SHIP SHAPE

Dallas-born Sally Horchow, a Tony Award–nominated producer, finds her stage.

INTERVIEW BY CHRIS BYRNE

Sally Horchow, the daughter of Roger Horchow (yes, that one—the late Horchow retailer-turnedBroadway-producer), followed in her father’s footsteps. She co-wrote The Art of Friendship: 70 Simple Rules for Making Connections (St. Martin’s Press, 2006) with her father prior to becoming a Tony Award–nominated Broadway producer herself.

Chris Byrne catches Patron readers up here:

Chris Byrne (CB): In 2010, you founded Sally Horchow International Productions (SHIP) to produce live entertainment—how did this come about? Sally Horchow (SH): After working as a freelance journalist and on-air personality for several years, I wanted to make a career shift back to the theater industry (in which I had worked for a year after college, before moving on to TV and film). My father was a two-time Tony-winning Broadway producer by that time (Crazy For You, Kiss Me Kate), and he had just been approached to co-produce the upcoming revival of ANNIE, which was the first musical my mom and dad had taken me to, in 1977, so I jumped on board to co-produce alongside him. I started my company then, in hopes that I would be able to continue to produce live entertainment thereafter, and I did! CB: Dan [Routman] recently invited me to see IS THIS A ROOM at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway—it’s an incredible play... SH: IS THIS A ROOM was conceived by the brilliant director, Tina Satter, who stumbled upon the redacted transcript of Reality’s interrogation when reading a profile on her in New York Magazine in 2017. CB: Were you at all surprised by the critical reception? Jesse Green’s New York Times review asked “how does mind-numbing banality become heartracing excitement?” SH: No, I wasn’t surprised by the critical reception to IS THIS A ROOM, because I felt the same way the critics did—and the audiences did—when I first saw it at the the Vineyard Theatre off-Broadway: I was on the edge of my seat, rapt, in disbelief, for the full hour and five minute duration. It’s what I love about seeing any good play: it envelops you in its story, inspires conversation and connection with others, and stays with you way beyond your time in the theater. Jesse Green answers his own question in that same review, calling the play “one of the thrillingest thrillers ever to hit Broadway.” CB: Your theatrical productions IS THIS A ROOM and DANA H. were both included in this season’s New York Times top 10 plays... SH: In my opinion, the gorgeous Beaux-Arts-style Lyceum Theatre, with its long history as a classic playhouse, made the perfect framing device for both thoroughly modern shows.

I think seeing two terrifying true stories in a very opulent, singularly Broadway (said with jazz hands!) setting made that juxtaposition all the more dramatic. CB: And in her review for New York Magazine, Helen Shaw wrote “... some small productions work best in the spaces where they were built. Moving a play from a little theater to a big one is risky—an intimate show’s magic can fail when you try to scale up in size. Not so with DANA H., though, the unlikely crown jewel in this bizarre Broadway season.” Can you describe its Broadway transfer from the Vineyard Theatre? SH: DANA H., in particular, played very well in the intimate setting of the much smaller Vineyard Theatre, but when presented in the Lyceum, its chillingly singular focus on one woman’s story and one actor’s performance was able to expand into every crevice of the vast theatre space. Even watching it from the last row of the balcony was mesmerizing. The success of the transfer from small theatre to large proves that the play is excellent stage drama. CB: What upcoming projects can we look forward to? SH: My next project is the first revival of the Tony Award–winning Gershwin musical Crazy for You, which my father produced on Broadway and beyond in 1992.

Quite a stark departure from these very intense plays, but a very welcome and uplifting one! And it couldn’t be more meaningful for me, as the original Crazy for You was such a highlight of my father’s and our family’s life. It is so exciting to bring this joyous show back to the world.

We will premiere the production (headed up by multiple Tony Award–winning director/choreographer Susan Stroman, who won her first Tony for her Crazy for You choreography) at the Chichester Festival Theater in England this summer, with the hopes of a West End and Broadway transfer thereafter. P