Welcome to PLAYBILLDER Spotlight, where Playbill highlights shows from educational institutions or regional theatres and special events around the country (who have used Playbill's program-building service). By welcoming these PLAYBILLDERs center stage, we hope to give our readers a more in-depth look at theatre programs that are fostering the love of the performing arts in the next generation and the way theatre lovers are bringing Playbill along for life's big moments.
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This week's spotlight is Audrey Le and Jeremy Wein's spectacular wedding. The couple, who met at San Diego Comic Con and wanted to showcase their "nerddom," used PLAYBILLDER to create the program for their June ceremony in California. Within their Playbill, Le, Wein, and their loved ones were able to use their bios to share beloved memories from their relationship and well wishes, credit everyone who came together to make their celebration authentically theirs, and hint at an extraordinary surprise.
Wein, a 2024 Drama Desk Award-winning producer (whose credits include Gutenberg! The Musical! and How to Dance in Ohio), shares with Playbill what shows he's drawn to producing and the magical moment of the wedding that still has their guests talking.
Tell us a little bit about your love story? How long have you two been together? How'd you meet?
Jeremy Wein: It'll be six years in July. We met at San Diego Comic-Con. It was a "we're just hanging out" sort of thing. She was like, "Hey, I'm in New York next month." She lives in California. I live in New York. We hung out, and that kind of went on for about a year. And then we went to Comic-Con together the next year. She took me to the airport. It was very casual. And I thought, "What if we're the people for each other?" That [question] started a five year long-distance relationship, and then it became an engagement. It's crazy. It's been two weeks already, now we're married!
What were what were some of the most challenging aspects of wedding planning? What were some of the most rewarding?
In the six months leading up to the wedding, I actually had, professionally, the busiest time I've ever had. I was a co-producer on Gutenberg! The Musical! I was the Associate Producer and a member of the access team for How to Dance in Ohio. I also lead produced a new play in Los Angeles called Brushstroke, a new play by actor-writer John Ross Bowie (who was on The Big Bang Theory), and I'm currently a co-producer on The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers. So that was all happening while I was theoretically supposed to be helping put the wedding together. A lot of that [planning] really fell to my very patient wife.
The rewarding part was seeing all the little details come together. Because we met at Comic-Con, we decided to kind of have a "Comic Con-inspired" wedding that reflected our passions and our "nerddom." It's been really nice hearing the feedback from people about the little details and what they felt set our wedding apart from other weddings.
What were some personal touches that really stood out to your guests?
We had flower centerpieces, but each table had a different icon: Mario on a Mario Kart, Yoda's head, Bob from Bob's Burgers. We were trying to find the balance of classy and nerdy without it [looking like a ] children's birthday party. It's a testament to my wife, who is not in the arts, but I think secretly would like to be an artist. Because we met at Comic-Con, we decided that all the name plates at the tables were going to be designed to look like the badges you would get at San Diego Comic Con. Our cake toppers [were] Funko Pop! Vinyl Figurines that looked like us. Our guest book [looked like] the Millennium Falcon. We worked our theme through the wedding without it becoming chaotic and crazy looking. We also encourage our guests to dress "nerd chic." Someone came dressed as Halle Berry [as] Storm [from X-Men] in a really elegant way. We had like several people dressed as Loki. It was fun. We just [felt] like we were two nerds in love, and we really wanted that to kind of reflect through our wedding. But then my wife also is, you know, a romantic, so she just wanted to make sure that the beauty and the romance wasn't lost either.
The big, big thing was we managed to have R2D2 as our ring bearer. You would be surprised, in Southern California, how hard it is to find someone that has one that actually operates. We found a couple of people that were like, "I have models, [but they] don't do anything." It wasn't until a week and a half before that [we learned] a friend had a friend who had a friend that had a wedding and was able to [have an operational R2D2 at the wedding]. And the [operator and R2D2] came, and he was great. We're two weeks out from the wedding, and people still talk about it.
How is theatre part of your life as couple?
