Broadway Lighting Designer: How the Job Works, What They Make, and How to Break In

Lighting Designer Career

Go behind the scenes of Broadway with four-time Tony Award–winning Lighting Designer Kevin Adams. He breaks down what a theatre lighting designer actually does, the skills you need to get started, and the unexpected twists of his career path.

The jaw-dropper? Adams reveals how Broadway designers really make their big money—including income streams, payment structures, union and more.

Perfect for anyone curious about Broadway careers, creative jobs, and how much you can make in the performing arts.

Kevin's website - https://www.ambermylar.com/index.html

How Much Can I Make? Is nominated for 2026 Women in Podcasting Award!

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Music credit: Kate Pierson & Monica Nation

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:03

If you design a Broadway show, you get a weekly royalty, and if the show does really well, that's where you make some money. But then, hold on, it gets better.

Early Path From Performer To Designer

SPEAKER_01 0:12

And it gets better indeed. Hi, and welcome back to How Much Can I Make? This week we're stepping into the spotlight, literally, with one of the masters behind the magic of lighting. Our guest is a four-time Tony Award winner, Kevin Adams. He's a lighting designer whose work has illuminated Broadway, Las Vegas, Opera, and many other productions. So let's find out from Kevin what does it take to become an award-winning lighting designer? So, Kevin, first of all, thank you so much for willing to do that. Nice to be here today. Thank you. Let's start by telling us how did you get into lighting design?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

I really wanted to be a performer. Like lots of young performers, I would do little puppet shows. In high school, I was in plays and musicals. After a really bad audition for the Diary of Anne Frank, I had a high school teacher who very gently guided me into set design. He he suggested I might want to be the set designer for the diary of Anne Frank. I remember thinking, like, what's that? And he explained it. And then I just like I just took to that so quickly. And then I went to the University of Texas in Austin and got a BFA in set design. Never studied lighting, had no interest in lighting, didn't notice the lighting. I was just like really ambitious and dedicated to set design. And then I went to California Institute of the Arts and I went there to study more set design, but they also taught production design for film. MTV premiered in late 1981, and in 84 it was still round-the-clock, you know, music shorts, which was like thrilling at the time. And I thought, like, oh, this is something I want to be a part of. So I studied production design for film, didn't study lighting, had zero interest in lighting.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Really?

Discovering Light Through Art And Hardware

SPEAKER_00 2:08

It was a two-year program at an art school, and it cost so little at the time. And moved into Hollywood. I worked in film a lot. I was a dresser, props dresser, set dresser, which I really loved. Built scenery, but I was an art director. I was a production designer. I worked on lots of like high-end commercials like Bose Speakers and Apple and lots of beer like Budweiser and Budweiser Light. And and then, because there's still lighting to come. Because you said you were totally not interested in lighting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I saw the work of fine artists that use light in their work at various museums. I saw that work a lot. New work and old work. And I I saw that I could design a space around these things that I found in hardware stores, light bulbs and fluorescent tubes that could make light and turn on and off very quickly and make a new space. And I started lighting my own little sets, and immediately the phone started ringing. With these really well-known, you know, in the late 80s and early 90s, there was a huge performance art scene in this country.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Right.

Live Shows Versus Film And TV

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Well, uh Rachel Rosenthal, this really interesting lady, called me. This she had been performing, she was an older lady who shaved her head. And I started working with her, lighting her shows, and eventually we'd had five different shows that we would do. And John Fleck was one of the NEA four, and he was my first LA boyfriend. I started lighting his work and doing little sets for him. And then like well-known directors would call me. But all these people would say the same thing. They'd say, Hey, I saw that show you did. That's how I see my work. Do you want to come light my work? And I'd say, like, I am not a lighting designer at all. Like I did I did that little show or two, and I'm a trained set designer. I know how to make shows, and but I don't know anything about lighting. And they all said, you know what? That's okay. Come try this. And if it works, that's great. And if it doesn't, it's no big deal. Which was like really hard to say no to, you know? Because these people were like making really interesting work and they were all really well known. So I just started lighting little shows, and each show got bigger, so I was learning about theatrical lighting at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Do you prefer working on live shows or film?

