Spotlight is ComingSoon’s interview series with below-the-line and/or up-and-coming talent in the world of television and film. Our aim is to shine a spotlight on the varied positions that make the entertainment you love possible rather than focusing purely on actors and directors.
ComingSoon’s Jeff Ames had the opportunity to speak with actor, singer, writer, and producer Erich Bergen about his company 6W Entertainment.
Bergen is best known as Blake Moran on the hit drama Madam Secretary, which ran for six seasons on CBS and currently streams on Netflix. He is also known for his critically acclaimed performance as Bob Gaudio in the film Jersey Boys, a role he previously played on stage in the Las Vegas and National Tour casts of the Tony Award-winning musical. On Broadway, recently Erich starred as Dr. Pomatter in the hit musical Waitress, and currently recurs on the CBS drama, BULL.
As a producer, Erich has produced over 100 projects for television, the internet, and in person, for his production company, 6W Entertainment. Since its creation in 2020, 6W has worked with the likes of President Barack Obama, Clive Davis, Michael Kors, John Legend, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Chance the Rapper, Bruce Springsteen, Bette Midler, and many, many more.
On March 23rd, Paramount Plus launched a new docuseries “Clive Davis: Most Iconic Performances”, with Erich Bergen as one of the Executive Producers of this iconic series. In this four-part docuseries, Clive Davis takes viewers through some of his favorite musical performances from the last few decades. This series also features exclusive interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart, Alicia Keys, and more. On April 6th, Erich also produced Clive Davis’s 90th Birthday Party, which was held at Casa Cipriani in New York City and had iconic performances and tributes from Dionne Warwick, Alicia Keys, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith and more.
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Jeff Ames: What led you to create 6W Entertainment?
Erich Bergen: It actually kind of created itself and I made the choice to just keep it going. In March of 2020, on the day it was announced that Broadway was shutting down due to COVID-19, I instantly thought of my community, the theatre community in NYC, and how hard that would be financially on those that work in the theatre. At that time we were only thinking that Broadway would be shut down for a month, but I knew that something had to be done to direct funds to The Actor’s Fund to help out those affected by the Broadway shutdown. My first thought was to call Rosie O’Donnell, who has always been such a champion for Broadway, and after a few texts back and forth, I thought of re-booting her classic talk show from the 90s for a one night fundraiser. I made a few calls to people I thought could help including Lori McCreary, who was the producer of Madam Secretary, the TV show I was on for a few years. S
he and her producing partner, Morgan Freeman (yes, that Morgan Freeman), had a relationship with YouTube, and connected me with the right people there. After speaking with them and getting their thoughts, I reached out to my friend Paul Wontorek, Editor-in-Chief of Broadway.com to see if we could do it on Broadway.com’s YouTube channel. He instantly said yes, and the two of us got to work on figuring out the technical mechanics, the creative direction and how it was all going to come together. With some string, a few sticks of gum, and a prayer, we made it happen, and it was a very impactful night for our community, and the very first of the celebrity-based virtual fundraising events that sprung up during the height of COVID.
The next day, there were hundreds of emails and voicemails and texts — all very complimentary, and many asking “how did you do it?” One of those calls was from my old friend Benj Pasek, writer of Dear Evan Hansen and The Greatest Showman, amongst many other things. He had an idea for a project that would bring a Passover seder to the virtual world. After a few minutes of talking, we were off to the races, and the Saturday Night Seder was born, and it ended up raising a few million for the CDC Foundation in one night.
After those two events in a row, the incoming calls and emails doubled, and all of a sudden I was being hired to produce fundraising events for everyone from UNICEF to Democratic House Candidates.
So I started to onboard a team of individuals I thought were smart, talented and fun to work with, and somewhat accidentally, 6W Entertainment was born. Here we are on the eve of our 2nd anniversary, and fundraising events are just a small portion of the things we produce. We’ve grown at an incredible pace.
Tell us about what of your favorite projects. Is there a favorite anecdote or behind-the-scenes story?
