Broadway Salutes Legendary PR Firm, Boneau/Bryan-Brown

It's the end of an era on Broadway. As BroadwayWorld reported last month, the curtain has offically come down on Boneau/Bryan-Brown, the iconic Broadway press office founded by ATPAM-members Chris Boneau and Adrian Bryan-Brown, after more than three decades representing theatre on Broadway, Off-Broadway and around the world.

The good news? The legacy continues via Aperture Public Relations, led by long-time Boneau/Bryan-Brown employees Heath Schwartz and Michelle Farabaugh. The duo serves as Partners and Co-Presidents while Adrian Bryan-Brown will continue providing client services for the new business and Chris Boneau will be an independent consultant. 

Boneau/Bryan-Brown is the longest-running, continuously operating Broadway public relations firm on Broadway. BBB’s first Broadway clients when the company opened in 1991 were the Jerry Zaks Guys and Dolls, Michael Feinstein In Concert and A Christmas Carol (with Patrick Stewart). Since then, BBB has represented shows and events in every Broadway theatre. (Prior to the formation of BBB, Chris and Adrian were associates in Josh Ellis’ office working on 42nd Street while the show was playing at the Majestic Theatre. The Phantom of the Opera, not a BBB client, ran at the Majestic for much of BBB’s existence.)

Since 1991 BBB’s more than 400 Broadway and Off-Broadway productions have won: 12 Pulitzer Prizes (Angels in America, Between Riverside and Crazy, Cost of Living, Disgraced, Doubt, English, Proof, Rabbit Hole, Top Dog/Underdog, Ruined, Sweat, and Wit), 254 Tony Awards, 244 Drama Desk Awards, and 178 Outer Critics Circle Awards.

Since 1991, BBB has represented 10 Stephen Sondheim musicals, and 3 Andrew Lloyd Webber shows on Broadway, as well as 6 shows by Tom Stoppard, including 2 Broadway premieres. Some other repeat authors include: Jez Butterworth (3), Noel Coward (5), John Kander (7), John Logan (4), Martin McDonagh (5), Arthur Miller (3), Marsha Norman (3), Harold Pinter (3), Yasmina Reza (3), Richard Rodgers (6), William Shakespeare (6), Tennessee Williams (5), and August Wilson (3). 

Perhaps most impressively, right now, someone in every Broadway theatrical press office at some time worked or apprenticed at BBB. BroadwayWorld is honored to share statements from just a few of them as they salute Chris and Adrian's incredible impact on the Broadway community.

Clint Bond Jr.:

As the saying goes, you never know what role someone will play in your life. I was an aspiring director running a theatre company with my college friends when fate intervened: I met Chris Boneau, who opened the door to an entire world I never knew existed. He asked me a question I still return to daily in my career: "How are you going to get people to come see your show?"

Working as a press agent at Boneau/Bryan-Brown was my first step toward answering that question, after I somehow convinced them to hire me. In two dizzyingly exhilarating years, I got to be part of an amazing group of people — some of whom became lifelong friends — opened over ten Broadway shows and national tours, hung out with a dog named Zippy, and survived a week with Robert Goulet. Chris's P.T. Barnum energy and intrepid willingness to try new things, paired with Adrian's thoughtful, passionate guidance, shaped who I am today. They taught me to always trust in the show we had, and to be honest and confident in what we were selling. No smoke. No mirrors. Let what the audience loves shine through.

Working for them was just the first chapter in a thirty-year relationship, and the best part has been the amazing friends and supporters they've always been to me, and to so many others. I am so grateful to have had someone who believed in me and gave me the chance of a lifetime in Chris, and to have had a mentor and guiding light in Adrian — always there, whether we were on a show together or not, to remind me to tell the truth, stay calm, and keep my sense of humor. To answer the question Adrian always asks, "What do we know?" — I can say this: Broadway is damn lucky to have had them.

Michelle Farabaugh:

When I decided, halfway through college, that I was going to follow my dream of moving to New York City and becoming a Broadway press agent, Boneau/Bryan-Brown was the only company on my radar. Looking back, I can’t say I’d recommend that mindset! It sent me down a high-risk, single-minded path toward an internship (which confirmed my gut instinct), a seasonal job (which confirmed I had a knack for this profession), and finally, after a long wait and many nervous nights, a full-time position at BBB.

