Production: Grind - April, 1985

ATW - Working In The Theatre

The producing team of the 1985 Broadway musical "Grind" - advertising representative Jeffrey Ash, group sales executive Ronald S. Lee, executive producer Ruth Mitchell, and producers Michael Frazier, Kenneth Greenblatt, Mary Lea Johnson, and John Pomerantz - talks about bringing the nearly $5 million production to Broadway after a tryout in Baltimore, working with director Hal Prince, the importance of advertising and group ticket sales in light of mixed critical reviews, comparisons to their previously produced hits "La Cage Aux Folles" and "Nine", and budgetting a new American musical with a controversial royalty structure that doesn't pay the creative team until the production turns a profit.