In New York, the worlds of Broadway and luxury real estate have always shared a certain DNA: big personalities, high stakes, discerning audiences, and, above all, the ability to bring the right people together at exactly the right moment.
For Brown Harris Stevens brokers Marsi Gardiner and Jordan Silver, that connection is more than a metaphor. Recently profiled by the Commercial Observer, both have taken their talents behind the curtain as Broadway producers, discovering that the instincts that help bring a show to the stage can be remarkably similar to those that help bring a real estate transaction to the closing table.
Gardiner, who is part of the Arcus team at BHS, is an active theater producer alongside her husband, Eric. Together, they have earned Tony Awards for some of Broadway’s most celebrated productions, including the 2023 Best Revival of a Musical winner Parade, the 2017 Best Musical winner Dear Evan Hansen, the 2010 Best Musical winner Memphis, and the 2006 Best Musical winner Jersey Boys.
That’s quite a Broadway résumé—and an impressive education in the art of making something extraordinary happen.
“We’re active producers, we’re involved from reading the script to making decisions—not about casting—but on marketing, about the tours, and we’re looking at the figures every day, which is very interesting, because it’s similar to real estate,” Gardiner told Commercial Observer.
And if you’ve ever wondered what exactly Broadway and real estate have in common, Gardiner has a particularly good analogy.
“In theater, the excitement of seeing a show is similar to walking into an apartment with your client for the first time,” she said. “Just like theater, there’s your first act, your intermission, and the staging.”
In other words: curtain up!
The parallels don’t stop there. For Gardiner, both industries are ultimately about people—and about creating relationships that last long after the initial introduction.
“My relationships are the most important thing to me,” she said. “It’s not about ego. And I am able to go back to a team and have support in both theater and real estate. We all work together. It’s about me being honest and open and making the right decisions for our producers, and our people that believe in us and trust us.”
For fellow BHS broker Jordan Silver, a producer of The Lost Boys, the Broadway musical adaptation of the cult 1980s teen vampire film, the connection between Broadway and real estate is equally intuitive.
“I think the most successful real estate agents are also artists in a way,” he said. “They have to know how to listen, they have to know how to think outside the box, and I feel that in both industries it takes a certain type of high-risk, ambitious person, who is willing to take the bet on themselves that they’re going to make it work, without a guaranteed salary, without a clear path, and that is the way I think of real estate and producing.”
That idea of betting on yourself may be the ultimate common denominator.
“Whether it’s real estate or producing, I have a product to present to somebody that I think would be a good fit,” he said. “You’re brokering between the investor and the product, in the same way.”
For two Brown Harris Stevens brokers who know their way around both a Broadway production and a New York property, the curtain is always about to rise on the next opportunity.
Leave a Reply