Notes from the Wings/Producer
From Moulin Rouge! to Buena Vista Social Club: Choosing Stories Worth Telling
A look at what connects two productions that, on the surface, have almost nothing in common.
Moulin Rouge! The Musical is a maximalist spectacle, ten Tony Awards, a jukebox score, and a love story set against the excess of fin-de-siècle Paris. Buena Vista Social Club is its near opposite: an intimate, music-driven story rooted in the real history of Cuban musicians rediscovering their own legacy. I've produced both. They share almost nothing on the surface, and everything underneath.
The question I ask before saying yes to any project
People assume producers choose projects based on commercial potential, and that's part of it, but it's never the deciding factor. The question I actually ask is simpler: does this story deserve to be told at this scale, to this many people, right now?
Moulin Rouge! earned a Broadway stage because of its sheer ambition, the way it turned spectacle into genuine emotional catharsis rather than empty excess. Buena Vista Social Club earned its stage because it told a true story about art surviving displacement and time, with a specificity and respect for its source material that demanded the biggest possible audience.
Spectacle and intimacy aren't opposites
The instinct to separate "big" shows from "small" shows misses what actually makes a production work. Moulin Rouge! succeeds because, underneath the spectacle, there's a genuinely intimate love story the audience cares about. Buena Vista Social Club succeeds because, underneath its intimacy, there's a story big enough to fill a Broadway house. Every production I take on through In Fine Company has to earn both halves of that equation.
Every production has to earn both halves: a story big enough for a Broadway house, and an intimacy the audience can actually feel.
Sue Gilad
What I Look For Before Committing to a Production
- 01
A story that needs a stage, specifically
Not every good story is a good musical. The best material has something that can only be expressed through live performance, music, movement, the physical presence of actors.
- 02
Emotional truth underneath the concept
Whether the concept is a jukebox spectacle or a historically grounded music story, the emotional core has to be real, not borrowed.
- 03
A creative team who understands the material's stakes
Buena Vista Social Club required collaborators who understood the cultural and historical weight of the source material, not just its commercial appeal.
- 04
Respect for the audience's intelligence
Whether the show is maximalist or intimate, audiences can tell the difference between spectacle that's earned and spectacle for its own sake.
Why range matters to me as a producer
I don't want to be known for one kind of show. Producing both Moulin Rouge! and Buena Vista Social Club reflects something I genuinely believe: that Broadway is strongest when it can hold wildly different kinds of stories at the same time, and that audiences are hungry for that range even when they don't articulate it that way.
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