In honor of upcoming Father’s Day, I sat down with Steven Baruch, adored father of Inside Press’ new publisher and editor, Elise Trainor. Baruch is a Broadway producer who has produced close to 100 shows in the last 40 years. As a young man, he never dreamt of a career in theatre. At age 86, he is still producing shows, running a Broadway oriented supper club, and remains an active member of the Westchester community serving as vice chairman on the Board of Directors of White Plains Hospital.
Westchester Roots
Baruch grew up in Hartsdale and graduated as valedictorian from White Plains High School in 1956. After graduating Yale with a philosophy major, Baruch joined his family’s commercial real estate company, Presidential Realty Corporation, in the same building in which his office currently sits in White Plains. He has worked in that office for 65 years, 25 of which he concentrated solely on real estate, never imagining a future in the theatre business.
You Never Know Where Life Will Take You
Whether by virtue of luck or entrepreneurial spirit, or a little of both, Baruch’s life changed in 1984 when he and his cousin/partner, Tom Viertel, traveled to Los Angeles on a recommendation to see the magicians Penn & Teller perform in a little West Hollywood theatre. Captivated by the show, they decided they had to bring them to New York. They partnered with Richard Frankel, an experienced theatrical producer who had the legal rights to the show.
Baruch enterprisingly phoned some wealthy real estate friends and offered, “How would you like to put ten thousand dollars into a little off-Broadway show?” So, they brought Penn & Teller to New York with twenty people invested at that amount each and, lo and behold, the critics loved them. It was a huge hit! They moved it to Broadway and toured all over the country. Audiences embraced the edgy performances of Teller doing stunts like hanging upside down over a bed of knives but never speaking and Penn’s hilarious and outrageous demeanor.
“To us, this was a one-off. We were never planning to do another one,” recalls Baruch. “But it was such a big hit and relatively easy, so we said, ‘let’s do one more.’” Their next one was the Pulitzer Prize-winning Driving Miss Daisy with Morgan Freeman in his first stage role.
Now, they were hooked! They began producing many small non-musical off-Broadway plays, which were virtually all financially successful. Throughout this adventure, Baruch had a full-time real estate job as president of his company, sitting in the very spot he sits in today.
“Tom, Richard, and I have worked together for 40 years with never a moment’s conflict or tension,” says Baruch. “It was just one of these very lucky relationships.”
Eventually, Baruch and his partners decided to tip-toe into the world of Broadway. They began by producing Smoky Joe’s Café, which became the longest running musical revue in Broadway history.
“It was a big hit, so we said, ‘hey, we know how to do musicals,’ so we started to become megalomaniacs and produced one after the other of these shows, like The Producers and Hairspray,” Baruch says. He is most proud of Hairspray, although he says working with Mel Brooks for The Producers was a huge kick.
His productions have won 51 Tony Awards, including a record-breaking 12 for The Producers. A broom sits in his office that says “clean sweep” with each of The Producers’ Tony Awards engraved along the broom handle. His office walls are covered with Tony nominations and various other awards.
Steve took me on a tour of the vintage colorful Broadway posters lining his office entry hall. It was a treat to hear tidbits about each of the shows, like how the 2-person play Love Letters attracted a revolving cast of many big Hollywood stars to its stage because it was a reading that required no learning of lines. It was wild to see Tony Award-winning Sutton Foster’s name as a relatively unknown on the Young Frankenstein poster. Baruch recalled being star struck by the famous actor Richard Chamberlain, who they cast as the captain in their Broadway revival of The Sound of Music.
What is a Producer?
Baruch says that the producer’s most important role is deciding what shows to mount – and then hiring the right people to execute the intended artistic vision… but a key aspect of this job is raising the capital, then marketing and running the business of the show.
Baruch explains that his group is unique in that they raise funds through hundreds of investors at relatively small amounts of money, so no one suffers significant loss. They have a list of 2000 investors around the world to whom they pitch their shows.
A Passion Project
Baruch and his partners were inspired to open a cabaret, supper club after producing Song of Singapore, a cabaret-style show with the audience seated at tables, and eating and drinking. In 2012, they created the Broadway-oriented entertainment venue, 54 Below, a place where Broadway performers could perform in an intimate setting. They employed Tony Award-winning set, lighting, and sound designers to design the space and worked with restaurateur Danny Meyer’s organization to teach them the restaurant business.
54 Below presents 700 shows per year, two per night, Sunday brunches, and private events. In 2023, 54 Below reclassified as a non-profit arts organization. It is a complicated endeavor with financial challenges, but Baruch finds this passion project hugely gratifying.
Recent Productions
Baruch’s most recent productions include Back to the Future (the musical) and The Roommate (starring Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone) – both on Broadway. Also, The Jonathan Larson Project featuring the previously unheard songs by the creator of Rent and shockingly died at age 35 the night before Rent opened off Broadway.
Grateful
Baruch and his wife of 60 years love living in Westchester. They have raised three children here and are now proud grandparents of seven grandchildren. One of his great joys has been taking his grandkids to see Broadway shows and backstage behind-the-scenes tours. “I get to be the cool grandfather,” and share my love of live theatre,” he says.