Being Noticed Yet Rarely Reviewed

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Once I became a lighting designer, I lit a music video when I lived in LA, and that was shot on film with this Janet Jackson music video, but that was for film, and I did not understand how film captured light at all. I had I had a lot of help from the DP and the uh director. Now that film is digital, our cameras are digital, and the cameras mostly see what the ICs. I've lit some things in the last few years, like I lit part of that Mildred Pierce on HBO. Really? Yeah, I lit there's a whole concert thing in the middle of it that I spent a lot of time on. It's minutes of the film, but I spent two months on it. That was digital, and so what you see with your eyes kind of what the camera sees, and you can have a monitor that's very similar to what's exactly what the camera's gonna see. That's much easier to light and balance, and that I could understand. I like that no reviewer is gonna come to it and review it, and I I like that we don't go through that process that we go through in New York City with theater, which is But I assume when the lighting is right, the reviewers will not even notice anything.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

It's only when the lighting is best.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

I think I've been mentioned in reviews, like I mean maybe ten times. I mean, shows that I want Tonies for, like, they don't even mention the lighting. It's just like no, they just don't talk about people don't know how to talk about it, they don't recognize it, they don't see it.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

They don't see it, I know.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Yeah, yeah.

Choosing Projects And Musical Fit

SPEAKER_01 5:56

So let's say a director or a producer comes to you, a Broadway show, after four Tonies, I'm sure a lot of them come to you.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Somewhat, yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

So they come to you with a play. First of all, do you have to live the play that you work on?

SPEAKER_00 6:10

Do I have to like it? Yeah. You know, when you light a show, a musical, you have to hear those songs a lot, like over and over and over and over and over. And if I don't like the music, or if I don't get the music, I would say no.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Once you design the lighting, do you have to be there for every show?

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Or no, they pref you you're pretty much off the case. Like once a show opens, you're done. Because they can't afford to have programmers and they have to pay everyone to work more. So do you don't the plan is not to do pay anyone.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Do you automate the lighting? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

So uh there's a programmer, which that is a great field to get into. Uh, there's a huge console, we call it, which is a computer that gets more complicated every year, and there's a person I talk to, and they program the lighting into that console. And then come opening night, that person's moved on to another job. I've moved on, my assistants moved on, my associates moved on, and then there's a group of people in the theater who maintain the show, and there's one guy who presses you just press go. The stage manager calls a cue, like Q1, go, Q2, go, Q3, go. So it's like that.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

The producer would come to you and offer you the job or director?

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Uh all kinds of people. Uh, it's usually a director will call me and say, Hey, I'm doing this thing, and I'll be like, I'll find out who else is working on it and send me the script. So I'll read it and listen to it. Sometimes it's an unfinished script. Sometimes if it's an opera and it's new, you get nothing other than like a topic because it doesn't exist yet for an opera. Uh and for musical, sometimes there's a recording of like a workshop.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

So you get the recording. What do you do? You start drawing what you're doing. I just listen to it. I just sit and listen to it. You get the atmosphere. I mean, what inspires you usually?

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Oh, just let what is the story? What what's the music like? What kind of music is it? I do a lot of shows with electric guitars. I do a lot of like rock pop shows. I I mean everyone does now, but I had done I've done a lot of like rock theater shows.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Do you do special effects in those? Like special effects with light?

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Oh, um, yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, I'm just smoke, lots of smoke effects, lightning effects, fire effects, like flame in a barrel, and like what else? Lightning, you know, rain, things like that. For swept away that I just did on Broadway, yeah. I hung 30 industrial-sized carpet dryer fans around the theater. There's a huge there was a huge storm in the show, and so we had wind blowing through the entire theater. It was really neat.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

That's part of your job? I would think that's part of the set design of it.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

No, that though it's a it's an effect. It's uh an special effect that I knew how to do. We had rain in the show too, but that I didn't know how to do, and we had I think scenery kind of took care of that.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

So when you did 30 fans, that must have been very noisy, no?

