It turns out the odds in Vegas may beat those on Broadway, but this week’s guest (and host!) find Broadway much more magical. Roberts takes a fascinating peek behind the stage door with Broadway manager Mitch Weiss.

Join us on this theatrical journey, and share your thoughts on the prompts below in the Comments section. We love engaging with you, and watching you engage with one another.

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1. Toward the end of this week’s episode, Weiss talked about premium seating–some of the best seats at the hottest shows are prices many times higher than other nearby seats. Here is Weiss’s reaction:

The great thing–as I said, for me, working in the theater–I don’t have to worry about whether or not it’s going to survive. It’s–first of all, it’s blooming. I’ve never seen it like this. We are making a fortune. Of course, those premium priced seats, which I am one of the few people on Broadway totally against–I just see it as greed. But people are willing to buy it; and that’s our marketplace.

Roberts did not follow-up on this point. If he had, what might have been his response? How would he deal with the concern that the poorest citizens may be priced out of seeing a Broadway show?2. As a business, how is Broadway like the movie business, according to Weiss? Why do you think no Broadway producer has yet opened the same show simultaneously on Broadway?

3. A lot of Roberts’s and Weiss’s conversation concerns the complex structure of union rules and requirements that govern the production of a Broadway show. Does Broadway success in spite of or because of this kind of complexity? How do you think Roberts and Weiss might each answer this question?

4. What is your favorite Broadway show that you have seen in person? Have the memories of that show persisted in a similar way to your favorite movie? Roberts and Weiss both seem to feel some special magic about Broadway. Do you agree?