There are a million behind the scenes stories — most of which I’ll take to my grave because I’d like to continue to be employed. But I can tell you that one of my favorite stories was when we were doing Hold The House, a 4 part series of virtual fundraisers for Democratic House Candidates that was being led by Speaker Pelosi and John Legend. President Obama joined the event, which was live, and at one point, just before we went live, I realized the President wasn’t sitting in the best light in his home where he was Zooming from. I thought to myself “am I really going to tell the President right now that he needs to find better lighting? Like..am I going to be that guy?” I wasn’t so much nervous as I was unaware what the protocol was. But all of a sudden I realized, if I was him, I would want to be told if I was sitting in bad lighting, so I unmuted myself, gave him an adjustment, which he took, and that was it. I realized in that moment, no matter who you are working with, when you’re the Director, your job is to make everyone look good. So I did!
What has been the most challenging aspect of creating hybrid and virtual productions through 6W Entertainment and how did you overcome it?
That I had no clue what I was doing! I’m relatively smart and I like to think I have good ideas, but as Stephen Sondheim said, “Having just a vision’s no solution, everything depends on execution.” The how is so important, and I had little knowledge of the “how.” I was, however, smart enough to surround myself with people smarter than myself in that department, and I learned to not be afraid of asking those in the know-how something was done. I think the other challenging aspect that I’ve faced a lot of over the last 2 years is working with clients who feel “stuck” when their project had to pivot due to Covid.
A lot of our initial work came from non-profits who needed to convert their in-person events to virtual ones. A virtual event has limitations — all of which can be overcome by creative thinking — but you have to be willing to adapt and pivot and come up with other ways to reach your goals. Sometimes a client would be so stuck in their thinking because they had done their event a certain way for 20 or more years that they would look at me (on Zoom) like I was speaking another language — and to them, I was! It wasn’t their fault, they were being thrown a curveball out of nowhere and they were trusting me to not let their event crash to the ground. So to answer your question, the most challenging part for me was learning to communicate with clients who were living in fear, and getting them to trust me at least enough to get us across the finish line.
For Michael Kors, what was your favorite part of that production?
I’ve had the opportunity to work with Michael Kors a bunch of times over the past 2 years. I’ve produced the Golden Heart Awards for God’s Love We Deliver twice, first as a virtual event, and the second time as an in-person gala. Michael was the chair of both of those events, so we got to know each other working on those. In between those events, Michael wanted to do something special for his 40th Anniversary Fashion Show in the Spring of 2021, which would take place in the theatre district in New York City.
So I came up with a fun idea that would celebrate Broadway, a passion of Michael’s, and thankfully he loved it. He hired me to make a short film, and he used it as the opening piece to his fashion show. I’m so happy with the way it turned out. It was my first time directing an in-person crew! We got to make this little short film, complete with special effects and real cameras and lights and fog and all of it! A total dream come true for me. Michael is just so kind and lets me come up with creative ways to help him tell the stories he wants to tell, and nothing beats collaborating with people like that.
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Tell us more about your team. Who helps you accomplish all these impressive productions?
I want to scream their names from the mountaintops! Aimie Billion, Michael J. Moritz Jr, Adam Kulbersh, Blake Drummond, Garrett Kafchinski, Marc Johnston, Khaled Tabbara, Jeremy Leiner, Stephanie Silvera, Andrew Nielson, and Hannah Lyons. I refuse to say anymore about them because I don’t want them to be poached and taken from me, but just know that they are miracle workers. All of them.
Tell us more about your future plans with your company. What types of projects are you drawn to moving forward?
This year is very exciting because we’re continuing with the great work that we’ve been doing, including working with several non-profits across the entire year on content and marketing, and we’re getting into the scripted space. We’re developing a few projects for television, and some for the theatre — all of which is very exciting for someone like me who lives and breathes this stuff. I think I’m most drawn to projects that give me the opportunity to work with my friends. I’m lucky enough to have come up in a community of artists that are now being recognized as some of the best in their respective fields, and if I can work with them on creating something great, what could be better?
