York where she got Dames At Sea.
So, then, when I ran into her
when we were back in New York,
several years later, she said,
"Oh, there's the man that made me a star."
And we still see each other,
and I love going to opening nights
'cause if she's there she always runs over and grabs me.
LYNN WANKEL: When he was most prolific in his career,
he was the odd man out.
Leonard was the fellow,
as much as he wanted the job done,
he would also catch in the corner
and say, you know, "Is everything okay?
"'Cause your performance, I think, is a little off tonight."
Or, uh, "You're okay financially?"
Uh, he was always interested
in someone, as a person.
NARRATOR: In 1986,
Leonard was the general manager
for the hit comedy Social Security
directed by Mike Nichols,
and starring Olympia Dukakis and Marlo Thomas.
Leonard formed a special bond with Olympia.
I felt like if I had a problem
I could go to him
and he would be discreet, number one,
and, uh, because with Mike Nichols
it was a really rough kind of scene.
One day in rehearsal, he was so impatient
and he lashed out at me.
And maybe it's because Leonard saw me through that,
plus, my son, he was having issues
and I needed to go home.
She came to me and said,
"I don't know what to do. I'm... I'm very distraught."
I said, "Well, you should go."
And she said, "Well, what will I..."
I said, "Your understudy will go on."
She said, "Oh, I hate to do that."
I said, "Go."
DUKAKIS: Leonard made it possible for me.
I mean, you know, when it's your kid
who cares about a play?
NARRATOR: Leonard developed enduring friendships
with many of the women he worked with over the years.
Tony Award winning actress Elizabeth Ashley
starred in the 1975 revival
of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth.
Before I'd ever worked with Leonard,
I had met Leonard and I knew Leonard.
And I was doing this French play
by Jean Giraudoux called The Enchanted.
And it's a very romantic play
with the great, sort of...
Uh, a lot of, sort of, sexuality
kind of running underneath it.
And my leading man
was one of the most beautiful
and seductive leading men at the time
named Stephen McHattie.
We were playing the Kennedy Center.
And Leonard was general managing something else.
And, on a matinee day,
I'm sitting on the floor of my dressing room,
you know, with all those cartons of Chinese food,
the way you do between shows,
and there's a knock on the door and...
And, uh, I said, "What?"
Door opens and it's Leonard, and Leonard is...
I mean, Leonard is suited up
and he stood there and he said,
"I wanna know one thing. Is he gay?"
And I knew immediately who he's talking about
because, I mean, McHattie caused a stir
when he walked down the street.
And, well, I was so happy to say, "No!"
Years later, I think, Leonard said,
"I knew that you got him before I did."
NARRATOR: Leonard first met actress Tovah Feldshuh
when she appeared in an off-Broadway play
early in her career.
I met Leonard Soloway
when I was doing Yentl at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
I have known him throughout my career.
He's a real gent.
He's elegant. He looks marvelous.
He has style.
NARRATOR: And Leonard was impressed with Tovah.
When she took on the role of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir
in the off-Broadway production of Golda's Balcony,
Leonard offered to take it to Broadway.
FELDSHUH: But the deal was a terrible offer.
I didn't take it.
NARRATOR: Leonard would have another chance
to work with Tovah, on a new play
that also started off-Broadway.
FELDSHUH: He was the general manager of Irena's Vow.
He and Daryl Roth, wonderful producer,
took a real shine to the piece,
and they brought us to Broadway.
NARRATOR: In 1999, Leonard oversaw
the momentous Broadway comeback
of stage and screen icon, Lauren Bacall
in his production of Noel Coward's
Waiting in the Wings.
Waiting in the Wings boasted an amazing cast.
Not just Lauren Bacall,
but Rosemary Harris, Dana Ivey.
There was an all-star cast.
At that point in her life,
Lauren Bacall was not
the easiest to get along with,
but Leonard, uh,
not only knew how to charm Bacall
but also knew how to stand up to her.
