From Berkeley to Broadway, David Binder Has Forged His Own Path, Fourtwonine, April, 2014

NOT A 9 2 FIVER 37 Hey, Mr. Producer, I’m Talking to You, Sir by Brendan Lemon From Berkeley to Broadway, David Binder has forged his own path. FourTwoNine David Binder is a producer, together a hit staging of John if you think Hedwig is last show biz, Binder’s triumph on and when I asked him to define Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men season’s story, I’ve got news for Broadway was protracted. It his profession during our starring James Franco and you: there are plans afoot to began twenty-three years ago, recent interview at his office Chris O’Dowd. Capitalized at re-create the production in shortly after the producer, on West 14th Street, in New $3.8 million, the limited-run London and take it on tour. fresh from the University of York, he replied, “To be a event recouped its investment. Andrew Rannells has taken California, Berkeley, moved to producer, you have to create Of more glamorous import, over the title role from Harris New York and got a job as a the impression that everything however, was Binder’s on Broadway and Michael C. production assistant on the is going forward all the time.” production, directed by (Dexter) Hall takes it on Broadway musical The Secret Over the past year, it’s Michael Mayer and starring starting October 16. Hedwig’s Garden. Among the cast was Binder’s career that’s been Neil Patrick Harris, of the John glam boots were made for Mitchell, playing the role of hurtling ahead. For Broadway, Cameron Mitchell/Stephen walking, and they’re about Dickon. After a month or so, where this forty-six-year-old Trask musical, Hedwig and the to scale the world. Binder, who by his own admis- redhead has been lead Angry Inch, which this past No one gets to an awards sion had a bad attitude, got Photo of Shannon and Jared Leto photographed by Damon Baker for Baker for Damon by Leto photographed Jared and Shannon of Photo producer or coproducer on June won the Tony Award for podium overnight, but even by fired. But, he says, “[Garden seven shows, Binder put Best Revival of a Musical. And the long-gestation norm of was] one of the most important Above: Andrew Rannells as Hedwig at the Belasco Theatre Photograph by Joan Marcus Visit us online at dot429.com and subscribe to FourTwoNine 38 FourTwoNine — Isssue 03 NOT A 9 2 FIVER 39 jobs I had in my life because I of Truman Capote’s “A Hedwig and the Angry Inch guy.” These occasions turned met John.” Christmas Memory” fea- had its first airing at the into newspaper-column items, Of Binder during that show, turing the likes of Elaine Stritch, Westbeth Theatre in New York which spread the word. “From Mitchell told me, “He took a Kevin Spacey, and Stockard in 1997. “It was very much a day one, people felt really lot of naps. He wasn’t the best Channing. He assembled a first production,” Binder passionate about that show,” P.A. [But] once he was in charge, benefit presentation on admitted. It ended with the Binder said, adding that “some he was fantastic. He is the best Broadway of Larry Kramer’s song “You Light Up My Life” people hated it because it was producer I’ve worked with in The Normal Heart, with intro- loud, and you got the theater. He cares what ductions by Barbra Streisand. Binder thinks himself wet. The haters were people think.” Binder, in other words, was a small group, but And how did the Hedwig no longer the California kid less as an old-fashioned they really hated it.” collaboration come about? rubbing shoulders with rhine- theater producer than as a De La Guarda, he “Around 1995,” recounted stones and paste; though he, in continued, Binder, “John said to come to his charming, self-effacing way, creator of “transformative happened long SqueezeBox [a downtown NYC says, “I just started putting experiences.” before the main- club] and see what I’m working things together.” stream media, on.” Binder hadn’t produced The Hedwig of SqueezeBox sung in German. It was not a focusing on recent hit New York anything on Broadway, but he was not the full-blown glam- glittering success. “Now every- shows like Sleep No More and had amassed a list of credits azon she became in Mitchell’s body claims to have been there. Here Lies Love, started liberally studded with as many big names 2001 movie or in Harris’s starry If all these people were at employing the phrase as that of just about any avatar. “She wasn’t even a full Westbeth, we would have done “immersive theater.” twentysomething in the annals show yet,” Binder recalled. “She much better.” The show closed Binder was a trendsetter in of New York’s strivers. For was a character. John