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You may be familiar with "Fleabag" or "Baby Reindeer," two shows that became cultural phenomena. But before either of them made it to the screen, they were small theater productions at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. And behind both is a producer you've probably never heard of. Rebecca Rosman went to Scotland to find out what potential this producer can spot before anyone else does.
REBECCA ROSMAN, BYLINE: At the Edinburgh Fringe, you can see thousands of shows. And then there's this one.
DAMIEN WARREN-SMITH: (As Garry Starr) Literature.
(LAUGHTER)
ROSMAN: Damien Warren-Smith performs as Garry Starr, who is naked, save for a pair of penguin flippers, a tuxedo coat and a black top hat. Over the next hour, he reenacts a string of Penguin Classics, say, "Wuthering Heights."
WARREN-SMITH: (As Garry Starr) You're Margot Robbie.
(LAUGHTER)
WARREN-SMITH: (As Garry Starr) And I'll be Jacob Elordi.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ROSMAN: It is, in a word, ridiculous. Thirty-eight-year-old Francesca Moody saw it at the Fringe a couple of years ago and loved it enough to sign on as a producer. Moody is also the producer who helped bring "Fleabag" to the Fringe in 2013 and "Baby Reindeer" in 2019. Those shows eventually became global television hits, and they gave Moody a reputation for being the producer with that magic touch to spot things early. But ask her how she decides what to produce, and she doesn't want to talk much about strategy or numbers.
FRANCESCA MOODY: I think, ultimately, it's all about my personal taste because I'm a producer who's really led by their gut.
ROSMAN: In fact, Moody says trying to predict what will be a commercial success can ruin the exact thing she's looking for.
MOODY: As soon as I deviate from that, and I pick something because I think it's going to be super commercial and go straight to the West End, all because it's going to be adapted into the next TV series, it just won't be as good.
ROSMAN: Take "Fleabag." When Moody first got involved, Phoebe Waller-Bridge hadn't written much of a script.
It was really one page?
MOODY: Yeah, it was really one page. It was really one page, and we really didn't know what it was yet at all.
ROSMAN: But she thought it was funny and rich, so she reserved a venue in Edinburgh. You know the rest.
MOODY: You know, you get that fizzy feeling when you read something that you think is really exciting, and it doesn't really matter that it's not all there yet.
ROSMAN: This year, another artist Moody is betting on is Australian writer and performer Hannah Reilly. Her one-woman show "ROLEPLAY" is about feminism, sex and the personas we build online. Reilly says from the get-go, she could tell Moody was interested in making the same kind of work she was.
HANNAH REILLY: Which is something that really exists in the gray that is messy and naughty and provocative and that isn't a clean, tidy story.
ROSMAN: But these days, Moody's shows also come with expectations outside the theater. India Scarlet Kolb says she bought a ticket to "ROLEPLAY" because it had Moody's name on it.
INDIA SCARLET KOLB: I wanted to kind of see what the next hit of the Fringe would be.
ROSMAN: And that's the paradox. Moody's reputation for finding the next big thing can make people expect exactly that. But not every Moody production becomes a hit. A 2023 satire musical about ex-Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was a commercial and critical flop. But that uncertainty is part of what the Fringe is for, Moody says.
MOODY: The Fringe is this place for messy, complicated, unfinished, scrappy stuff 'cause it's those bits that you'll find the magic in.
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing) You had a temper like my jealousy.
ROSMAN: Which brings us back to Garry Starr. Damien Warren-Smith's show heads to New York this fall, but he says he never created it with a message or TV adaptation in mind.
WARREN-SMITH: It's completely nonpolitical. It is pure escapism.
ROSMAN: Maybe that's what Moody is really betting on - not the next "Fleabag," just something strange enough and true enough to be worth the risk.
(CHEERING)
ROSMAN: Rebecca Rosman, NPR News, Edinburgh.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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