When I was, uh,
boss, and she called me into her dressing room
and she said,
"Listen, I hear we got a fabulous notice."
I said, "Yeah, we did."
She said, "Why didn't you tell me?"
I said, "Because it's no good for you."
She said, "What did they say?
"That I missed a few lines here and there?"
"Missed a few lines?"
I had a girl sitting in the front row
"throwing her every fucking line."
And then she came to me and said,
"I saw this bracelet at Cartier's
"that I would like to get to wear in the show."
I said, "Number one,
"the woman in the show
"would not have a $6,000 bracelet.
"So, forget about it.
"But, if the show's a hit in New York,
"I'll get it for you."
Well, she,
of course, forgot all about it, so...
We did get her a dog, however.
And I did adore her.
Great sense of humor.
-Okay. -MAN: Well, we just wanna thank you
-for coming here today. -Where is he now?
Oh, uh, we can call him.
I think we should give him a call.
MAN 2: Why don't we call him, then?
Just to say hello...
MAN 2: Give me my, uh, cellphone.
Hi, Leonard.
It's Olympia.
SOLOWAY: Olympia, my darling treasure.
-How the fuck are you? -Alive.
Yes, alive, and kicking,
and well, and, uh...
What are you, 90 now?
Yeah.
-Really?
Oh, of course, of course.
-I love you very much. -I love you too,
-And I think of you all the time. -sweetheart.
-Bye-bye. -Bye, honey.
Take care. Bye. Bye.
Do you want me to scan that and send it to them?
-Just so they can... -Yes.
So, have... Add him here.
NARRATOR: Throughout the 1980s,
Leonard was involved with a number of musical productions.
One of them would pose a major challenge
to his well-honed people skills.
AZENBERG: Jerome Robbins was maybe
the single most difficult man I'd ever met
in the theater.
Maybe in the world.
He was relentless.
WANKEL: Jerome Robbins' Broadway
was a big show
putting together the six-month rehearsal period
which is unheard of,
but that's what Mr. Robbins insisted on.
We did rehearse for six months.
Sixty-two dancers.
For six months, six days a week.
It was monumental.
We were squished into the Imperial Theater.
SOLOWAY: We'd rehearse six weeks.
We'd take off six weeks.
It took a year to get the show going.
Jerome Robbins' Broadway was the top number
from all of his shows.
And the thing about Jerry Robbins was that
you could never tell from his shows
that he was the choreographer.
Because all of his dancers came out of the material.
In those days, they didn't write down choreography
They didn't notate what it was.
So, uh, we brought people over from Holland
and from Paris,
and people who had been in the original production
of whatever show we were talking about.
People were constantly coming in with their memories.
Now, they didn't, maybe, necessarily know the steps,
but all of a sudden, like, somebody would go,
"Oh, and I remember we did this."
And all of a sudden, "Oh, and you know what, I did that."
And everybody, all of a sudden,
fell right into it
because we all have that muscle memory.
You were sort of auditioning, basically,
everyday for him.
All this incredible dance and movement
and things were happening,
and then, it all, like, went down to, like,
Girl in the Spotlight.
And it was me.
And when he first lit it,
something happened with the lighting
and I was a little... Guess I wasn't happy.
And I said to him,
"Well, I just want it to be perfect." And he said,
"Now you know how I feel."
NARRATOR: But Robbins' demands for perfection
didn't sit well with some of the producers.
In particular, Manny Azenberg.
Manny called me one morning and he was really
not himself, and he says, "I'm resigning."
"So, what are you resigning for?
"The show hasn't even opened.
I was just exhausted.
He said, "I can't take it, Phil.
"If I don't resign, I'm gonna either have a nervous breakdown
"or I'm gonna lose Lani, I'm gonna lose my wife."
I said, "Just take it easy. Relax.
"Don't... Don't resign. Don't do anything.
"Leonard can take the show.
"And when Leonard handles the show
"you don't have to be in there, on the firing line."
