Producer Gordon Hughes, born in Los Angeles in 1941, is a founder of DFB Productions, which manages investments in Broadway, West End, and international theatrical productions. Recent and current Broadway shows include “Peter and the Star Catcher,” “An American in Paris,” “Come From Away,” and “The Cher Show.” Hughes and his wife, Barbara, live on Bleecker Street between Perry and Eleventh..
For producer Gordon Hughes, every career he’s had was “a logical progression” to his current one. “I went to Cal State University where I studied history, poli sci, and then broadcasting,” he says. “When I graduated, the local TV station made me associate producer on a show called “Ralph Story’s Los Angeles”. But my goal was to get into TV so I jumped over to sales. That’s where I learned to write and produce commercials. When I did end up as director of broadcasting in a TV station, I learned contracts as well as working with the unions. And agents! Some were a treat.”
Making a switch to print, which brought him to New York in 1990, Hughes was with ABP Magazines for sixteen years until he realized he missed the entertainment industry. “I was kind of tired and bored with what I was doing,” he says. “I had a very good friend who was the only guy I could talk to about theater, television, actors, etc. One year we went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and saw about four plays a day for a week. I thought it was fabulous! So he and I and two other guys formed Direct From Broadway.”
Their first play was “La Bête.” “I was like a babe in the woods,” Hughes says. “This was a story of Moliere done in couplets. Can you imagine such a thing?!” He stayed the course, though, and succeeded. “It’s been a great ride and right now I’m happy to be involved with ‘Come From Away’, which is still running,” he says. “I didn’t think it was going to be anything like what’s happening to it now. They’ve handled the marketing on that so well, but it was word of mouth that drove that show. I also just opened ‘The Cher Show’ and I’m an investor in that, not a producer. I did it for two reasons: I really think Cher’s story is better than any of the other so-called jukebox musicals and to work with [producer] Jeffrey Seller is amazing.”
So it transpires that all of Hughes’ skills acquired over a lifetime have come in handy in the theatre. Does he have any words of wisdom? “I always say there are three kinds of investors: those that want to discover talent, those that want to have their photograph taken with Cher and get their names in the program, and the idiots who actually think they’re going to make money,” he says, laughing. “I’m in the first group: I love to discover talent. Just to be able to look at actors and directors and say, ‘I helped that career!’ is wonderful. And another thing, I didn’t go into this business to thump my chest. I don’t even put my name in the playbills anymore. I mean, I like my friends to know what I’m doing but I try to go stealth.”
“This is not necessarily a young man’s game,” he continues. “I’ve been very fortunate in life and once you can put the money together you get to do something like this, which I love. It’s not a retirement job by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s just not as hard as working at a television network. You feel more liberated and you don’t need to suit up. We’re like gypsies.”
Even though he “always knew about Greenwich Village,” Hughes didn’t move here until 20 years ago. “I’m vexed by what’s happened here since then,” he says. “There were a lot of VW buses with peace signs on them and now it’s all Range Rovers. That’s why I go to Mucho Gusto café on Hudson Street. It’s full of old hippies. We all know each other, chat together, and it’s really fun.”
And yet, it’s the mix of old places and new that make the neighborhood so appealing to Hughes. “I love hanging out in old places like the Vanguard, Smalls, and the Bus Stop, and then doing a change up and having a nice dinner at the Waverly Inn,” he says. “I recently had to go to dinner at a very chichi restaurant on the Upper East Side and I thought, ‘I couldn’t live here any more than I could live on Mars. The men still have hair like Cary Grant did!’”
Photo: Vicki Sander