I’m just one of many people in our industry whose careers began this way. Over my time at Boneau/Bryan-Brown, so many of my colleagues came in as interns, growing up with the company as I did or moving on to lead other agencies and clients. Chris and Adrian rightfully have an amazing reputation for creating a place where smart young people are welcomed and given the runway – with hard work and a little determination – to fly.

As someone who’s always appreciated the parallels between sports and theater, Chris and Adrian’s emphasis on teamwork is something I will carry forward into BBB’s next chapter as Aperture PR alongside my partner Heath. Under their guidance and leadership, I learned how it felt to be valued by my teammates, and I learned the importance of empowering them in return. I learned to take a seat at the table, to lead quietly, to speak confidently. No one puts on a show alone – and as it turns out, it’s far more fun that way.

Chris and Adrian are the only bosses I’ve ever had and the best bosses I’ve ever had. I will miss their endless stories and trivia from all decades of Broadway history, and office visits from their dogs. I won’t miss them checking in as supervisors to make sure Heath and I are doing okay, because I know they’ll continue doing that as friends. Their care and love for this industry is immense, and I celebrate everything they have achieved through a lifetime in the theater.

Amy Kass:

To say I’ve grown up at Boneau/Bryan-Brown is an understatement. Chris & Adrian gave me a job right out of college and I’ve been there ever since. BBB gave me a family in the middle of the big city and a sense of belonging when I walk around the theatre district. Like so many, I learned a lot from both of them about the industry and selling a show. But what they really demonstrated was how to be great bosses, exemplary leaders and kind people. In a small industry that has such a large footprint in NYC I’ve always felt lucky to have landed at BBB as a new college graduate. Some of my closest friends today are the result of sitting in the office at 1501 Broadway and sharing a common love of theatre. There was always another show that made the hard work and time away from family worth it, some exhilarating moment that reminded us all of why we love what we do. At a recent dinner with CB & ABB I was reminded that they too are just theatre fans with shows that have left huge impressions on their lives. 

Juliana Hannett:

I was 28 years old when Chris Boneau and Adrian Bryan-Brown hired me as a Press Assistant in 2001. At the time, I was trying desperately to find my way back to the theatre. I knew I wanted a career on Broadway. I just didn't know what it looked like until I came across the Boneau/Bryan-Brown job posting. I remember walking into the interview thinking, "This is what I do for a living. I just need someone to teach me how."

Thankfully, Chris and Adrian did.  

Over the next seven years, they taught me the craft of theatrical publicity, but more importantly, they taught me a philosophy that has guided my entire career: The Show Is The Star.

The Boneau/Bryan-Brown office was brilliant, chaotic, demanding, hilarious, and unlike any place I've worked before or since. It was where I found my professional home and the kind of friendships that outlast jobs, offices, and even careers.

Adrian and I always bonded over our shared attachment to nerd culture, but beyond that, his counsel, encouragement, and steady confidence in me became a constant I relied on throughout my career. Chris challenged me, trusted me, and pushed me. Leading my first Broadway campaign under his direction taught me not only how to do the job, but what kind of press agent I wanted to become. 

Over the years, their faith in me never stopped. Whether bringing me back to work on the once-in-a-career experience that was Oh, Hello on Broadway, hiring me as a freelancer, recommending me to clients, or celebrating milestones throughout my career, Chris and Adrian remained two of my biggest champions long after I left their office.

As BBB closes this remarkable chapter, I find myself thinking less about the hundreds of productions they represented and more about the people they lifted up along the way. I am one of the many careers they helped create, and that may be the most enduring legacy of all.

Michael Hartman:

Chris and Adrian were pioneers in the Broadway space, transforming the game and art of modern press agentry on Broadway.  I worked for two other press agents before landing my job as a senior press agent at BBB in 1996.  I learned a lot during my time with each, but always had my eye on BBB.  They had the lion’s share of the business on Broadway and were clearly doing something right — and disruptive.  

