By Fern Gillespie
Whether it’s
casting African American superstars in Broadway classics or inspiring the rock
and roll movement or web casting the sensational Victoria’s Secret Fashion
Show, Riant Theatre’s “Pioneer of the Arts Awards” honorees are not only
cultural innovators; they are experts in the economics of entertainment.
Stephen C. Byrd and Alia Jones-Harvey left Wall Street to become Broadway’s leading
African-American producers and create acclaimed star-studded productions like Romeo
and Juliet with Orlando
Bloom and Condola Rashad; The Trip To Bountiful with Cicely Tyson, Vanessa Williams and Cuba
Gooding, Jr.; A Street Car Named Desire
with Blair Underwood and Nicole Ari Parker and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof with Phylicia Rashad, James Earl Jones,
Terrence Howard and Anika Noni Rose.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer Lloyd Price launched the teen craze of Rock and Roll with “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” and transitioned into
successful enterprises from records to boxing to construction to food. B. Jeffrey Madoff's creative career
evolved from being a top fashion designer to a documentary filmmaker and
commercial producer-director, who devised the splashy web cast and network
broadcast of the amazing Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
“Alia and I
think outside the box,” explained Stephen C. Byrd, a former Goldman Sachs
executive, whose Front Row Productions with Alia Jones-Harvey is the only African-American
theatre production firm on Broadway.
Their formula for developing hit Broadway shows for
African-American audiences has resulted in top grossers like the revivial of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Later on the London stage, it earned the prestigious
Laurence Olivier Award for Best Revival of a Play.
“If we cast
a production interracially and get panned by the critics, it doesn’t matter to
us because African-Americans want to see their talent,” said Byrd. “They want to see Terrence Howard. They want
to see James Earl Jones. They don’t care
what the New York Times says.”
“We’re
approaching these productions as if they are start-up businesses. They take all
of the research and planning of any start-up business,” said Jones-Harvey, a former NASA executive who holds a MBA and
masters degrees in engineering and math. “Each time you put on a
production, you need to know what market you are targeting. The profit margins
are all in reaching your market efficiently.”
Right now,
they are developing a Broadway production of the 1959 Brazilian film Black Orpheus. Byrd has seen the film over 30 times. “I see something new every time.”
Singing
sensation Lloyd Price, known as “Mr. Personality,” has used that personality to
create a cache
of careers.
“Everything I do, I’ve never done before,” he said.
When
he recorded the rock and roll, R&B classic “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” in
1952, the 19 year old from Louisiana
thrilled black and white teens. “It caused
a youth movement and a rock and roll revolution,” explained Price.
After serving in Korea, his label replaced him with
Little Richard. Then, Price’s classic
“Stagger Lee" topped the pop and R&B charts and sold over one million
copies. By 1962, he owned Double L
Records recording The Coasters
and Wilson Pickett. In 1969, after his business partner and friend Harold Logan was murdered in their club, he moved to
Nigeria.
In Zaire, he tapped his friend Don
King, who Price had introduced years earlier to Muhmmad Ali. Together with
King, he produced the legendary “Rumble in the Jungle” fight between Ali and
Joe Frazier. “The whole deal was my production. They got the biggest purse
ever, which was $5 million,” said Price. “We changed the entire concept of how
sports and entertainers get paid for their work.”
By the 1980s, Price took a $6
million bank loan and constructed over 40 low-income homes in the Bronx and Staten Island. Today, at age 80, he is not only singing “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” onstage, he manages Icon Food
Brands, which includes Lawdy Miss Clawdy products.
“Lloyd Price has such a layered
story,” said B. Jeffrey Madoff, founder of Madoff Productions, who directed a
film on Price and is now developing a Broadway bio drama with music. “Lloyd is the messenger. The play is about
how music and rock and roll brings about integration in the United States.
Before Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, the young people started to listen to
the same music, dance together and socialize. As they got older it impacted on
popular culture on the Civil Rights Movement and, arguably, you could take that
up to getting President Obama elected.”
Madoff
earned degrees in philosophy and psychology at the University of Wisconsin
and, by
accident, became a fashion designer in the 1970s. In his first year of business he landed on
the cover of Women’s Wear Daily and was named one of the top 10 designers in
the U.S.
Today, he directs award winning commercials, documentaries and web content
viewed worldwide. High profile fashion and education clients include: Ralph
Lauren, Victoria’s Secret, Godiva Chocolates, Weill Cornell
Medical College
and Harvard University. Madoff
used his film and fashion sense to pioneer the flamboyant Victoria's Secret Fashion shows on the web.
He’s penned a Huffington Post column and is at work developing a movie “The
Hard Kill” about the desire for redemption.
“Creativity:
Making a Living with Your Ideas” is Madoff’s expertise and the title of a
course he teaches at Parsons
School for Design. “I
bring in people who make a living with their ideas and the students get an idea
of how to bring their ideas to market,” he pointed out. “Creativity is a job
and a discipline. If you think your ideas are good, you have to get them out
there.”
For tickets to the Riant Theatre's Launch Party - Pioneer of the Arts Awards & Tribute Show go to www.therianttheatre.com. Tickets.
The event is Sunday, February 9, 2014.
5:30pm is the VIP Reception - $50 for Reception & Awards Show
6:45pm is the Pioneer Awards Show - $25 for the Awards Show
At the Bronx Museum of the Arts, 1040 Grand Concourse, NY.
For further info call 646-623-3488.
Fern Gillespie, Publicist for the Riant Theatre & The Strawberry One-Act Festival.
