Pretty Woman
CLIENT
Situation Interactive
TECHNOLOGIES
WordPress, PHP, JavaScript, SASS, Gravity Forms
YEAR
2018
EXTERNAL URL
The only Broadway build in my portfolio architected as a WordPress Multisite — the Broadway production and national tour ran as separate network sites sharing a common theme, plugin set, and content infrastructure. This multisite approach gave each production editorial independence while eliminating duplicated code, and the architecture eventually supported international productions in Hamburg, London, Brazil, and the Netherlands.
My build at Situation Interactive.
Background
From a Chicago tryout to a global franchise — this production’s trajectory demanded an architecture none of my other Broadway builds had attempted.
Pretty Woman: The Musical — based on the iconic 1990 romantic comedy — arrived on stage with music and lyrics by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance, a book by Garry Marshall and J.F. Lawton, and direction and choreography by Jerry Mitchell. The production featured scenic design by David Rockwell, costumes by Gregg Barnes, lighting by Kenneth Posner and Philip S. Rosenberg, and sound design by John Shivers. After a world premiere at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago in March 2018, the show transferred to the Nederlander Theatre on Broadway with Samantha Barks making her Broadway debut as Vivian Ward opposite Andy Karl as Edward Lewis, joined by Orfeh as Kit De Luca, Jason Danieley as Philip Stuckey, and Eric Anderson as Mr. Thompson. From the start, the production team signaled that this would expand internationally — so unlike Dear Evan Hansen or The Band’s Visit, where I built single-site platforms and extended them later, Pretty Woman needed multi-production architecture from day one.
I built this from scratch at Situation Interactive, knowing the platform would need to serve productions across multiple countries, languages, and ticketing systems.
Implementation
A WordPress multisite platform connecting Broadway and tour as separate but unified production sites.
WordPress Multisite was the distinguishing architectural decision. The Broadway production and national tour ran as separate network sites sharing a common theme and plugin set, giving each production its own editorial space — distinct cast pages, venue information, and ticketing endpoints — while eliminating duplicated code. The Broadway site at prettywomanthemusical.com served as the primary hub; the tour operated on its own subdomain with city-by-city scheduling and local ticketing links. The ticketing calendar drove conversions on both sites — on Broadway, it displayed the full weekly schedule at the 1,232-seat Nederlander; on tour, it scaled across dozens of cities with their respective local ticketing partners. Cast and creative sections used custom post types with Advanced Custom Fields, so the production team could swap performers, update headshots, and manage bios as the company evolved. Gravity Forms handled newsletter signup and group sales inquiries across both network sites. The frontend translated the show’s signature red-and-black visual identity into responsive layouts built in SASS with mobile-first breakpoints.
Multisite was the right call — it kept Broadway and tour connected at the infrastructure level while giving each production the editorial independence to operate on its own schedule. None of my other Broadway builds needed this pattern, which is what made Pretty Woman architecturally distinct.
Results
$51 million at the Broadway box office, 420 performances, three Audience Choice Awards, and a platform that scaled from Chicago to a global franchise.
The platform launched ahead of the Chicago tryout in March 2018 and carried the production through 27 previews and 420 performances at the Nederlander Theatre, grossing over $51.1 million at 86% average capacity. The show broke the Nederlander’s house record twice in its opening weeks, peaking at $1,266,873 in a single week. Andy Karl won the Audience Choice Award for Favorite Leading Actor, and Orfeh took both Favorite Featured Actress and Favorite Diva Performance. The multisite architecture proved its value when the North American tour launched in October 2021, scaling to over 50 cities across the U.S. and Canada. Beyond North America, the production opened in Hamburg, London’s West End (Savoy Theatre), Brazil, the Netherlands, and a UK and Ireland tour — becoming a genuine global theatrical franchise built on the infrastructure I designed for a single Broadway opening.
Pretty Woman is the project that validated the multisite approach — a platform designed for two productions ended up serving a global franchise across years and continents.
