Footlights and Foyers

Charles Dillingham knows how to judge a show. Now he intends to build one.

An ambitious young theater critic with ink-stained fingers and expensive tastes, Charles arrives in New York determined to earn his place among Broadway’s great producers. Under Charles Frohman’s guidance, he learns how to fill a theater and recognize the performer an audience will love. Soon he is staking his own money on talent others overlook, bringing extraordinary spectacles to the stage.

Away from the applause, his judgment is less certain. Marriage offers no protection against loneliness, and generosity can become a debt he cannot afford. As war and financial disaster threaten the world he has built, Charles must face the limits of his influence.

Inspired by the unpublished memoirs of Charles Bancroft Dillingham, Footlights and Foyers follows a Broadway showman whose greatest gift for believing in people may also be his most expensive habit.

Adapted from the screenplay by Erika Killen & Amber Tabangay