It was sort of a perfect combination
of the two of them,
because Leonard's honesty,
I think Jerry could handle that.
He went right along with it.
Any time when you had humor,
and obviously, Leonard
is one of the gods of humor.
That, you know, is one of his great, great strengths.
So, I think...
So, I think that for Jerry Robbins, it was, it was good.
SOLOWAY: He said to his assistants once,
he said, "Don't say anything important in the car.
"'Cause the driver is a spy for Leonard."
Leonard's attitude is, "You can't pull that shit on me."
And Leonard was a stalwart.
SOLOWAY: The first dress rehearsal in New York,
I broke the show at 10:00.
And he came to me and said,
"What... What happened?" And I... I just lost it.
And I said, "Everybody's been working 18 hours a day.
"They're dead tired...
"The musicians, the crew,
"and they just can't keep going."
And he said, "Oh, okay."
So, some...
I... I thought the theater was empty.
Some stagehand was there and heard all this.
I got home and my phone was ringing.
I suddenly was a hero on Broadway
'cause I told Jerry Robbins to go fuck himself.
-Judith? -Mmm?
Tell our stage manager
that she should come through us
before she talks to anybody.
This is fucking ridiculous, what's going on here.
What are you looking at me like that for?
Well, because.
When we were on the road that's what she did.
-I know. -And that's what I want.
She can't just call Joe
and say this is what she wants.
Okay.
Looks like your mail. Did you see it?
-I saw it, yeah.
I mean,
who does she think she is, for Christ's sake.
Every... Every other stage manager I've ever dealt with
called me to say what they wanted to do.
Well, she's making a schedule.
She always talks to you but she's trying to make the schedule.
I want to know what's happening.
I don't wanna hear it second hand.
Okay.
NARRATOR: In 1997,
Leonard was asked to see a production
of an off-off-Broadway play called Gross Indecency.
It was based on the true story of the trials
of Irish poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde.
Future Emmy winner Michael Emerson
won praise for his breakout performance as Wilde.
In 1895, the Marquess of Queensberry,
father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas,
accused Oscar Wilde of being a sodomist
and enticing young men
into, then, illegal homosexuality.
You will hear these men testify
that Mr. Wilde committed acts of gross indecency.
You will hear from their lips...
It is, in this century, misunderstood.
So much misunderstood
that it may be described as
the love that dare not speak its name.
Wilde was found guilty of gross indecency
and received the harshest sentence
of two years with hard labor.
After his release, he left Britain for France
where he continued to write until his death
at the age of 46.
In a rare review for an off-off-Broadway play,
Ben Brantley of The New York Times
gave Gross Indecency a rave,
calling it "absolutely gripping."
Leonard agreed to take the play
to a larger venue in Greenwich Village,
the Minetta Lane Theater.
SOLOWAY: And I called my friend Chase Mishkin
and I said, "I'm doing this play
"about Oscar Wilde,
"and, uh, would you be able to set it in investing?"
And she said, "Yes, sure."
And I knew I was home free.
And then we played Toronto, we played Chicago,
we played Los Angeles,
San Francisco.
Everybody found it fascinating
and we sold out everywhere we went.
NARRATOR: Another highlight of Leonard's career,
was serving as producer and general manager
for a revival of Whoopi Goldberg's
One Woman Show.
The limited Broadway run was a sellout.
So, it weren't no surprise to me
what happened, I'll tell you.
But I'll tell you what was a surprise.
When this election was the first one,
that shit shot the hell out of me.
'Cause I always thought in order to be President of the United States,
-you had to be smart...
...you know what I mean? No, no, wait, wait, wait, wait. No, it's...
Let me... Let me explain what I'm saying.
You know, I'm just saying
I thought you had to know shit like geography.
SOLOWAY: So, there was a very big weekend,
I mean, there was a big holiday weekend,
and...
Uh, it was gonna be huge
and she was desperately ill.
She missed the whole weekend.
So, when the show closed, she said to me,
"Did you break even?"
