Funny Girl
CLIENT
Situation Interactive
TECHNOLOGIES
WordPress, PHP, JavaScript, SeatGeek API, Gravity Forms
YEAR
2023
EXTERNAL URL
The first Broadway revival of Funny Girl in nearly 60 years — and the production that tested every assumption about how flexible a site’s content architecture actually needs to be. Three lead actresses in 18 months, a full $16.5 million recoupment, SeatGeek-powered ticketing, and a national tour across 30+ cities, all running on the same WordPress platform without a rebuild.
Delivered as development lead at Situation Interactive.
Background
The cast transition that changed everything — and a platform that had to absorb it overnight.
Funny Girl returned to Broadway in April 2022 at the August Wilson Theatre — the first revival since Barbra Streisand originated the role of Fanny Brice in 1964. Michael Mayer directed, Harvey Fierstein revised the book, and the production opened with Beanie Feldstein leading opposite Ramin Karimloo, Jane Lynch, and Jared Grimes. Anticipation was enormous, capitalization sat at $16.5 million, and public scrutiny arrived immediately. Then Feldstein departed in July 2022 and Lea Michele stepped into the role that September. Overnight, Funny Girl became the most talked-about show on Broadway. Ticket demand surged, press coverage exploded, and the site had to absorb all of it — new cast content, updated creative assets, restructured promotional hierarchies — without missing a beat. No other production I built required this kind of real-time content velocity.
The production recouped its full $16.5 million, closed after 599 performances on September 3, 2023, and launched a national tour the following week.
Implementation
Custom WordPress theme with SeatGeek ticketing integration, tour infrastructure, and a content layer built for rapid cast and production changes.
The SeatGeek-powered ticketing calendar represented the most mature version of the ticketing infrastructure I had been refining since Dear Evan Hansen — date selection, availability states, and direct purchase routing, all rendering the full schedule at the August Wilson Theatre. But what distinguished this build was the content architecture’s resilience under pressure. Structured custom fields for cast and creative profiles let the marketing team swap headshots, bios, and role assignments without developer involvement. When Feldstein left and Michele arrived, the transition on the site was seamless — new hero imagery, updated bios, restructured promotional content, all handled through the CMS within hours.
Tour infrastructure extended the platform after Broadway closing: a city-by-city schedule spanning 30+ venues, venue-specific ticketing through SeatGeek’s affiliate system, and a dedicated tour section with its own navigation and key art featuring Katerina McCrimmon and the touring cast. Geographic segmentation on newsletter signups fed audience data back for targeted tour-city campaigns. Cloudflare caching and Google Tag Manager instrumentation completed the stack.
The cast transition was the real stress test. A content architecture built for stability proved it could handle the most public lead-actress swap in recent Broadway history without any structural changes.
Results
Full recoupment, 599 performances, box office records, and a platform that carried the production from Broadway to a national tour.
Under Lea Michele, the production set box office records at the August Wilson — including a $2.4 million single-week gross during the 2022 holiday season. The cast recording topped the Billboard Cast Albums Chart. Across 599 performances, the show recouped its full $16.5 million capitalization. The tour launched the week after Broadway closing, with Katerina McCrimmon leading the national company across 30+ cities from Providence through Houston and beyond. The marketing team managed every phase independently: cast swaps, tour city rollouts, promotional refreshes, awards content — all through the CMS. The site at funnygirlonbroadway.com continues to serve the touring production.
No other project in the portfolio tested a platform’s flexibility the way Funny Girl did. The ticketing infrastructure matured through Dear Evan Hansen and the 2022 plays; the tour system evolved alongside Some Like It Hot. But only Funny Girl demanded all of it at once — cast volatility, format transition, and multi-city scale — on a timeline measured in hours, not weeks.
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