New paradigms for broadway producers in popular culture and beyond: Smash and the rise of the passion project

Abstract

Popular cultural manifestations of producers in the twenty-first century include NBC’s series Smash (2012-2013), which included the fictional producer Eileen Rand (played by Anjelica Huston), and the Hal Prince bio-musical The Prince of Broadway, which played in Tokyo and Osaka in 2015. New models for producing musicals have arisen in the twenty-first century, including the passion project (Oprah Winfrey’s producing role for The Color Purple [2005], for example) and social-media based fundraising platforms Kickstarter and Indiegogo.