Ambition has always naturally pulsed in my system, in my blood.  I recognized it immediately in the ethos of their creation, from the level of their engagement and decency as humans to the game play as business owners.  They innovated and elevated the space for Broadway press agents and re-routed the tenets of the trade, turning the ship in a direction that remains the foundation for the way Broadway press offices operate and engage today.   

I love you both and owe you much.  Thank you for all you offered me by way of inspiration and instruction, personally and professionally.  We have been co-workers, competitors, confidants, comrades, and consultants to one another over the years.  That we maintained closeness and integrity reflects the high bar you set from the beginning. You’ve created careers and livelihood for countless young people who moved to New York City and dreamed of making a living in the theatre.  You’ve taught this trade alongside making clear the love and commitment you must have to work in this industry.  You are written into both its history and its future.  

Jessica Johnson:

In April 2003, I was new to New York and fortunate enough to learn about Boneau/Bryan-Brown just as they were searching for a new associate. I vividly remember meeting Chris and Adrian during my final interview and telling them that, while I had absolutely no Broadway or office experience, I was the right person for the job because I had thrived in other high-volume, high-pressure environments.  Namely, bartending in nightclubs! I’m surprised they didn’t laugh at me. Ah, the confidence of a recent graduate.

To their credit, they took a chance on me.

They gave me the opportunity to start on the ground floor, learn from the very best, and prove myself along the way. On my second day, I was working the red carpet at the opening of Gypsy (Bernadette Peters, of course). Two months later, they invited me to join them at the Tony Awards and sit inside Radio City Music Hall. Five months in, they promoted me. Again and again, they created opportunities for me.

My early career years at BBB were remarkable.  They gave me the chance to work on multi-play seasons and learn at an extraordinary pace. I had the privilege of working on dozens of high-profile projects alongside publicists at the very top of their profession. At BBB, I was taught the importance of building deep, respectful relationships—with producers, artists, and everyone working behind the scenes—but also with members of the press. That lesson has stayed with me throughout my career and is one that is sometimes overlooked.

One of the highlights of my time there was Adrian inviting me to work alongside him with The National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Those opportunities broadened my perspective and working with Adrian set a standard of excellence that has stayed with me throughout my career.

Throughout it all, Chris and Adrian took care of me, both professionally and personally. They believed in me, invested in my growth, and led with integrity and generosity. 

They are gentlemen first and among the finest PR minds our industry has known.

Chris and Adrian, thank you.  Your impact on my life is indelible, and you mean the world to me.

Patty Onagan:

I am profoundly grateful to Chris Boneau and Adrian Bryan-Brown for their extraordinary mentorship during my tenure with the agency from 1993 to 1999. Throughout the 90s, they provided me with truly career-defining opportunities. I am incredibly fortunate to have transitioned from serving my ATPAM apprenticeship under their expert guidance to actively launching Disney Theatrical Productions' historic world premiere musicals. Together, we worked to bring Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Aida, and King David to life, alongside the landmark reopening of the majestic New Amsterdam Theatre, and Nickelodeon and MSG’s festive production of A Christmas Carol.

Chris and Adrian showed immense confidence in my abilities early on, trusting me to lead high-stakes campaigns and to open the Boneau/Bryan-Brown West Coast office during our groundbreaking work on the Los Angeles and worldwide premieres of Beauty and the Beast. The leadership skills, uncompromising theatrical work ethic, and fierce dedication to clients that they instilled in me ultimately gave me the foundational toolkit and courage to open my own independent Southern California office. To this day, I almost always continue to approach public relations by doing things the "BBB way."

Even after my formal tenure with the agency concluded, I deeply cherished the continued opportunity to collaborate with them as a peer on high-profile out-of-town Broadway tryouts across Los Angeles and San Diego.

Alongside these incredible professional milestones, Chris and Adrian cultivated a remarkably fun, family-oriented environment that made the hard work a joy. From the camaraderie of our weekly meetings to the excitement of being a part of the iconic BBB "family" annual holiday cards, I will always hold these fond memories close to my heart.

Thank you both for everything, and for letting me be a lasting part of the Boneau/Bryan-Brown legacy.

Steven Padla:

Late Summer 1997: I was 21 years old, about to begin my senior year of college, and I wanted to work in show business. This guy I was in love with––a theater person––suggested I should be a Broadway publicist. I had no idea what that was.