Theatre is obviously a big part of my life. It's the field that I've chosen to fight to make a viable living. I see about 100 shows a year. I go all over the country to see theater. Theatre doesn't just live on Broadway. It lives in the smallest communities of our country. You hear that theatre is supposedly the great equalizer. You can go see a musical on Broadway and you can also go see a play in community rec room in the middle of Missouri. It's an opportunity for people both to escape and also potentially see themselves within and reflected in storytelling.
My wife is not an artist. She's in the medical field, but she is someone who enjoys the arts. She obviously does not see 100 shows a year. I feel like half the time, she goes and sees things with me because she knows I want to see it, and she wants to spend the time with me. Theatre in our relationship is a way that we connect and bond. I get to share with her the artists that I love and the writers that I love. You know, if she didn't like theatre, or she wasn't at least willing to put up with it, [that would be a] deal breaker!
How did PLAYBILLDER become part of your wedding ceremony?
I knew we were going to have programs at the wedding. I remembered when [theatre owner and producer] Jordan Roth got married years ago at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, I remember seeing that his program was a Playbill. And I just was like, "Oh, you know, I'd really love to do that for our wedding." Especially with everything that's happened in the last six months, why wouldn't [our wedding program] be a Playbill? Why wouldn't our wedding have the opportunity to have a "Today's 'Bill" on Instagram?
What your and your wife's reactions to seeing your wedding Playbill for the first time?
We loved it. I loved it. I mean, what a dream. You know, I can't imagine what else [our wedding program] would have been because in my head, what else would we have done if not a Playbill? What I really love about it is it's something that people are more likely to hang on to. It's something that we can frame. It set our wedding apart. It was a great opportunity to give our [bridal party] an opportunity to share memories of us or how they met us. I also love the cover. I think the cover is so beautiful. It's one of our engagement photos which, again, we had our engagement at Disney, because we're nerds.
Out of genuine curiosity, you must have hundreds, if not thousands, of Playbills. What is your personal collection like? How do you store your personal Playbills?
I keep my Playbills. I have Playbills from almost every show I've seen over the last 15 years. First of all, it's a tangible memory. Second of all, to a degree, it's art, right? These are things that you can display. These are things that you can keep. The other thing is you never know how much value these things are going to have for someone else. It's tracking history. It's archiving. It's a personal thing. I could definitely be better about storing these. A lot of them are in gallon Ziplock bags that are labeled.
What kind of shows are you drawn to [producing] and what is your producing philosophy?
I think there's a lot of people that are getting lost in the money of it all, and it's starting to cause this issue of art versus commerce. I think a lot of people really need to try to reset back to the art first. You're seeing a lot of these big shows that are not connecting to a lot of people.
Personally, what I'm really drawn to right now are smaller shows that have unique voices. I feel like there's this trend of these really big spectacle shows. We're finding ourselves back in the '80s where it seems like there's this battle for the chandelier, the helicopter, the whatever. And that's no offense to any show that's playing right now. It's just interesting to look at how the spectacle comes first, in terms of the storytelling.
My hope will be to see younger writers produced on Broadway. I love Branden Jacobs-Jenkins [Tony winner of Appropriate]. There are a lot of wonderful writers that are doing amazing work that are not [produced] on Broadway. What audiences want at the end of the day is good, compelling, exciting writing.
There's a lot of gems who are sitting right in front of people's faces. It would be nice if the money was put behind them. Jocelyn Bioh getting produced [on Broadway]. That changes her career for the rest of her life. She's one of the sweetest people I've ever met in my life. Now [Jaja's African Hair Braiding] is going to tour and people are going to see themselves and their culture represented in communities [where] they live in the middle of the country. Maybe they don't see themselves reflected in the day-to-day. That's ultimately the most important thing about the Broadway platform.
What is something that you are really looking forward to doing now that you and Audrey are a married couple?
We don't have it planned yet. But we want to do our honeymoon in China. There's two Disney parks in China. She was like, Well, you know, "If we go to China, we can knock out two of them." And I was like, Alright, sure. Why not? Looking forward to that. But obviously, you know, spending more time together.
To design Broadway-quality programs for your next show or special event, head to PLAYBILLDER.com. Who knows, you might just be featured in our next PLAYBILLDER Spotlight! And if you are looking for a beautiful way to display your Playbills, click here to purchase Playbill frames.
