Notes from the Wings: The Physics of Creative Leadership

It was 2018 at the August Wilson Theatre during the early days of 'Mean Girls'. The lobby was buzzing, the house was packed, and behind the heavy velvet curtains, three hundred people were moving in a synchronized, silent dance. In that moment, the financial weight of a multi-million dollar capitalization rests on a single collective breath. Every department—from the stagehands handling intricate automation to the actors waiting for their cues—must operate with absolute trust. If a single person loses focus, the mechanism stalls.

When I speak to executives as a creative leadership keynote speaker, they often ask how we maintain composure when the 'machinery' of a production breaks down in front of a paying audience. In theater, we don't have the luxury of a 'system reboot' or a 404 error page. We have a live audience and a clock that never stops. This environment requires a specific type of leadership: one that balances the cold reality of recoupment with the warm, sometimes volatile, energy of a creative team.

Radical Collaboration Over Individual Ego

In a boardroom, collaboration is often a buzzword. On Broadway, it is a survival tactic. When we produced 'The Ferryman' at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, the complexity was staggering—live animals, a massive cast, and a deeply emotional narrative. As a producer, my role isn't to tell the director how to direct or the lighting designer how to focus a lamp. My role is to protect the room.

Leading a creative team means managing tension. You are balancing the vision of the writers with the fiscal responsibilities of the investors. When these forces clash, a leader must remain grounded. I’ve found that the best way to navigate high-stakes conflict is to return to our shared purpose: the story. Whether you are launching a new tech platform or a musical like 'The Outsiders', the moment the team stops serving the 'story' and starts serving their own department's ego, the project is in jeopardy.

The Producer’s Mindset: Managing Risk in Real Time

Risk management in theater is a daily practice. We deal with the unpredictability of human health, mechanical failures, and the shifting tastes of the ticket-buying public. To lead through this, you cannot be risk-averse; you must be risk-intelligent. This means knowing which variables you can control and building a infrastructure that can absorb the shock of the ones you can't.

I often think back to the rehearsals for 'Moulin Rouge! The Musical'. The scale was enormous, the expectations were sky-high, and the technical demands were relentless. Success in that environment didn't come from a top-down mandate; it came from a culture of mutual accountability. When every person in the building—from the lead producer to the backstage intern—understands their impact on the whole, the leadership becomes a shared weight. That is the lesson I bring to every stage, whether it's at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre or a corporate boardroom.

Leadership is an art, but it’s also a discipline. It requires the courage to make the hard call and the humility to listen when the room is telling you something isn't working. If you can lead a room full of artists through a tech rehearsal, you can lead any organization through a season of change. It all starts with holding the space for excellence to happen.

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