Most entertainment careers run through Los Angeles or New York. Sir Michael Fomkin built his from Tampa, on a single premise: that the industry's front door is hard to find from outside. In September 2025, Abundance Studios made him an executive producer.
Miami News
From James Brown in 1965 to Lil Wayne in 2008, one address in North Miami and one name from New York account for an implausible share of the American songbook. A documentary in development — executive produced by Sir Michael Fomkin and VIP Ignite Live with Abundance Studios — sets out to tell how.
Eric Clapton came to Criteria in 1970 to make a quiet record under a name nobody knew. Then he went to a benefit show on August 26, Duane Allman saw him in the crowd and stopped playing mid-solo, and the two of them went back to the studio until sunrise.
He had been gone five years and was not sure anyone still wanted him. So John Lennon booked The Hit Factory under his accountant's name, hired a band that wasn't told whose record it was, and made Double Fantasy in secret on West 48th Street.
In 1974 the Bee Gees were finished. Then Robert Stigwood sent them to a rented house in Golden Beach and a studio on 149th Street — and a bad road surface on the Julia Tuttle Causeway gave them a rhythm. How Criteria Studios rebuilt the biggest band of 1978.
It started in 1969 as one room rented by a New York songwriter. Half a century later the name sat on a building in North Miami where Layla, Hotel California and the Bee Gees' 1978 were made. The history of The Hit Factory — and of Criteria, the studio it bought.
There are Broadway shows you admire, shows you enjoy — and rare productions that remind you why people gather in darkened theaters at all. At the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, The Outsiders is one of those. Sir Michael Fomkin's verdict: 10/10.
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