STAGE STRUCK BY IAN SPELLING | (201) MAGAZINE | APRIL 2009

Broadway producer Wendy Federman is passionate about the theater

"I grew up with my mother walking into my room in the morning and singing 'Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,' because she was one of Richard Rodgers' go-to performers," Wendy Federman recalls, laughing happily at the memory. "Whereas everyone would turn on the Beatles as their wake-up music on the radio, my mother would sing the full rendition of Oklahoma! When my glamorous aunt from L.A. would visit, she had no problem putting her false eyelashes on me. My uncles were actors. I just said, 'I need to be in this world.'"

Sure enough, Federman is entrenched in that world, just in ways she never imagined. She's a respected Broadway producer, a Drama Desk winner and Tony Award nominee whose credits include Legends!, Moon for the Misbegotten, Passing Strange, and the current shows Blithe Spirit, with Rupert Everett, Christine Ebersole and Angela Lansbury, and Impressionism, with Jeremy Irons and Joan Allen. As if that weren't enough, Federman - who has lived in Alpine with her real estate developer husband, Bob, and their two kids for nearly 20 years and serves on the board of trustees for bergenPAC - is also a producer on the latest revival of Hair.

But, we're getting ahead of ourselves. Federman trained as a dancer and singer, and studied at UCLA and NYU, but when her father died, so, too - temporarily - did her show business dreams. Federman joined her mother and brother in the family's Secaucus-based business, manufacturing and importing floral goods. "Family comes first," Federman says. "But, I continued at NYU and got my education in business, which I'd promised my father I'd do. I stayed in touch with my friends. And, when I had my kids I continued with a singing class here, a dance class there. Eventually, I sold that business, came out to Alpine and, because I'm also a psychotherapist by training, I opened some stress management centers. It was great, because I did that, got to the kids' soccer games, and still, on occasion, did shows with the Bergen County Players, to keep a toe or two in the performing water."

"If we're asking people to spend money, to commit to an evening, we owe them something where they'll walk out of the theater and feel better."
WENDY FEDERMAN

As luck would have it, when Federman's son was a year old, she was invited to a mommy and me event hosted by a woman named Amy Miller. Miller's husband, Bill, owned off-Broadway theaters where he produced shows. Realizing that Federman grasped both the creative spirit of Broadway and business-world realities, Miller took her under his wing. She began investing in shows and attending seminars about the theater industry and producing. Finally, six years ago, Federman was approached to produce the national tour of Legends! starring Joan Collins and Linda Evans. "There were friends saying, 'You have to do this,'" Federman explains. "My husband said, 'Go for it. Don't worry. I'll drive the kids to school.' I got a taste, and even though it wasn't the easiest experience, I learned so much. Every city was like opening a Broadway show. It was boot camp, and I loved it."

Hooked, Federman took additional classes, networked, studied plays, and picked the brains of veteran producers. She describes the producer's job as a cross between a CEO, CFO, den mother and cheerleader. Over time, Federman found herself interested in revivals, "work that should be seen by the next generation," but also eager to stage the efforts of rising playwrights and directors, "talents who deserve to have the public see what they can do if given the chance," she says.

In fact, her current projects are cases in point.

"Blithe Spirit is Noel Coward, and who's more charming, funny and witty than Coward?" Federman asks rhetorically. "We can use some charm and wit right now. If we're asking people to spend money, to commit to an evening, we owe them something where they'll walk out of the theater and feel better. Impressionism is a beautiful new play by Michael Jacobs. He's better known as a television creator-writer, but he's written this beautiful romantic play. It's just so tender. Once again, if I'm asking people to spend money, to come to the city, and spend two hours in the theater, I want their hearts to be warmed and touched, and for them to believe in love again. I think they will after they see this play.

"These are the kinds of shows I love," concludes Federman, who's gearing up for Broadway revivals of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound, as well as a national tour of a Little House on the Prairie musical that will kick off this fall at the Paper Mill Playhouse. "What you hope for as a producer is that people will share your enthusiasm for the material. Even in this economy, if it's good, they will come."