SPEAKER_00 9:14

It was, but it's a really loud storm, and the storm covered it up. But yeah, when you turned it on, it sounded like you were in a huge HVAC system. I mean it was quite a loud rumble.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Right. I wouldn't see it.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

You didn't hear it when the storm ran. It was really amazing. But you'd feel it. The way it would and it stop it would stop and start and stop and start, and the whole theater felt it. It was really neat.

Caring For Performers Onstage

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Wow, that's an experience for an audience, I'm sure. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Wind. Did you ever work with a diva either in opera or move or film or theater that complained about the lighting, she doesn't want her wrinkles to show or something?

SPEAKER_00 9:49

No, no, I mean you we are uh we are obligated to especially take care of the women and make sure they look good, and especially the older women, they want to look good. But you also like I go up and talk to them often and tell them how good they look and you're looking great, and like they want to know that you're taking care of them, understandably. And those those women who are like solid show women like Patty Lupone and Otta McDonald, they're like not divas at all. They're amazing, they want to look good, and if they didn't, they would tell you, but uh you take care of them and they're amazing women. I worked with Faye Donaway not long ago, and that was um that was an absolute trip.

unknown 10:30

Oh why?

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Well, she's by far the most complicated person I've ever worked with, but also was like fascinating, you know. Like everything I was hoping it would be. She was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Who was the greatest to work with from all the women?

Pay Minimums And Royalty Mechanics

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Oh, Patty's amazing. I did a lot of things with Patty Lapone and Audrey McDonald. Those are they're all just like show folk. Those are all just like Patty's like a Jersey mom. I mean, those are all just like show folk, you know? They're great. They show up early to work every day and they work hard, and when all the kids like leave on breaks or lunch, they're like still working and they'll stay after and work. And those are really, really hardworking, smart people. And I love I they're you know, and they're show folk. They're funny and weird and neurotic and you know, everything that show folks are.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

And from the guys, who was the most difficult to work with?

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Difficult? Oh, uh pleasure. I can't there were some like super lazy tenors who were just like coasting through the show. I they're just handsome guys who kind of coast.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

We we talked before that you don't know really about pay because after four tonnies and eight nominations, right? That's correct. This is crazy, Kevin. It's crazy. So you're on a total different echelon. But if somebody starts, yes, can you give us an idea what the what can they make? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

I have no idea. You know, I'm in a union. We have minimums for designers on shows. I don't make minimum.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Do you know what the minimum is? Any idea?

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Well, it's plays and musicals are different. A Broadway musical, there's phases, there's like a musical with one set, then there's a musical with two sets, and there's multi-there's all these different categories. Uh I think it's like 12 or 16 or 17 or 18,000.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

For a show, for a week.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Oh, for a show. For a show. Not for a week. Uh then you get paid. If you design a Broadway show, you get a weekly royalty. If a show does well. What do you mean weekly royalty? Wait, I never heard about that. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's how we make money. If a show runs like The Lion King or Book of Mormon or so many other shows that are at my shows, if a show runs every week that it runs, you get paid. And then you get paid a minimum, which in the last few years is like$500 or$750 or$1,000 a week. And then on top of that, there's there's cycles of royalties. So every four weeks they count up the box office, they deduct the cost of running the show, then they divide what's left up. Everyone has a percentage based on their contract. The writers, the director, the choreographer, the designers, the actors. It's the creative side, what they call it.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

But wait, I need to understand this because I never heard about it before.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

So let's say you work on the Lion King. You design the lighting.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Let's say that. Okay. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

And you designed everything. Everything is now basically on half automated. Maybe you have somebody that pushed the you still get the royalties.