And I said, "Not quite." And she said, "Well,
"how much were you... How much do you think you lost?"
I said, "About 100,000."
She went to Clearwater
and played a Saturday night
and gave me a check for $100,000.
And I thought, "You know what?
"I'm gonna try to walk in my heart
"with the idea that in spite of everything,
"there's still good in people."
SOLOWAY: I loved her.
She's quite a lady.
NARRATOR: In 2002, Leonard was told
that Hollywood superstar Paul Newman
wanted to bring Thornton Wilder's timeless play
Our Town to Broadway.
Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward
were patrons of the Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut
where a revival of the play had opened.
All profits from the New York production
would go to that theater.
Newman wanted to personally select the Broadway venue.
So, he, for some reason,
wanted to take a look at
what is now the Walter Kerr Theater.
I said, "No. You got to see the Booth
"which is right at the Shubert alley
"and where we have a lot of other theaters."
So, Paul goes through and he says,
"Oh, I wanna go on the stage."
I said, "Well, the door is over here."
He said, "No."
He's 70 years old. He jumps up on the stage.
I mean, he was just a doll.
Well...
Now is the time to tell you,
I think that the Cartwright interests
are building a new bank in Grover's Corners.
I had to go to Vermont for the marble, I'm sorry to say.
And, uh, they've asked some friends of mine
what we should put in the cornerstone
for people to dig up a thousand years from now.
Of course, so, we are putting in a copy
of the Constitution of the United States of America,
and the Bible,
and some of Shakespeare's plays.
What do you say? What do you think?
Everybody worked for minimum,
including Paul.
But they were getting a percentage of the profits
and we ended up making so much money
that they all made more money
than they would have made
if they'd been with their regular salaries.
All right, darling, thank you. Give my love to her.
Your welcome. Bye.
Oh, dear!
Everybody's fucking dying.
You know, I don't understand why you have to have a coffin
even if you're being cremated.
-They have to have a coffin. -I know.
I know. You can just put me in a trash bag
and throw me out. What do I care?
That's what I think.
SOLOWAY: You know, he gets depressed very often.
So, this doctor put him on this regime
of when he gets home at night,
to write, um, write down
what was nice during the day.
And he said it's been three months now
that he's doing this
and it has changed his whole brain.
That's great. Good for him.
That's what my shrink always said.
You have to look for the good.
The bad is all over, you have to find the good.
It's not easy. Look for the good.
This show is gonna be open and it's gonna be great.
But we... We didn't have
much competition in all the other towns.
-I know. -When there's 30 fucking shows on Broadway.
I know, but there are 60 gazillion people going to these shows.
And they can come see ours too.
Especially for less...
Remember, when we were first thinking about bringing it on Broadway?
This is gonna be much better.
Oh, I... I think we're in the right place.
Absolutely in the right place.
It's in... It's in town.
It's really in Broadway. They can go to TKTS walk right over there.
So, I think it's gonna be very good.
I'm excited about this, Leonard.
NARRATOR: As the New York opening night approached
for Tappin' Thru Life,
there were the usual jitters.
WANKEL: Everybody has the same concern.
You pick the show, you put it together,
you bring all of the parts together
and then the audience decides whether it's good or bad.
And so, you never know what the audience is gonna do.
They either buy the tickets or they don't.
And it could be a great show
and people don't seem to have interest,
or the press could not give it the kind of attention
that it may need.
A lot of things going into
having a show sell.
And the best thing is word of mouth.
So, you have to just sit back and wait and hope
that everybody says, "You must see Tappin' Thru Life."
NARRATOR: At the opening night performance for Tappin' Thru Life
a jubilant audience had investors believing
that they had a hit on their hands.
Members of Broadway's elite,
including Brooke Shields, Tommy Tune,
Michele Lee and Savion Glover,
came out to celebrate with the cast.
WOMAN: So, now we're just gonna jump to press land,
if you don't mind.
So, uh, last night we opened
and it was a blast.