I poured over the New York Times Fall Preview filled with glorious full-page ads for Side Show, Ragtime, The Lion King, and wait, what’s this? Down at the bottom in what I would soon learn is called the billing block for Triumph of Love: General Press Representative–Boneau/Bryan-Brown. I found a number and cold-called. I had no idea It was the biggest agency in town.

The first people I met were Nancy Rosenberg and Amy Jacobs, who interviewed prospective interns. I was assigned to Michael Hartman’s team and reported to Stephen Pitalo. I kept hearing about this brilliant woman named Jackie Green who was in L.A. I met Adrian Bryan-Brown not at the office but at a press event for The Scarlet Pimpernel. On vacation, Chris Boneau was a mystery: a face in the framed B/BB holiday cards next to the front desk.

I took night classes so I could spend my days at 150 West 46th Street. Glue-sticking captions to the back of black and white prints that would go to people called photo editors, proofreading bios that would be published in actual Playbills, picking up papers at Hotalings, black-tie opening nights. Everything felt magical and glamorous. As graduation approached, I wrote a letter to Chris and Adrian pitching myself for what had become my dream job. I don’t think I’d ever been prouder than the day they hired me: I’d found a career!

Some of my most cherished professional memories were made in a few precious years in their legendary office. Opening the original productions of Proof with Chris and Mamma Mia! with Adrian. Spending two years attached to the hip of Heather Headley. Cynthia Nixon telling me on the subway that her favorite musical was A Little Night Music and gifting me a copy of the album when I revealed that I didn’t know the show. Representing a play by Amy and David Sedaris about a very sweaty nun who made cheese balls. Working with Evan Yionoulis, who is my new boss at David Geffen School of Drama/Yale Repertory Theatre, where I have been since I left B/BB in the aftermath of 9/11.

Asterisk: one day in Fall 2006, my office phone rang. “Come back,” Adrian said. Chris added, “We think you’d be perfect for The Year of Magical Thinking.” I did and I was. I loved working with Joan Didion and Vanessa Redgrave but in the time that I’d been away media had changed, Broadway had changed, and I had changed. We didn’t fit together anymore. I returned to Yale.

Ancient history! And yet a day rarely goes by when I don’t think about Chris or Adrian. I was so lucky, and remain so grateful, for the trust they placed in a kid who walked in knowing absolutely nothing about what would become his life’s work. At 21, as I was desperately trying to figure out what to do with myself, I met two men at the very top of their game who loved their jobs so much. I didn’t know that was possible. I looked up to them and wanted to be like them. More than bosses and mentors, they were fathers to me.

Matt Polk: 

Chris Boneau and Adrian Bryan-Brown built something rare: a press agency that functioned not just as a business but as a home, a training ground, and a genuine force for good within an industry they loved deeply. In doing so, they gave of themselves — professionally and personally — in ways that left a significant impact on the entire theatrical community.

As press agents, both Chris and Adrian possessed an uncommon combination of strategic intelligence and human warmth. They understood that publicity is, at its core, about relationships — with journalists, with artists, with producers, and with audiences — and they cultivated those relationships with care and consistency over decades.  Their instinct for a story, and their ability to champion the work of others with authentic enthusiasm, set a standard that shaped how Broadway press has been practiced ever since.  Their ego was for their clients, never for themselves.

What distinguished Chris and Adrian beyond their craft was their generosity of spirit.  They invested in the people around them, mentoring younger press agents with patience and genuine interest in their growth.  They gave their time to the broader theatrical community, to educational institutions, and to charitable causes, often quietly and without fanfare.

In stepping back, they leave behind not only an extraordinary body of work but a culture — one defined by integrity, warmth, and an abiding love for the theater.

On a personal note, I will be forever grateful for everything they taught me — and for their friendship.

Matt Ross:

In 2005, Chris and Adrian took a chance on a 17 year old intern, and then an 18 year old press assistant. I don’t know what the greenest shade of green is, but that’s what I was. They gave me real responsibilities, great shows to work on, and incredible veteran press agents to learn from. We also laughed a LOT, and I can’t stress how important that is in a high-pressure field!

