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44 NOV | DEC 2015 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE The Round- about Way TODD HAIMES HAS THE CAREER HE DREAMED ABOUT AND SITS AT THE TOP OF HIS FIELD. WHEN CAN HE STOP WORRYING? BY MOLLY PETRILLA PHOTO BY DUSTIN FENSTERMACHER THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE NOV | DEC 2015 45 so cash-strapped that it couldn’t meet pay- roll. A few hours after his mother’s funer- odd Haimes C’78 had a new Great al, Haimes went to a Roundabout board meeting. They voted to close the theater. American Musical series but no musical. Two board members went home to write a press release, “and I went home to be extremely depressed,” he says. THe had a revival of Cabaret to announce Yet for all his personal worrying, Haimes Then his phone rang the next morning. A but suddenly no Emma Stone to star in it. is the one who calms the artists and cre- board member had produced the $150,000 He had a potential smash on his hands atives who surround him. He’s the one who that Roundabout needed to put on its next but no theater to put it in; an actor and bandages scraped egos and encourages show. No need for that press release—the a director who couldn’t stand each other; first-time directors, who gives Tony accep- theater wasn’t closing after all. a hit show but a scaffolding accident tance speeches even though public speak- “After that,” Haimes says rather proud- that closed it down. ing terrifies him, who visits an upset star’s ly, “the theater never lost money again Think of any show-must-go-on moment, dressing room and smoothes things over. for 20 years. and Haimes has probably faced it as His office is tucked inside the Roundabout’s “There are two kinds of businesses artistic director of the Roundabout 12th-floor labyrinth in Times Square. There’s that are in trouble: businesses that are Theater Company. Maybe that’s why he a sink in the corner, a snow-globe collection going concerns that are terribly misman- worries so much. on his desk, and very few hints that he’s pro- aged, and businesses that just aren’t He’s been at it since 1983, when he duced some of the biggest Broadway revivals going concerns,” he adds. “It turns out, started to drag the faltering theater out and star-making performances: Cabaret in luckily, that Roundabout was a terribly of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and transform 1998 with an unknown Alan Cumming and mismanaged going concern. When I fired it into a not-for-profit powerhouse. Yet famous Natasha Richardson; Nine with everybody and managed it properly, it even today, with Roundabout celebrating Antonio Banderas and Jane Krakowski; actually started making money.” 50 years and the biggest budget in the Assassins in 2004 with a nearly forgotten Reiss came in as director of development business, with 29 Tony Awards and five TV actor named Neil Patrick Harris. in 1985, after Haimes had cleaned house. theaters, Haimes still doesn’t feel like Every day Haimes enters that office, She remembers making calls with him, the trek is over and that it’s safe to throw perched high above the theaters he runs. trying to recruit new board members, and off his pack and sit down for a while. He has the job he’s wanted since college, how “fabulously blunt” he was: Here’s what “I still spend my life worrying,” he says. he’s considered one of the best in his happened. Yes, it was terrible. Yes, so-and- “My worries are different now—I don’t field—so when can he stop worrying? so should probably be in jail, but he’s not. worry about going out of business—but This is our budget. This is our deficit. But there’s the pressure of running a $50 Haimes was 26 years old when he heard we have a great artistic product. million institution and having 200 staff about the Roundabout job. “He never tried to cover up the negative members depending on me and putting Back then it was a small off-Broadway aspects,” Reiss says. “It was a very unique together a season and getting stars to theater that produced five classic plays approach and it taught me something work for no money and…” each season: Shaw, Ibsen, Chekhov, about appreciating those who are com- He can go on like that for a while. As the Shakespeare. It also had “the absolute pletely forthcoming.” final yes or no on all things Roundabout, worst reputation in the business,” he Haimes curls into a large leather chair everything stops at Haimes. Choose the says. “It was run by two guys named in his office as he remembers those early wrong musical and the theater can lose [Gene] Feist and [Michael] Fried, and days. Now he’s weeks away from launch- millions of dollars. Buy another venue even before working there I knew they ing Roundabout’s 50th season, which and audiences may not fill it. Land a were referred to as Heist and Greed.” will include shows with Keira Knightley, superstar cast and The New York Times But he was desperate to land a job in Clive Owen, and Jessica Lange. He might still slam the show. New York City. His wife had her medical brought Roundabout to Broadway in 1991 Even when there’s good news—another internship there, and he was sick of com- with a new theater, and the not-for-prof- Tony or a gushing review—“he tends to muting to Connecticut, where he’d been it now runs four venues—with five the- feel Roundabout’s successes serve only managing another strapped theater. aters total—spread across Manhattan. to heighten expectations going forward,” He went in for an interview and discov- On top of classics, it produces musicals says Vicki Reiss C’77, Haimes’s close ered that Roundabout was in bankruptcy and contemporary plays too. friend and the executive director of The and owed thousands in unpaid taxes. “I “He’s made a giant presence of the Shubert Foundation, which awarded $24 thought to myself, ‘Well, I’m 26 years old, Roundabout in New York between the num- million to not-for-profit theatres and I don’t have any kids yet, I have to stay in ber of theaters that he’s created and the dance companies last year. New York, what the hell. I’ll try it.’ So I amount of work that he’s done,” says Lynne “All things considered,” she adds, “Todd took the job,” he says. He replaced Fried Meadow, artistic director of the prominent will probably go the road of worry rather as the theater’s managing director. not-for-profit Manhattan Theater Club than allowing himself to indulge in too Two months into his new gig, it looked like since 1972. “He’s one of the great producers many relaxed moments of pleasure.” the show was already over. The theater was working in New York today.” 46 NOV | DEC 2015 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE But about an hour and a half into our “I remember getting a telegram saying 1995 (Company) and then its hit Cabaret conversation, that great producer says ‘Liam Neeson accepts your offer,’ and I revival in 1998. Roundabout stars became he wants to puke. thought to myself, ‘Well, that’s nice,’” he celebrities. Its productions won Tonys. He’s still lounging in the big brown says now. Ken Davenport, a commercial Broadway chair, gripping a can of Diet Coke. Was “It turned out to be the sexiest produc- producer, says that a track record like it bad sushi at lunch? Is the interview tion of Anna Christie in the history of Haimes’s doesn’t come from lucky hunch- taking too long? No, nothing like that. [Eugene] O’Neill and the biggest hit in es or gut decisions. “It’s a real, deep, He’s just sick of talking about himself. New York that year,” he adds. “It put us innate understanding of how to build a “It’s bothering me,” he says. on the map”—and landed Roundabout’s business,” he says. “And we’re very lucky Haimes is usually the one asking ques- first Tony Award. that the business he chose to build was tions. Reiss says it’s “kind of like pulling Haimes had a lot to prove back then. a great theater company.” teeth to get him to talk about himself.” He’d become Roundabout’s artistic direc- Many of Haimes’s peers relish the Chris Yegen, chairman emeritus of the tor three years earlier, in 1989. “At that opening-night parties and glad-handing. Roundabout board, describes his friend’s time, it was almost considered heresy to They’re often former actors who still gift for sliding the focus of any conversa- go from management to artistic in the savor the spotlight, not MBA-wielding tion to the person across from him. not-for-profit theatre world,” he says. introverts. Haimes has never wanted to Even if you start out by asking Haimes Other ADs thought it was absurd and be on stage. The first and last time he about himself, soon “he’s finding out what directors didn’t want to work with him. He acted was in first grade. He played Mary you’re happy about, what you’re unhappy about, what your mother’s happy about,” Yegen says. “It’s subtle enough that you don’t even realize it’s happening.” He says it’s the same whether Haimes is chatting with an old friend or a celebrity.