Sentiment was very positive
over Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
Basically, there's been no negative feedback about the show.
Everybody loves it.
NARRATOR: In fact, the influential New York Times
described the show this way,
"Monday's performance, in front of a buoyant opening-night audience,
"was blistering hot."
Okay, well...
Thank you.
-If you guys can... -WOMAN: Yeah.
-...excuse us. -Okay.
Thank you...
Of course, the role that money plays
is extremely important in every production
because you can't have a show without money.
And so, it has to be very carefully watched.
It has to be really looked over like a Mother Hen
and the budget is always out there.
And we're always looking to see what happens.
And especially Leonard.
And so, you know, he does,
because that money is crucial.
Crucial, especially today.
When I did Dame Edna, we had not one seat sold.
We started previews on Monday.
And with no advertising we were selling out by Friday night.
I thought the same thing would happen here.
But it didn't.
WOLK: But you already have some money coming in.
-From what? -WOLK: The figures you showed.
But still if we only do
50,000 a week we're in trouble.
25,000 is not enough
to cover the weekly expenses.
You couldn't just call a few people and say listen
-Yeah, and they said no. -we've got this...
They said no.
Well, you did make some calls.
You've obviously done a 100 shows.
These things come up, they go down.
-What... -It was never as bad as this.
It was just a mistake to launch it
not having it fully capitalized?
Yes.
Which was your decision?
I regret it enormously.
I got a big lecture from Phil Smith about doing that.
He said, "You should know by now you should not have gone
"into rehearsal until you had all the money."
You know I've said all along that
the problem is we don't have money to advertise.
But that poster that's in the front.
Can't we put a label on there,
-that says "Blistering hot." -That costs money.
But that's, that's just one label.
It costs money.
Hundreds of dollars, don't you get it?
Look, you don't know the business.
So, don't start telling me what to do.
So, it must be pretty hard when you have to
tell someone you're closing the show.
It is.
I'll call the company together
and say I have to put up
the notice.
I mean, won't you tell Maurice in person?
NARRATOR: In fact,
Leonard would have to let it be known
that the show was going to close.
The same night
that Maurice Hines was being honored with a caricature.
At Sardi's.
Okay.
Got you.
Bob is saying we should wait till
after the show to tell him, but I can't do that.
It's purely by Union regulation.
Simply said, it has to be up a specific
amount of time the actors, the company and everything needs to know it
That's it.
And we'd have to pay more money, a lot more money
and we couldn't afford the money,
we'd have to pay the cast for another week.
We'd have to do a lot of... Make out a lot of payments that we didn't...
If we had the money we would have stayed open.
But we didn't have it.
SOLOWAY: Shall we go in the corner to talk?
Come, we have to talk a bit.
-You want me to talk... Okay. -Yeah.
I kept going
and collecting more and more debts.
Because we never made enough money to break even, weekly.
And Maurice was wonderful,
in that he offered to not take his weekly
choreography fee.
So, do you think this will be your last show?
Absolutely.
Because I would never be able to raise money.
It's too difficult these days.
All of my contacts are gone.
Did you see this?
So far, everything is going very well.
Period.
Moving out today.
Period.
Moving in tomorrow.
Period.
You know, you can just...
You can just drop this stuff off the balcony.
Those are all my boyfriends, ex boyfriends.
He was one of the top models in the world.
He hardly exercised
and he was built like a brick shithouse.
And the guy in the horseshoe frame,
comes from one of the wealthiest families in the world
His family discovered how to take oil out of water.
He was great.
And the one behind him
raised Arabian horses.
That's my parents, behind the lamp.
That's one my favorite pictures it's called Lonesome Cowboy.
That's me.
That's really me that painting.
I mean it's not really me, but that's emotionally me.
I don't know, I just plug into it.
NARRATOR: Leonard had one last goodbye to make.
To The Shubert Organization,
which had played such a big role in his career.
