sustained theatre

Stephen Byrd, a former investment banker with Goldman Sachs in the London and Paris offices, spent 15 years trying to bring his newly envisioned production of 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' to Broadway. Frustrated by Hollywood and its development process, Stephen Byrd decided to try the stage. He focused on 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' because he grew up loving the iconic movie. He bought a stack of books on how to be a Broadway producer and eventually reached out to the author of them all, top New York Theatre Attorney, Donald C. Farber.

View Sustained Theatre websites 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' Filmed Interviews

The two proceeded to craft an offer for the Tennessee Williams Estate. Maria St. Just, executor of the estate, took months of persuasion to say yes to this unique production. She insisted on James Earl Jones for the role of Big Daddy and Mr. Byrd agreed. Maria St. Just passed away just three days after signing the rights over to Mr. Byrd.

What has proved true is the ‘Cat’ has more than one life! The show did not come to Broadway then but in 2006, Mr. Byrd decided that the time was right. Alia Jones, former marketing executive with Procter & Gamble and on Wall Street, joined the newly formed Front Row Productions. With an eye on making the production a major event on the Great White Way to ensure robust ticket sales, Byrd cast Terrence Howard in his Broadway debut, alongside theatre veterans Anika Noni Rose, Phylicia Rashad and James Earl Jones.

Debbie Allen, as Director at the helm of this cast, chose to use the 1974 script of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, little known to be Tennessee Williams’ favorite and the most intense version of the play. Even with that amazing cast, they waited to get a theatre because theatre owners and critics doubted the audience appetite. Front Row Productions’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof managed to find new audiences that were excited to see this all-star cast in this classic Pulitzer-Prize winning work. Finding a home at the Broadhurst Theatre, the Broadway production sold out, recouped for investors in under 12 weeks, and became the biggest grossing play of the 2008 season!

With people coming from around the world to see what was a history-making production on Broadway, offers to bring this version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to theatres in major cities came in fast. Particularly interesting to Byrd and the cast members was London’s West End. The Delfont Mackintosh Theatres offered the beautiful flagship Novello Theatre for this bold staging of the Tennessee Williams play. Byrd and Jones have pulled together a West End General Management, Advertising, and Press team with a track-record of unparalleled West End success.

Reprising their Broadway roles as Big Daddy and Big Mama, marks a return to the West End after 30 years for two-time Tony winner James Earl Jones and the West End debut for Tony Award winning actress of stage and television Phylicia Rashad. Tony nominee Sanaa Lathan plays the role of Maggie alongside star of Hustle and Olivier Award winner Adrian Lester. Debbie Allen directs the new all-star ensemble of British and American actors –all theatre veterans— in what has been deemed the ‘hottest ticket on the West End’ this winter season!

More information online at:http://www.catwestend.com