Vegas Fees Versus Broadway Royalties

SPEAKER_00 13:42

You still get the royalties. But then, hold on, it gets better. So then your production of The Lion King is running in New York, and then it's running in LA and many other places. Correct. It tours around the U.S. And the world. One or two tours. It's running in Dubai and South Africa and fucking Shenzhen. Right. It's all over the world. Yeah, yeah. And you get paid for all of those. Oh, wow. Indeed. That's a great job. Indeed. Not many, there aren't many designers on Broadway. And there certainly aren't many people that have shows that run like that. Right. But yes, that's where you can make some money. Like I have two tours out now that from shows I did on Broadway that are selling really, really, really well. And you make royalties. Yeah, I make a lot of money. Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Yeah. That's a sweet thing.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

So whoever worked on the Phantom of the Opera made it didn't have to work again.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

She died, but correct. She she was found dead in her tub. But yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Really? Oh my god, I feel guilty for laughing.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The set designer. I mean, you know, people die. Uh and that show is a long time ago. But yeah, I mean, yes, yes. Yeah, yeah. I mean, they made they that was a show from the 80s, so they like people make so much more now because of current contracts. But yeah, those people made a lot of money. They were making that was an 80s contract, so they were making not near what people make now.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Yeah, but they made it for 30 some years. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Yeah. Oh, totally. And that show ran everywhere and toured everywhere. Right. Every day, every week you get a check from all those. Wow. In D D. That's great. Okay. Which, if you do a show in Vegas, most shows in Vegas that you design, they don't have royalties. They just pay you one big lump sum. Some shows will give royalties, weekly royalties, but a lot of shows will just pay you like a chunk of money and then you open the show and you're done. I mean, a fee could be 50,000 or 60 or 80,000 or you know, something like that.

Timeline From Prep To Tech

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Wow. Yeah. It doesn't take that long to design a show, right? To design lighting for a show.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

I spend about a year in pre-production on a show. I mean, that's not every day. But it's if we start a show out of town, I start usually a year before that. We start in meetings, lots of meetings, then the set is designed, then we do the plot. So, you know, that's like four hours here, four hours there, four hours, you know, it's not every day. Correct. And you're on the job. You're doing other shows also. Then rehearsal is like four or five weeks. I myself, this most people don't do this, but I go to like three weeks of that rehearsal. Then you're in the theater for uh tech. So like in tech, uh come in at 10, work 10 to 12, and we start rehearsal on stage at 1, and then we'll go to like a shorter day is like 1 to 9, but sometimes we'll go to 1 to 10 or 1 to 10.30. So I'm there like maybe 8 in the morning till 10 30 at night. Wow. But I have a lot of work to do, and I, you know, I can have a lot to do.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

So do you actually hang the lights too? Or you have people.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

No, I don't wouldn't I've never touched, I wouldn't know how to do that. No, there are people who do that for a living.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

So you just give orders, put this light there, put that.

Empty Theaters And Full Build Outs

SPEAKER_00 16:59

We draw it all out. And then my associate draws it all out. There's a production electrician, the show hires a production electrician, he's like the head electrician. He takes the drawings, he figures it all out, like where everything's gonna run. He oversees the hanging, uh, the installation of the plot. Because when you do Broadway show, you're renting a completely empty theater. There's nothing in a theater. No lights, no rig, nothing. There's no lights, there's no Wi-Fi, there's no air conditioners, there's no there's a whole uh wardob department that needs washers and dryers and steamers and hangers and shelves, and there is nothing. They bring everything for a production? Correct. There it is an empty box. I mean, you might have like an AC unit in a window here and there for a dressing room, and there might be some chairs in a dressing room, and that's it. There's it is an empty building. So we each department gets all this stuff and installs it all, and that's part of like the load-in and the so you're installing like a complete business in a in a theater.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

So part of your job is to order all the different lights that you're gonna need for the show?

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So my associate makes a shop order with the production electrician because everything uh uh uh this all comes out of a shop that they bid on, and then there's a weekly rental cost. Okay. And every single cable, screw, piece of gel, gel holder, everything you would ever need is in that shop order. I don't understand what most of it means. Because it's like monitors and monitors and all kinds of cable, and I mean it's just like pipe and ladders and genie lifts and you get an empty box of a building that you have to put a show up in.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

That's so crazy. I thought that they give it to you with the lights and you just change them around.

