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When you want to bring a production to Philadelphia, call Philip Roger Roy.
“I’m pretty much the guy people call when they want to bring a show in,” Roy, a producer who has lived at Third and Fitzwater streets for more than 20 years, said.
He has been living and working in Queen Village since the 1970s on everything from music booking to cabaret to self-produced theater.
His newest project is the Broadway hit “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish and I’m in Therapy.” The one-man show developed by stand-up comedian and author Steve Solomon, is running at the Society Hill Playhouse through Dec. 12.
As Solomon, who originally performed the show on Broadway, is working on the second sequel “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish and I’m Home for the Holidays,” he hand-picked his predecessor Ron Tobin to carry the show on a recent national tour. The current run on Eighth Street is the first time it has been performed in the area.
“It really incorporates everything I do. There is stand-up and there are a lot of different voices in the play and it’s a one-man show,” Tobin, who is staying in Queen Village during the run, said. “People are wonderful. I briefly speak to the audience after the performances. I love it here. I’ve been treated with nothing but love, friendship, kindness. There has been nothing but good vibes.”
This is Tobin’s first time working with Roy, and he has nothing but the highest praises for him and his work ethic. Roy’s professionalism comes from a long history in the biz.
“I have to sell it, that is the job of the producer,” Roy, 58, said. “People often confuse what producers and directors do. Directors stage the show … the producer is essentially the CEO of the business, of the company that makes the show.
“You have to realize in my world, the world of commercial theater, it’s a business. And somebody runs the business.”
Run it, he has, as he has done with multiple other engagements at Society Hill Playhouse.
“‘The Male Intellect: An Oxymoron’ ran a week at the Merriam Theater and a few months later I brought it to Society Hill Playhouse. And that began my association with Society Hill,” Roy said of the 2003 hit. “I’ve been the producer for a bunch of different shows. After ‘Male,’ I was responsible for bringing in ‘Menopause The Musical.’ That played three-and-a-half years and sold 212,000 tickets.
“I produced the show ‘A Jew Grows in Brooklyn.’ Produced it in New York, right in the heart of Broadway. It had two national tours. Ironically, the show we competed with was ‘My Mother’s Italian …’”
Roy graduated in the 228th class of Central High before attending Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, with a population at the time, according to Roy, of “1100, including the 700 students.”
The small-town environment did not suit Roy, so he brought in his own version of the big-city feel. He opened a coffeeshop called Ma and Pa Eclectic and Sons International House of Chutzpah, which served as a meeting place for students and faculty and a venue for some aspiring new folk artists.
“I brought in people like Mike Nesmith, he was one of the Monkees, and Dave Van Ronk,” Roy said. “I used to drive to Columbus to buy lox and bagels to serve in my coffeehouse. The faculty loved it. It was the closest thing to an East Coast coffeehouse that they had.”
Roy switched majors three times during his time at Kenyon and by his junior year, and then a theater major, he left Gambier to head back to his hometown.
“I opened Grendel’s Lair cabaret theater at the corner of Fifth and South streets. It had stages on two levels. The first floor was a 220-seat cabaret theater and The Police played there for $400,” Roy said of his 15-year venture, adding, with great care, the many artists he booked to play Grendel’s Lair: “Buddy Rich is the most famous jazz drummer of all time. Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Pat Martino, Phil Ochs, David Bromberg, McCoy Tyner.”
Working hard to book daily music programming, Roy happened to book a theater run, and realized he could bring in a long-running show and cut his workload. One of his initial successes was “The World of Lenny Bruce,” after which he produced around 40 shows, which lead up to his “megahit.”
“‘Let My People Come’ was written by Earl Wilson Jr. Earl Wilson Sr. was his father. He wrote for the New York Post, syndicated in 500 publications. [Earl Wilson Jr.] wrote a show about the sexual revolution of the ’70s. It played 10 years at Grendel’s Lair, and it was the longest running show in Philadelphia history. Four-hundred thousand tickets sold. Oct. 21, 1977 was the opening night of ‘Let My People Come.’
“I produced it in 20 other cities, including Toronto where it ran eight years and was the longest running union-licensed musical in the history of Canada.”
At the end of his 15-year lease at Fifth and South, the owner’s wanted to change direction and Roy was forced to close the spot. Around the same time, Roy returned to finish out his undergraduate work at Temple University, graduating summa cum laude with a degree in communications.
His next venture was four years running the New Market Cabaret Theater, in the former shopping area called the New Market, just south of Headhouse Square.
“Then Will Smith, the actor, bought the entire complex, kicked us out and tore it down to build a hotel,” Roy said. “He did not build the hotel and wound up selling it.”
This left Roy producing shows at various venues around Philadelphia, which led him to work with the Society Hill Playhouse and form a comfortable relationship that continues to this day. Roy also travels with his many shows, often taking on the role of general manager on the road — something he will be doing with another production in late December in Phoenix.
“That’s how we spend the winter: We go to hot climates with hot shows,” Roy said.
But no matter where he travels or how often he works in New York, he always finds his way back to his “trendy” Queen Village home.
“My great-grandmother owned one of the bridal shops at 531 South St., the Bluebird Bridal shop, for 65 years. So, literally, my great-grandfather got off the boat from Russia in the late 1800s five blocks from where I owned my theater and my great-grandmother and my grandmother lived at Fourth and Bainbridge. My roots are right from here,” Roy said. “I’m where my parents were and my great-grandparents were, that’s why I’m here. And even though I do shows all round the country, this is where I come home to.” SPR
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