Dallas works to keep Broadway lights bright

The sky is the limit for Samuel Dallas.

The 2012 Medford Area Senior High School graduate is a rising star in the New York theater industry working as a general manager with ShowTown Theatricals.

Dallas explains that a general manager in show business is a lot like being the general contractor when building a home.

“You have the producers that raise the money and have the vision and the general manager that brings that to life,” he said. He said just as the general contractor on a building site hires workers, controls costs, and makes sure regulations are followed, so does the general manager of a show. They make sure everything is running smoothly.

“Anything that happens in the show comes across our desk,” he said. This includes everything from hiring talents, to negotiation of theater contracts and making sure everyone gets paid.

“We are the chief operation and chief financial officers for the show,” he said.

Dallas works with ShowTown Theatricals based in New York City, but he has shows currently going on around the country.

While the general managers seldom grab the spotlight themselves, they are a key part of bringing any production together and making it successful.

Dallas has had growing success in the industry working with a production of “A Christmas Carol” which won five Tony awards this past year. “It was really exciting,” he said of the awards.

He is currently working with regional productions of the show in Los Angeles with Bradley Whitford playing the role of Scrooge and with the production in San Francisco, both of which go through the end of the year.

This fall, Dallas played a role in the three-day Curtain Up! back to Broadway event held September 17-19.

Curtain Up!, was an outdoor theater festival in Times Square commemorating the return of Broadway after the COVID-19 shutdown, that kicked off September 17. The festival took place on Broadway in NYC stretching between 45th and 48th Streets. Twenty-two unique events ran on stages in Duffy Square (7th Avenue and 47th Street) and outside the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel (1535 Broadway).

“It was very, very cool,” Dallas said. While his job puts him in contact with the top names of stage and screen, Dallas said there is no room for being a fan. He said you have to look at them as who they are as a performer and who they are as a person. This is especially true as a general manager where you are the person serving as their boss.

Dallas’ work has earned recognition from his peers in the theater industry. He recently was accepted as an associate member of the Broadway League. The organization represents producers, general managers and theater owners and oversees the operation of Broadway working with the unions and guilds involved with putting productions on. He explained that as an associate member he gets to participate in meetings and serve on committees and that after a period of time will have the ability to apply to become a full member and be one of the people who is eligible to vote on who receives Tony Awards in the future.

While Dallas is among the youngest general managers on Broadway, he has put in his time learning the industry. After graduating from Medford, Dallas went on to Belmont University in Nashville where he earned a Bachelors Degree with honors in business administration. Following an internship in New York, he knew he wanted to be a general manager in the theater industry. His first work was with ICM Partners, a talent agency working in theater representing actors. He did that job for four years and represented clients and worked in contract negotiation for broadway tours, international events and regional productions. In 2019, he moved back into the general manager side taking a position as assistant general manager with 5th Estate Entertainment. He then went to work for ShowTown Theatricals as a general manager.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all areas, the theater industry was especially hit hard with theaters closed and productions cancelled. Dallas said they were lucky to have remained busy throughout the shutdown working with virtual events. He explained they did shows that were recorded over Zoom, sending cameras to the homes of broadway actors.

“We did three or four of them over pandemic. It was exciting,” he said, but he is more excited about the return to live theater.

“I think everybody is really excited to be back,” he said.

The ongoing pandemic has made Dallas’ job more challenging. He said that they have to deal with different state and local laws and policies. He explained the goal is to always look out for the safety of the cast and crew. He said there is testing three times a week in the companies and additional monitoring. He said they work to create bubbles around the cast and crew of shows and to limit anyone entering those bubbles.

He said having an outbreak can really impact a production, citing the production of Wicked which had to cancel three shows on Broadway because they did not have enough people to cover the roles. “It is better to be more cautious about it than not,” he said.

Offering advice

The road from Taylor County to Broadway took a lot of hard work on Dallas’ part, but he said anything is possible if you work for it.

“No dream is too big,” he said. “Where you grow up is just the beginning. Where you go and what you do is up to you,” he said, noting that if young people go on to school or enter the workforce it is up to them to control their life.

Dallas also encourages people to get out of their comfort zone. “That is the only way you will push your limits. Give everything a try and you never know until you try,” he said.