When I was on Take me along,
before it started, uh,
-MAN: Jackie Gleason? -Jackie Gleason said,
"Who got the most money on Broadway ever?"
And I checked around, I said,
"Mary Martin got $5000 a week."
He said, "I want $5001."
And when we went from Boston to Philly,
you know, in those days,
if you got a parlor car,
you got a freight car.
And the scenery would go with you.
So, from Boston...
He hired a 5-piece jazz band
that played on the train all the way from Boston to Philadelphia.
And when we got to Philadelphia,
he picked up the check for the entire company.
MAN: Leonard, why would you give this up?
Why would you ever give up theater?
I'm through with the business.
-What? -I am.
-This it? -I'm not going through that again.
It's all about money now, it's not, it's no fun.
The only one I would ever
think of doing, would be, uh,
Fellow Travelers, if we could find a star for it.
Otherwise, I don't, I don't want to do it anymore.
NARRATOR: So after producing and managing more than 100
productions on Broadway and in theaters around the world
Leonard was trading his home in the heart of the theater district.
For the peace and quiet of East Hampton, New York.
WOMAN: Very nice.
SOLOWAY: Hello.
Did you just call me?
It says Wankel.
I may have accidently.
Oh, I know.
Bob you don't have to pretend.
-I think... -Everybody knows about us.
Oh, all right, well, then you told everybody else.
To our dear friend Leonard Soloway.
Who has abandoned the metropolitan center of the world.
To live the leisure life
in East Hampton.
And we want him
to enjoy the very best of everything.
So we're gonna let him pick up the check today.
-Here, here! -Understand what the country life
-is now like. -Very good, thank you.
Cheers.
NARRATOR: It turns out,
that Leonard's heart
had never really left 42nd street.
LYNN WANKEL: I think he got bored.
And I think he missed
the, as we say, the razzle-dazzle stuff.
By the second winter coming in,
I think he just realized,
"Boy, I'm in the wrong place."
And I think also, he had many
friends out there from years ago.
Um.
Uh, Betty Bacall.
Uh, Jason Robards.
And I think, that was the Hamptons,
that he remembered and that he loved.
And it just wasn't there anymore.
NARRATOR: Leonard had also lived through
one of the darkest periods in modern history.
When AIDS swept through the gay community during the 1980s.
The deadly epidemic
took an enormous toll on Broadway.
With the loss of some of its brightest, artistic talent.
Including the creator of A Chorus Line.
Broadway's most iconic show.
Michael Bennett.
SOLOWAY: Michael was
you know, couple of times I was in trouble
with a show out of town and I would call him
and he would be there the next day on his own dollar.
And he would sit with the creative people,
and tell them what he thought
and he'd get on the plane and go back to New York.
LYNN WANKEL: You know he always said to me
I really shouldn't be alive.
He said it's really quite astonishing.
When I look at all the men and friends and lovers
that I've lost.
That why am I the one that's still here.
And, um...
I think that's part of his fearlessness.
I think, he feels he's here for a reason.
And, um...
He's gonna do it, he's gonna do what makes him happy.
And he's gonna do what keeps him in the industry.
Um, yeah.
NARRATOR: For Leonard Soloway, the revels have not ended.
He did in fact, put the play Fellow Travelers on its feet.
For an out of town tryout
in the picturesque, Long Island Town of Sag Harbor
only 2 hours and 45 minutes from Broadway.
With the backing of The Shubert Organization.
The play would have it's premiere at the Bay Street Theater.
WILSON: I arrived here, to begin tech ten days ago.
Leonard was here in the house ahead of me.
Ah, just as we were about to
begin spacing the play on stage.
And then he was here for
every single minute of our tech and preview process.
You don't get that with all producers.
You don't get that with all general managers.
I think of Leonard as an artist.
You have your tickets?
-Well I... -All you have to do is sit here and look handsome, you see
-And everything else falls into place. -I like to, I like...
I like telling them dirty stories it gets them off guard.
Leonard!
How are you?
I'm fine, how are you?