Visible Versus Hidden Lighting

SPEAKER_00 18:52

No, no, no, no, no. Because those lights, well, every show's different, every set's different, so you need lights in different places. But also now lighting is like uh you if you went into a theater, you would want to update all that stuff, you know, now like moving lights are changing so quickly. So you we get whatever's on the shelves that's probably newer and install it all. And the lights aren't gonna hang at the same place every time. Yeah, but anyway, to answer a question, I don't hang the lights. There are then electricians that are hired by the show and maybe whoever owns the theater. I haven't quite figured this out. And they hang the lights, and I go in and watch occasionally and point. I'm not allowed to touch anything.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Oh, because it's a different union, of course.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

It is, but also they take pride in me not needing to touch things. But like on a film, it's definitely like don't touch that. Like it's that's definitely union divided labor of who touches what. So yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Do you find that it helped you that you worked at your earlier life before you got into lighting, you work in sets, you worked in that. Do you feel that that helped you in your profession at the moment?

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Yeah, totally, because I a lot of what I There's two kinds of lighting to me. There's the kinds of lighting where the lights are visible, uh there's no masking, and the overhead lights are visible and the side lights are visible, or I have things more inside the space that are visible. Those things are really informed by my work as a set designer, how they occupy the space and how they frame the space and all this stuff. Uh, second kind of lighting is the lights are not seen because they're all behind masking and borders. And that's more of just like traditional theater lighting.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Like I think most of the things I did at the Metropolitan Opera, the lighting was hidden. Half the things I do in Broadway. I did a lot of shows where the lighting was visible, like American Idiot and Spring Awakening, and but uh about half the shows I do now, the lighting's not visible.

The LED Revolution In Theater

SPEAKER_01 20:55

We mentioned before, before we started to record how technology changed over the years.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Can you give us a little taste of what it's like now compared to what it was?

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Yeah, on the planet Earth. No, you're not almost yet. We have just gone through in the last like 16, 17, 18 years, we've gone through this transition of this energy efficiency transition everywhere. To LED? To LED in your homes, the deli, at the big box store, and in the theater. In the theater. Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. That happened all in just 14 or 15 or 16 years.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

But can you have like a direction light with an LED?

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it was quite crude. Uh I think the first LEDs were used on Broadway like in the early 2000s, mostly just to light backgrounds. Right. Because they were I can see that. Yeah, yeah. Like Spring Awakening, I had these huge walls and they were lit with LED. Next to normal, I had a background that was lit with LED. And then eventually the color improved and the direction, the thing you're talking about, and you could light humans with LED. Like for SpongeBob, the musical, I didn't have much gel at all. And it was mo the people, the backgrounds and the scenery and the people were lit with LED often. There's no heat buildup. You you would get on a set that's tied, and that heat just builds up, right? Especially like behind and now it doesn't. And it's great. And you don't change color as much because color is not burning, or it's LED, it's like making the color. I did three musicals on Broadway that used a huge amount of fluorescent light. Spring Awakening, Next to Normal, and Passing Strange, each used a tremendous amount of uh fluorescent tubes and fluorescent light bulbs, and none of that stuff exists anymore. The cool thing about LED is there's it comes in all these different shapes and gadgets and doodads and sizes and so there's a huge amount of lighting instruments we can choose from, but they're LED and the colors have gotten quite nice. You can light humans now. It is changing so quickly, the lighting industry.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

How do you keep up with the changes?

Mentors, New Gear, And Keeping Up

SPEAKER_00 23:11

How do you know now I have young associates who know who read about it all the time? Yeah, and they go see, they work on lots of different things, and they know what the shop has, and they know they're like, Oh, you might really like this, or there's this new light that's come out with no fan, it's really quiet, and you might like it, and they know.

Tony Nominations, Wins, And Nerves

SPEAKER_01 23:32

Okay, I have to ask you about the all the Tony's that you want.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

First of all, I want to know about the first one. When you got the phone call, what did you feel?

