INTERVIEW: Meet Alexander Robertson, one of the busiest co-producers on Broadway
Photo: Alexander Robertson is a co-producer whose credits include Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, Gypsy and BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical. Photo courtesy of Paul Aphisit / Provided with permission.
If one were to leaf through the Playbills of the current Broadway season, a particular company name would keep popping up, whether it was in the credits for BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical or Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club or Smash. That name is Alexander Robertson, who is founder of Emlex Entertainment and co-founder of DMQR Productions.
Robertson is a man about town, offering his co-producing expertise to a variety of productions. He’s a busy man, shuffling between theaters and projects, moving from the Broadhurst where BOOP! is currently running and heading next door to the remodeled Majestic Theatre, where Gypsy with Audra McDonald is located — that’s another one of his shows.
It’s all in a day’s work for Robertson.
“I have always been a theater kid,” the co-producer said in a recent phone interview. “Since I was younger, it was a family outing for us. I would always go with my parents when I was younger, and they were very supportive of us wanting to pursue a path in the arts. And so naturally I pursued acting, and I got a BFA and along the way found myself in producing. That’s how I got here. Why I love theater specifically, I always say that people go to the doctor to get their heart healed, but people go to the theater to get their souls healed. I think there’s just something so beautiful about a living, breathing experience that really affects and changes people’s lives.”
This venture into Broadway has been going strong for Robertson over the last few years. He’s been in and around the 40 or so theaters that populate the Midtown Manhattan landscape, and his previous credits include everything from the Tony-winning Appropriate to A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical. He said that his success as a producer is partly due to his early-career ambitions to be an actor; he understands the craft and wants to support the artists on stage and behind the scenes.
“I think it’s so helpful that I’m able to really identify the other side of the table in my producing,” he said. “I think there are a lot of things sometimes that producers don’t always understand about what goes into, you know, what actors have to go through performing, other people on staff, their teams. I think I have just more of a warm response and care for the people I work with because I know what it’s like on the other side, either just trying to get a job or trying to navigate certain areas of the theatrical industry that can feel sometimes hard for actors. … I really enjoy having a well-rounded, creative mind when it comes to my producing work, and it’s only helped and transcended what I’m able to do when I work with people.”
When one looks at Robertson’s long list of credits, there’s a lot of success to be found, and the actual content is diverse and varied, spanning plays and musicals, jukebox shows and original work. DMQR, which consists of Robertson, Anant Das, Afsheen Misaghi and Carmen A. Quiñones, has many shows to work on and opportunities to support.
“I will say it’s the balance of art and commerce,” Robertson said. “We are businesspeople, but it’s show business. But also creatively, artistically, I really adore supporting work that matters and is meaningful and impactful. … If it’s a commercial property or something that I see more on the business end, I like to look at things that have a larger appeal, meaning they can appeal to a large audience, whether that’s family-friendly content or things that can transcend language barriers or experiences that really the whole world could embrace, not just New York and our 41-theater neighborhood.”
Robertson, a graduate of The Hartt School, University of Hartford, said he’s open to supporting a project that might not be his personal taste for theater but is still an important show that has something to say artistically. If there’s an audience, he wants to connect the project with those crowds.
“I realize there is a whole world out there of people who like all different types of things,” he said. “Just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean someone else out there wouldn’t, so I do take that approach in identifying really what is going to resonate with an audience, what’s going to allow someone to make an informed decision when they decide to pay a couple hundred bucks to go see a Broadway show when there are so many options. I really don’t always have the same approach to each show.”
The co-producer conceded that Broadway can be a risky venture. Some shows open and close, while others will run for years and gather many, many profits along the way.
“Broadway is a very risky business, and we all know that coming into it,” Robertson said. “We always try our best to make sure a show can go as well as it can, but unfortunately sometimes they don’t. It can happen. People can lose their money. When you do hit it big, I think it’s always great to be a part of those shows. … So we do our best effort to make sure people have a good time and can get what they’re looking for, whether they just want to support the arts or they want to try to play the Broadway lottery and see if they end up with a Hamilton. It’s great being a part of facilitating that.”
Robertson said Gypsy, which is enjoying a solid run at the Majestic Theatre, was a particular project that came together for him quite quickly and easily. He said he’s never experienced a faster time as co-producer to raise money from investors; the commitments came within hours, which is unprecedented in his portfolio.
“All you have to say is Audra and the Majestic Theatre and Gypsy, and people loved it,” he said. “I’m very fortunate to be on a show like Gypsy … and we’re so happy with how it’s going. And Audra is absolutely a fierce talent in this production.”
Some theater fans, even some industry insiders, might not know the day-to-day responsibilities of a co-producer. To put it bluntly, each day is different than the last one, but essentially Robertson spends a lot of his time working with his team.
“As a co-producer, a large responsibility of our time is really allocated to our investors,” he said. “We’re their liaison between the lead producers and creative team of a show. … Our job, especially as we approach Tony season, is making sure our investors are feeling good about the show, making sure that we’re still being ambassadors of our show, so talking about them publicly, getting people in, getting them excited, and then we get up to Tony season where it’s this big battle for everyone trying to get a nomination. … This part of the year is the most hectic for us in terms of what we have to handle.”
And Robertson has a lot of hopeful possibilities this season when it comes to Tony nominations, and he shows no signs of slowing down his projects either. He’s also involved as a producer on the tour of Here There Are Blueberries, and he has aspirations to bring the sports world and theater world together on some interesting shows.
It’s all in a day’s work for this busy, busy co-producer.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