was doing after little more than a month. another way. After seeing a three years, starting in 1991, cover songs as that character, Binder, who thinks of himself production of Lorraine he produced holiday readings and I just helped him out.” less as an old-fashioned theater Hansberry’s 1959 play, A Raisin producer than as a creator of in the Sun, in 1999 at the “transformative experiences,” Williamstown Theater Festival was not involved in the 1998 in Massachusetts, he managed off-Broadway Hedwig. By then, to secure the rights to produce Binder had turned his atten- the work on Broadway. Five years tion to De La Guarda, a water- went by before his production filled, aerially awesome arrived there. Binder remem- performance piece created in bered how “[the theater Argentina. Teaming with Rent establishment] said black producers Jeffrey Seller and audiences won’t come to Kevin McCollum (Binder had Broadway,” and “African been a Rent investor), he brought American artists said, ‘That the show to New York’s Union play is dated.’” Square area. At first it struggled. Audiences disagreed. The “Those were the pre-social- casting of Sean “Puffy” Combs media days,” Binder said, when in the 2004 production helped it could take months to build make the play a hit, attracting word of mouth, and snail-mail younger, more diverse audiences post-cards were still used to than are usual on Broadway. promote product. The New York Times In October of 1998, subsequently credited Binder and fortunes shifted. “Celebrities his production with providing the come to see every show in New “breakthrough” to bringing York,” Binder said. “One night, African Americans to midtown- Leonardo DiCaprio came. He Manhattan theater. was hoisted up over the audience The 2004 production of Raisin by a performer. Another night, and this year’s production of Hedwig, the story was Janet Jackson which Binder worked to assemble dancing with a hot Argentine for six years, offer ample proof of Continued on Page 124 Above: David Binder (left) and Diqui James, Hospicio 35 Centro, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato creator of De La Guarda and Fuerza Bruta Hospicio+52 415.152.704035 Centro, San | casadesierranevada.com Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato +52 415.152.7040 | casadesierranevada.com 124 FourTwoNine — Isssue 03 125 DAVID BINDER From Page 38 his confidence and persistence. Where do those traits come Floyd Collins and Wig Out! He hung out at the Brooklyn (Binder’s appetite for travel is as great as his appetite for In making that statement, Binder is bowing to economic from? Binder’s parents. “They both had businesses when I was Academy of Music, consuming more of the kind of fare he had Hedwig.) “Most of the festivals in North America are marketing reality. Yet part of his success as a producer stems from his growing up,” he said. Each gave him the message that “there’s seen at Cal Performances at Berkeley. Even now, as he’s become constructs,” he said, in which the people have to commit to ability not to get hung up only on money questions. “I’m not nothing that you can’t do.” associated with midtown shows, Binder is quick to define specific shows in advance. Binder said that the Edinburgh saying that money falls from the trees,” he said. “But it is a It’s easy to imagine Binder as a child with enthusiasms, since himself more broadly than Broadway: “Hedwig is a Broadway Festival in Scotland and Oerol festival in the Netherlands, by renewable resource.” Unlike first-rate talent, that is. He he still comes across as boyishly eager. This quality can be musical that doesn’t look like any other Broadway musical. contrast, create “zones of sociability. People come; they explained: “There’s one John Cameron Mitchell. There’s one surprising to people who are used to a more corporate, less rock Raisin is a classic play, but we mashed it up with unexpected interact in new and unexpected ways. They come for one thing James Franco. Those people are singular. That’s where my focus ’n’ roll way of doing things. “People are joining a party when casting.” and see another.” is.” At this point in his career, Binder has amassed an impressive they join David’s productions,” Mitchell observed. “He doesn’t Binder’s 2009 production of Moisés Kaufman’s 33 Variations, Binder gave this philosophy a workout in 2009, when he was pool of investors who share his philosophy and who are likely to give a shit if no one likes his enthusiasm.” about Beethoven and musicology, on Broadway, also drew the American partner for the Dutch government-funded New help bankroll his future endeavors.

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