Jake Bell: Behind the Curtain of Broadway's Biggest Hits

DOYLE is honored to present Property of Technical Production Manager Jake Bell as a featured section of the June 5, 2025 Stage & Screen auction. We recently had the pleasure of speaking with Jake, who reflected on his experiences bringing to life the behind-the-scenes magic of such legendary productions as Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, and Miss Saigon.

DOYLE: Jake, let’s begin at the beginning. What brought you to New York City—and ultimately to the helm of some of the most iconic productions in Broadway history?

Jake Bell: I arrived in New York in 1977, driving my pickup truck with a camper from Houston, Texas, where I worked in my first paid job as a tech person at Theater Under the Stars. I had graduated from Arkansas State University and a handful of acting credits—Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew, and even a summer stint as a train robber at Silver Dollar City in Missouri. What really paid the bills back then was carpentry—building houses during college—and as it turned out, those skills translated surprisingly well to backstage life.

DOYLE: You found your way into stage management rather quickly?

Jake: I did. My first Actor’s Equity contracts were with A Chorus Line, then Dreamgirls, Chess, and CATS. From there, I began focusing on technical production. This was the era of the mega-musical, and I had the extraordinary luck of working with directors like Michael Bennett, Trevor Nunn, Hal Prince, Joe Mantello, and Christopher Wheeldon, alongside visionary designers such as John Napier, Maria Bjornson, Bob Crowley, and Eugene Lee. My job was to make their grand ideas actually happen onstage—no small feat in shows of that scale.

DOYLE: You were also closely involved with Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables and Miss Saigon—three of the most ambitious productions of their time.

Jake: Yes, all three were landmarks. In the 1980s, Cameron Mackintosh brought me on to lead technical production for his repertoire of shows, including Les Mis, Miss Saigon, Phantom, and others. Les Misérables was unlike anything audiences had seen—entirely sung-through, intensely emotional, and technically complex. The Broadway production, directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird, required precise synchronization of moving barricades, rotating stages, and moody, atmospheric lighting.

Miss Saigon was another level entirely. At one point, I was overseeing 190 tractor-trailers full of equipment for Cameron Mackintosh shows as multiple companies toured the U.S. simultaneously. Forbes once referred to me Cameron’s “General Patton,” and, well, that’s not entirely inaccurate. We were dealing with helicopter malfunctions—on stage—snowstorms, even earthquakes. It was technical theater on a military scale.

DOYLE: One of the standout pieces in this auction is your Phantom of the Opera stage-worn mask. Can you tell us about it?

Jake: That mask means a great deal to me. It was given to me when Phantom closed on Broadway in 2023 after 13,981 performances. I’d been with the show since 1988. The split mask—designed by Maria Bjornson and made iconic by Hal Prince’s vision—symbolized the Phantom’s duality: beauty and horror, light and shadow. We reengineered the Majestic Theatre just to make it all work. We dug ten feet into the basement to install trap doors and mechanisms for 212 candelabras. The chandelier, affectionately named “Ruthie II,” hung above the audience and never once had to be replaced in 35 years. It was lovingly maintained—rewired, repainted, and restored countless times. It was a show of challenges and rewards, honestly.

DOYLE: And you’ve also included items from Les Misérables in this auction.

Jake: Yes—some great pieces: an officer’s hat, a Shillelagh cane, a wooden bucket from the set, and my own production script. Les Mis was a beautiful project to run. We had to get the resonance just right, while managing turntables, trap doors, rain effects—it was all live and all precise. That script is marked with descriptions of problem-solving and innovation.

DOYLE: Looking back, how does it feel to have been part of three productions that, at different times, each held the record for the longest-running Broadway show?

Jake: I sometimes joke that I just got lucky with my timing—but the truth is, I was privileged to work with extraordinary people on extraordinary productions. A Chorus Line, CATS, and Phantom each redefined what Broadway could be. It was demanding, intense, often exhausting—but always deeply rewarding.

DOYLE: For someone considering these pieces in the auction, what would you hope they take away from owning them?

Jake: I hope they sense the passion behind them—the artistry and the sheer amount of creativity that went into making those shows. These weren’t just productions—they were landmark moments in the Broadway Theater. If you’re holding that Phantom mask or flipping through the Miss Saigon script, you’re not just buying memorabilia. You’re touching history. And I’m proud to have been part of building it.

Stage & Screen

Auction Thursday, June 5, 2025 at 11am
Exhibition May 31 - June 2

A special section of the Stage & Screen auction is devoted to Property of Technical Production Manager Jake Bell (Lots 520-537).
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