Leonard, I have missed you, sweetie.
I've missed you, I would rather have been with you.
I have something for you but I'll give it to you after the performance.
-So you don't have to... -You got a man in this bag?
I do.
SOLOWAY: Leonard Soloway.
-Leonard Soloway, -Congratulations.
Producer Extraordinaire.
That's a gorgeous outfit.
-Absolutely gorgeous. -Thank you, thank you.
-You got my message though, right? -What did it say?
No problem.
Five years ago, I discovered this script.
It was given to me by Evan Bergman
And I just plugged into the political aspects of it.
I mean, it's even more pertinent now.
NARRATOR: The play looks back at a turbulent time in America
when artists were accused and many blacklisted,
for being sympathetic towards communism.
Two men at the center of this storm
were Oscar winning Director, Elia Kazan
known as Gadg.
And the brilliant Playwright, Arthur Miller.
Close friends.
They soon became adversaries.
over the choice to remain silent
or to betray friends and colleagues
to the House Un-American Activities Committee
The inquisition destroyed lives.
And tore the country apart.
In the play,
Kazan tries to warn Miller about the scrutiny he could face in Hollywood.
Gadg says in that first act.
He says,
"There's no blacklist on Broadway."
And Miller says,
"Not yet."
I think a lot of the people last night
got emotionally involved with it.
And, uh.
What pleased me a lot was that
Before the lights even came up
on the curtain call, people were already standing.
Ah, which was a very good sign.
NARRATOR: And the play received enthusiastic reviews in local papers.
He has a path for us.
He knows he's got Broadway in mind for this play.
NARRATOR: Leonard decides to sell his recently acquired property.
And put all but a few of his possessions into storage.
♪ Give my regards to Broadway
♪ Remember me to Herald Square
♪ Tell all the gang at Forty-Second Street
♪ That I will soon be there
♪ Whisper of how I'm yearning
♪ To mingle with
SOLOWAY: You're coming? You're here?
♪ Time throng
Where the fuck are they?
♪ Give my regards to old Broadway
♪ And say that
♪ I'll be there e'er long
♪ I'll be there e'er long ♪
I've got several emails asking
is there a producer attached, how do I get involved?
I guess I'll just forward them all to you.
Absolutely, with a picture.
Yes, a picture.
NARRATOR: To begin his search for two stars.
To take on the lead roles in Fellow Travelers.
Leonard meets with Director, Michael Wilson.
And Public Relations Specialist, Keith Sherman.
New York post Theater Critic, Michael Riedel
called the script for Fellow Travelers, "Terrific."
He wrote,
"But the issue of finding a star..."
Still the quality of the material doesn't always outweigh
the importance of casting a big name.
Having stars is, is a magnet.
For attention, for audiences.
For ticket sales.
It's impactful.
NARRATOR: Whether or not a major star appears
for Leonard's return to Broadway.
He's back.
In the arena he loves.
SLATTERY: Once you breathe this air.
It's hard to go back and do anything else.
It's his life blood, I mean
he eats and drinks and sleeps and walks,
showbiz and theater.
He can't stop.
And it's not,
it's not madness.
It's natural for him.
JOE ALLEN: Look at the prices.
Now you gotta save up.
And rob a gas station before you go to the theater.
He was among the first customers to arrive.
That I remember.
It was plenty of bad behavior.
But he stayed within the reasonable confines.
We don't have a very high standard, that's why he's here.
♪Give my regards to Broadway
♪ Remember me to Old Times Square
♪ Tell all the gang at Forty-Second Street
♪ That I will soon be there
♪ Whisper of how I'm yearning
♪ To mingle with the old time throng
♪ Give my regards to old Broadway
♪ And say that I'll be there e'er long
♪ I'll be there e'er long ♪
DRASNER: I'm crazy, crazy busy.
I've got a show opening on Monday and I am out of my fucking mind.
-Hi, honey. -Do you need help with anything?
SOLOWAY: Can I get some vodka?