Netflix Becomes Broadway Producer with Peter Morgan’s ‘Patriots’
Netflix, the streaming giant that went from sending DVDs in red envelopes to becoming a hugely important player in the entertainment industry, is embarking on a new adventure: producing on Broadway.
The company will receive its first Broadway credit this spring as producer of ‘Patriots”, from Peter Morgan, creator of the popular Netflix series ‘The Crown’. The new play is about an oligarch who was an early supporter of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, but then fell out with him and ended up dead.
Even before “Patriots” begins its Broadway previews on April 1, Netflix is already in the early stages of developing a film adaptation of the story, said Emily Feingold, a Netflix spokeswoman.
“Patriots” will be Netflix’s first Broadway credit, but not its first phase. The company is actively involved as a producer of “Stranger Things: The First Shadow”, a play now running in London and is a kind of prequel to the popular Netflix streaming series. The production of “Stranger Things” is expected to come to Broadway, but the timing and other details are unknown.
Netflix’s move into Broadway production comes at a time when the entertainment industry has been aggressively monetizing intellectual property by adapting popular titles and franchises across many different platforms, including not only film, television and stage, but also books, video games and immersive experiences.
Broadway has long been the focus of Hollywood studios; Disney, Warner Bros. and Universal have been particularly active in pursuing stage adaptations of their films. And the recording industry has been actively involved with Broadway for some time, seeing the stage as another way to repurpose pop song catalogs.
Now new players are showing signs of interest in the theater industry, which is still struggling to recover from the pandemic.
Audible, a subsidiary of Amazon, rents a theater in Greenwich Village — the Minetta Lane — and has regularly staged work there and recorded the shows for release on its audio app. The company will perform its first commissioned musical this week, called “Dead bandit,‘which tells the true story of an American bandit whose body became a carnival exhibit.
And A24, the independent film studio, said last year it had acquired the Cherry Lane Theater in the West Village, adding that it planned to use the building for live theater and film programming, but released few details.
Netflix has reason to be hopeful about “Patriots.” In addition to “The Crown,” his six-season series about Queen Elizabeth II, Morgan has had success on stage with history-based dramas, including “Frost/Nixon” and “The Audience.”
“Patriots,” based on the life of Boris A. Berezovsky, was written long before the death this month of another Putin critic, Aleksei A. Navalny, but Navalny’s death will certainly make the sentiment more timely.
The play, which opens April 22 at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, also arrives with a track record. The film has already screened twice in London: a non-profit production in 2022 at the Almeida Theater, and a commercial production last year in the West End – which didn’t involve Netflix, but gave the company’s executives a chance to see it. Reviewing the first production for The New York Times, critic Matt Wolf called it “gripping.”
The Broadway production will star Michael Stuhlbarg as Berezovsky; Will Keen will play Putin, repeating a performance that won him an Olivier Award last year. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, production will be capitalized for up to $8 million.
Netflix has also shown its interest in theater in other ways: It has brought a number of adaptations of stage productions to the screen, including the musicals “The Prom,” “Matilda,” “13” and “Tick, Tick … Boom!” and the plays “The Boys in the Band” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Netflix also filmed for streaming staged performances of the musical “Diana” and the concert show “Springsteen on Broadway.”
The stage productions of “Stranger Things” and “Patriots” share a lead producer in Sonia Friedman, a London-based impresario who regularly produces both in the West End and on Broadway. Friedman is no stranger to working with intellectual properties from major brands and major entertainment companies; she is also one of the lead producers of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”