My education at the “University of Boneau/Bryan-Brown” shaped my professional skills, but also my taste. Alongside big new musicals from Disney and Kander & Ebb, I also got to work with Edward Albee and Tom Stoppard on new plays, to represent LAByrinth Theater in its heyday under Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Ortiz, and to work on Lisa Kron’s play Well when it opened on Broadway, which was formative for me and a huge influence on why and how I eventually produced What The Constitution Means To Me. That creative dichotomy is still the foundation of what I love about theatre, and the work I’m drawn to.

I’m just one of the seeds they planted across this field, to say nothing of the hundreds of shows and theatres they’ve championed across decades. I’ll forever be grateful to them for giving me a shot. It’s their turn to take a bow, they’ve more than earned it.

Heath Schwartz:

Growing up in small town Texas, the thought of working on Broadway and making a life in New York City felt entirely out of reach. Then, fresh out of college in 2004, two very special people took a chance on me – Chris Boneau and Adrian Bryan-Brown.

November 1st was my first day at BBB, and also the first rehearsal for a new musical called Good Vibrations, featuring songs from The Beach Boys' catalogue. Before I could even get my bearings in the office, I was whisked off to New 42 for the meet and greet, where I introduced myself – to an entire room full of people I'd never met – as a new member of the BBB team. I immediately felt welcome, at home and very honored. It was meant to be.

Since that day, I've gone on countless adventures and worked with some of the most extraordinary people I'd only ever dreamed of meeting (likely at a stage door, wide-eyed and Playbill in hand). I don't take lightly the opportunities I've been given, nor the trust placed in me to lead and contribute to campaigns for some of the most successful Broadway and off-Broadway productions of the last two decades. That trust and confidence came, naturally, from the two leaders of our company.

Chris and Adrian will forever be considered titans of this industry – each leaving their own indelible mark and creating the blueprint for the modern press agent. We all owe them a profound debt of gratitude. I still can't believe that I had a front row seat to their brilliance and was able to absorb every bit of knowledge and wisdom they shared. Grateful feels too simple a word.

Now I find myself holding the reins of this company, alongside my partner Michelle, as we carry it into its next chapter. It's bittersweet for the staff who adores them, but also such a well-deserved moment for Chris and Adrian to bask in their success and embrace their own next chapters. What they built is the stuff of legends, and they will be spoken of for many years to come.

I adore you both more than I could ever say – but for now I will say, simply, thank you and I love you.

Michael Strassheim:

When I was a 20-something actor looking for the right opportunity to pivot into a career in the arts that would offer me more stability but the same access to the immense creativity and inspiration of our theatrical community, my mentor suggested I explore PR. Her advice was simple: get an internship at Boneau/Bryan-Brown; they’re the best. She was right. And I did get that internship. And then I was fortunate enough to be hired and thrown directly into the nexus of our crazy, utterly fabulous industry. In the four-ish years I worked for Chris and Adrian, they proved that being the best in our business isn’t just about working the hardest (though that’s certainly part of it), it’s about people. You can hardly name a person in this business who hasn’t worked with one or both of them throughout the years, and we’re all the better for it. Their remarkable leadership spanning 35 years is the paragon of partnership - with each other, yes, but also with the industry as a whole. The scope of their excellence is that broad. I’m so proud to have been a part of that legacy, and thrilled for Heath, Michelle and the team to carry it forward with Aperture. 

Susanne Tighe:

Working with Chris and Adrian for nearly 40 years is impossible to summarize in a single paragraph. In that time, we’ve shared a lifetime of joys and sorrows and seen hundreds of shows come and go. We’ve gone from the dark ages of technology to a future we never could have imagined in the late 1980s with regards to how we communicate in the mid 2020s. The constant with them has always been their humanity, kindness, creativity, stamina, sense of humor and playfulness, their talent to always find the story and their skill to always be evolving. Through it all, BBB maintained a reputation as the “nice” office. Chris and Adrian set the tone for everyone who worked for them to treat people with respect. They ran an office that set the bar for theatre publicity. No wonder so many careers blossomed under their tutelage. In the theatre, you work as hard on the hits as you do on the shows that don’t survive. It’s the relationships you develop along the way that matter most of all.