Alia Jones-Harvey: The Only Women of Color Broadway Lead Producer
Alia Jones-Harvey is one of many trying to make Broadway a more diverse place. Through her and fellow producer Stephen C. Byrd’s production company, Front Row Productions, they produce Broadway and West End shows with diverse casts, creative teams and management. They entered the Broadway scene with the all-Black 2008 revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Together, the producing duo have now mounted nine Broadway productions, including the recently closed Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, and are producing MJ the Musical, a new show about Michael Jackson. Their goal is to share the stories of people of color by people of color – whether by diversifying the classics or introducing new works.
This reaches beyond just Broadway and the West End. This year, Front Row Productions launched a fellowship with Columbia University School of the Arts Theatre Program. The year-long fellowship, allows each fellow to mount a new play or musical and receive mentorship from theatre professionals.
“The lead producers, at the helm of every Broadway show, determine how diverse and inclusive it will be. As two in the shockingly small club of only five Black lead producers in the history of Broadway, our mandate has been to create opportunity for people of color on and off the stage. Recognizing the systemic hurdles to mounting Broadway shows, we have mentored many emerging producers of color. This fellowship draws on our experience as lead producers, on the collective experience of many lead producers who have embraced us in this industry, and on the renowned academic prowess of Columbia University’s graduate-level Theater Management and Producing program to equip future Black lead producers with the tools for Broadway. We believe that establishing this pipeline is vital for the inclusive Broadway we imagine,” Byrd and Jones-Harvey said in a statement about the fellowship.
Before theatre, Jones-Harvey worked in finance. “I don’t think there’s one route [to becoming a producer] at all,” she said in an interview with StageBuddy. “Every producer I’ve met has had a different background and it just adds to what they bring.”
Jones-Harvey also serves on the Board of the Arthur Miller Foundation, the Advisory Board of The American Theater Wing and is a Tony voter. She also a teaches “Producing for Broadway” at the City College of New York.
Change must begin at the top to create a more diverse and equitable theatre industry. When people of color are involved with producing, then it goes all the way down to create more diverse teams in every facet. With people like Jones-Harvey, Broadway can continue to do better for BIPOC members of the theatre community.