Key Work and Accomplishments

Our productions have grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide and have involved world-class talent along with leading media and marketing partners.

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  • Producing the highly anticipated feature film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s and Quiara Hudes’ Tony Award-winning musical, In The Heights for Warner Bros.  The film, with a screenplay by Hudes, is directed by Jon Chu (Crazy Rich Asians).

  • Lead producer of Tootsie which made its world premiere in the fall of 2018 at Chicago’s Cadillac Palace Theatre before its planned opening on Broadway in the spring of 2019 at the Marquis Theatre.  Tootsie features an original score by Tony Award winner David Yazbek (The Band’s Visit, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), a book by Robert Horn (13; Dame Edna, Back with a Vengeance), choreography by Tony Award nominee Denis Jones (Holiday Inn, Honeymoon in Vegas), and musical direction by Andrea Grody (The Band’s Visit). Tootsie will be directed by seven-time Tony Award nominee and Olivier Award winner Scott Ellis (She Loves Me, On the Twentieth Century). 

  • Lead producer of Broadway’s 2016 Tony Award-winning hit revival of The Color Purple, which opened at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre in December 2015. The production also took home the 2017 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. The Color Purple starred breakout British sensation Cynthia Erivo ; Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy winner Jennifer Hudson; and Orange is the New Black’s  Danielle Brooks–all making their Broadway debuts.  Cynthia Erivo took home a 2016 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. This critically acclaimed production first opened at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory in 2013. The Color Purple will begin a national tour across the United States in October 2017.

  • Lead produced After Midnight, the winner of the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Astaire Awards for Best Choreography, which opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in November 2013. Director/choreographer Warren Carlyle and superstar fashion duo Isabel and Ruben Toledo joined nine-time Grammy Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Wynton Marsalis and The Jazz at Lincoln Center All-Stars to bring the lavish shows of The Cotton Club to a new generation of theatergoers.

  • Sanders partnered with Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2012 to develop & produce stage adaptations of the studio’s films and to serve as a theatrical consultant.

  • Co-lead-produced Evita, which opened in April 2012 at the Marquis Theater. It featured Olivier Award winner Elena Roger in the title role, international superstar Ricky Martin and Tony winner Michael Cerveris. The first Broadway revival of Evita in thirty years, it was nominated for three Tony Awards. It also launched a successful national tour, concluding at The Kennedy Center.

  • Produced The Odd Life of Timothy Green, a 2012 Walt Disney film, written and directed by Academy Award nominee Peter Hedges (Dan in Real Life, About a Boy) and starring Jennifer Garner, Joel Edgerton and CJ Adams.

  • Lead produced The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway in 2010 at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. Directed by Tony nominee Alex Timbers, it featured the one-and-only Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens), the music of Jay Cotton and the renowned puppetry of Basil Twist. The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway was broadcast on HBO shortly after the conclusion of its smash-hit, limited Broadway engagement.

  • In 2005, originated, developed and lead-produced The Color Purple along with Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones and others, which turned a profit within twelve months and launched a second company for a multi-year national tour. The Broadway production earned eleven Tony Award nominations.

  • Orchestrated the turnaround of Radio City Musical Hall from a financially troubled theater in 1979 to the most successful, vibrant and innovative venue in America.

  • Produced both the touring and Broadway production of Elaine Stritch: At Liberty, which won the 2002 Tony Award, and the HBO special of the same name, which garnered two Emmy Awards, including one for Sanders for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special.

  • Collaborated with Queen Latifah in a groundbreaking music partnership to record and produce her first vocal album, The Dana Owens Album, which is approaching platinum sales status and received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album.

  • Developed and produced the popular WB TV series “Young Americans,” written and created by Steve Antin, which discovered and launched the careers of Kate Bosworth, Ian Somerhalder, Katherine Moenning and Michelle Monaghan.

  • Brought American Idol winner Fantasia to Broadway for the first time and announced it to 32 million people on national television.