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Oh, you get nominated, so you get a call in the morning. Usually my agent calls me and says, Hello, how are you this morning? And I'll say, Oh, what's going on? I'm just lying here in bed. Is something happening? We have this old game we play. Uh, then it used to be four weeks between your time you're nominated and the Tony Awards. Now it's five weeks. Uh so that's torture. And then it the awards are in June and it's hot, and you have to get dressed up. That part's a pain. Like, what are you gonna wear? It's hot, it's a long, long, long, long, long, long day and night. But the hard the biggest thing is preparing a speech. Like, oh my god, I have to get up in front of the entire world at Radio City Music Hall and say something. So I'll like practice and practice and practice and practice and practice that. That's the scariest thing. Then once you get through that, it's it's a different night.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

So you were no nominated eight times and won four times. Correct. So the four times that you lost, were you highly disappointed?

SPEAKER_00 24:42

No, the first time I didn't win, I was nominated twice that year. And I knew that Which shows were there? Uh Hair and Next to Normal. And I had won the year before. I'd won the two years before. So, you know, I didn't have any complaints. And to be nominated twice was amazing. Yes. But it's really hard to win. And also I knew that uh Billy uh Elliott would win. Someone had told me, like, if you know you're not gonna win when you go, it's a much funner night, and boy, is that true. Oh really? Yeah, because you're you can wear relaxed shoes, you can just enjoy the night. And that four or five weeks of torture between the time you're nominated and the night, there's less torture.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

How come you knew you're not gonna win?

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Like, I could tell you months ago what's gonna win this year.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

You said Sunset Boulevard you think will win this year.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

Yeah, probably. I knew that like the day they opened, they're probably gonna win a tour.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

I interviewed the makeup person for that and the wig maker. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

No, that would probably win the lighting for lighting this year. The winning nights, I just it's a long night, and I end up just like on the sofa sleeping, like just like it's so tense. It's a lot to go through.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

And you make a lot more money after you win, right? I mean your career just takes off.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Yeah, in theory, I mean uh Spring Awakening like really moved me to a different category of designer, and that included more money. But partly that was because that show really I was like 40 something, and that show really showed off my ideas I had been working on for years really clearly. So I had really good ideas that were presented in a really good show that were really on the radar, and so it was not only that I got a Tony, but it was like that I did some excellent work that really shined. That all that together kind of made like a career life change.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Is there one show or performance that you worked on that excited you the most that you're proud of the most?

SPEAKER_00 26:38

I worked on Hedwig and the Angry Inch, many, many.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

Which was a fantastic show.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We started, I worked in the first off Broadway production in 900 seven, I think we did that at the West Beth, which is not even there anymore. We opened at the Jane Street Theater on February 14th, 1998, and ran for two and a half years. I designed Hedwig in several cities, we couldn't give the tickets away. No one wanted to come see a rock and roll drag queen, no one knew what that was, or no one cared what that was. And then I then I did it on Broadway in 20 uh 14. And that's when you got the Tony. I did, I did. But I always loved working on that show because I just love the songs. By the time we got to 2014, people knew the show. Right. People knew the songs. Like I said, in the 90s we couldn't give those tickets away because the movie came out and all this stuff. And people were just it it was sold out every night, and they brought this amazing energy in, and they couldn't wait to be in this room with Hedwig, and it was so thrilling, you know. They were just they were so open to it and excited by it, and yeah, that's neat. Excellent. That part's great.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

All right, and on that note, thank you so much for doing it. It's so interesting.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Closing And Listener Callouts

SPEAKER_01 27:53

I the royalty thing, really. Wow, I didn't know about it. That's how we make a lot of money. Now I wish I was a lady. I know, that's how we make a lot of money. Okay, that's a wrap for today. If you have a comment or question or would like us to cover a certain job, please let us know. Visit our website at how much can I make that info. We would love to hear from you. And on your way out, don't forget to subscribe and share this episode with anyone who is curious about their next job. See you next time.