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Staff Writer
The first thing a visitor notices, browsing through the CDs in Mari Glick's spacious family room, is that she ain't got that swing.
The Rolling Stones and Van Morrison are here, along with an impressive array of female rockers from Tina Turner to Sheryl Crow - but swing music, for the most part, is missing.
If that seems surprising, it's because Glick is one of the producers behind the hit Broadway musical "Swing!" The show, which opened in December at the St. James Theatre, is a high-energy dance revue, and its popularity and success depend almost entirely on the syncopated rhythms and be-bop sounds of big band swing music.
So how did Glick - a 38-year-old Greenwich businesswoman with no show-biz experience, who listens to Sting more than swing - ever become involved in this venture?
There are two answers to that question, both revealing. One hints at the "business" part of show business, an upstairs world of money and marketing and sharp investment decisions, where backers casually refer to their shows as "the product."
The other is the story of the strong mother-daughter bond between Glick and her mother, veteran producer Libby Adler Mages.
If Glick is a novitiate in the theater world, Mages is her mother superior. In Chicago, where Glick grew up, Mages' productions over the past 40 years have included "On Golden Pond," "Six Degrees of Separation" and "Prelude to a Kiss," among many others. In New York, she recently produced "Three Tall Women" by Edward Albee and "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" by Steve Martin.
"Mom is a very shrewd businesswoman," Glick says. "She's invested in shows she believed in, and they've luckily had a wide appeal."
Given that family background, one might have expected Glick to become involved with the theater herself from an early age. Instead, she gravitated toward more conventional business. A political science major at the University of Pennsylvania, she worked for two investment banks and an investment magazine before getting her master's in business administration from Harvard. Eventually, having married and moved to Greenwich, Glick developed a successful temp agency for construction workers.
Then Mom, and the stage, came calling. A few years ago, Mages was collaborating on a new musical with the producers of "Smokey Joe's Cafe" when she asked her financier daughter for help lining up investors. Glick came on board - only to find the show put on hold when a more promising one surfaced, all about swing music.
Glick and Mages jumped at the chance to stay involved.
"Right from the start, we recognized 'Swing!' was a great product," Glick says. "There was such energy to it, such upbeat, fast-moving fun. It was exhilarating. It was timely, because swing music is so hot right now. And as a revue, it made great economic sense."
This is the business part of the story. As a product, musical revues are the Broadway equivalent of reality-based TV shows: They cost much less to produce than conventional "book musicals" (which tell a story along with the music) because they don't need writers or large acting troupes or elaborate stage sets. And with little or no dialogue for the audience to follow, revues are easy to take overseas in search of a global success.
These advantages help offset the smaller crowds and shorter stage runs that are also typical of revues. (A case in point: "Smokey Joe's Cafe," Broadway's longest -running revue, closed in January after five years. Meanwhile, across the street from "Swing!", the book musical "Phantom of the Opera" has just entered its 13th year.) Revues don't expect a "Phantom" like success - but, thanks to their lower costs, they don't need one in order to turn a profit.
"Swing!" was especially appealing in the wake of "Smokey Joe's Cafe," which featured the same sorts of quick vignettes, lively dancing and retro music that "Swing!" itself does. With an open-ended run at the St. James Theatre, Glick and her fellow producers hope they can duplicate the popular appeal of their predecessor.
" 'Smokey Joe's' was five years on Broadway," Glick says. "If that's a goal for us to shoot for, I'd like to shoot for it."
Judging from reviews so far, they may just succeed.
"Swing!" combines standard songs from the 1930s and 1940s with newer numbers, including some written by the show's star, jazz and cabaret singer Ann Hampton Callaway, and it covers a range of swing music from the Lindy hop and the jitterbug to country-western and Latin styles.
A vibrant cast of dancers brings these songs to life through little sketches that contain the barest hint of storylines. Director-choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett understands that the dancing and the music are the real stars here, and she puts the band right onstage to let its members interact with the dancers in fresh and startling ways.
The result is invigorating. Writing in The New York Times, Anna Kisselgoff cited the show's "explosive energy and variety," and said the "whole things jumps and jives with pulsating energy." The Associated Press called it "exhilarating" and "buoyant."
The only negative comments, says Glick, have focused on the nature of revues in general, and not on "Swing!" in particular; some critics, it seems, just aren't happy without a narrative.
For her part, Glick had little to do with the creative process that shaped "Swing!" Rather, "I stuck with my expertise," she says, and concentrated on the show's business aspects. Initially, that meant raising much of the $5.6 million that "Swing!" cost to produce. She found investors worldwide, from Australia to Germany to Tokyo, as well as "a ton" of local investors from Greenwich and New York City.
"Theater is a high-risk investment," Glick says. "There's no question. But you can minimize your risk if you invest with the right people, and trust the decisions they make. You have to trust your own judgment. Do you like the show? Do you want to be a part of it? In that way, it's not so different from any other high-risk investment."
Glick also handled other business elements such as marketing and licensing for "Swing!" Now that the show is comfortably under way, she stays on top of the day-to-day financial figures from her backcountry colonial house, tracking the expenses (rent, royalties, salaries) and earnings (ticket sales, licensee fees) that determine whether any business will succeed.
"I absolutely monitor daily sales and advance sales," Glick says. She declines to discuss specific numbers, but she acknowledges, "We very much look at the bottom line."
For all that Glick views "Swing!" as a business investment, however, that doesn't dampen the enthusiasm she feels for it on its own terms, as a straightforward Broadway show. "Every time we walk into the theater, or send someone there, it's so thrilling," she says. "It's an electric feeling. I've seen the show so many times, and I'm still thrilled every time. I can't believe how talented these people are."
"Swing!" also offers a payoff that few standard investments can match - especially for somebody raised as a fan of the theater. "What I've loved," says Glick, "was watching it evolve. Seeing the lighting take shape, and the costumes take shape, and the performers evolve in their roles, has really been so satisfying for me as a fan of Broadway. I have had, personally, the most rewarding, fulfilling time doing this."
Glick looks down for a moment, considering her transformation from a conventional businesswoman into a full-fledged theatrical producer eager to tackle another show.
"Win, lose or draw, there is no experience like being a part of Broadway," she says. Then she smiles the deal-clinching smile of a natural businesswoman. "And you can underline win."
