Samuel French, Inc.

What Samuel French, Inc. does

Samuel French, Inc. is a historic theatrical publishing and licensing house founded in 1830 that now operates as a legacy imprint and collection brand under Concord Theatricals. Its core business is the licensing of performance rights and the publishing and sale of play scripts, musical scripts, and concert materials to professional theatres, educational institutions (K-12 and university), and concert performers across North America and the United Kingdom. The Samuel French imprint notably carries the Lorraine Hansberry Collection (including A Raisin in the Sun) and sits within a broader Concord Theatricals portfolio that also represents the Rodgers & Hammerstein, Tams-Witmark, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Dramatists Play Service, and Playscripts collections.

The company monetizes through a transactional licensing and script-sales model: professional and amateur producers purchase performance rights per production (typically tied to ticket revenue, run length, or house size for professional venues) and buy printed or digital scripts from the Concord Theatricals e-commerce storefront. Adjacent revenue streams under the parent include music publishing for theatrical composers/lyricists and cast recordings distributed via Concord Theatricals Recordings. The customer-facing platform bundles licensing, script purchase, music publishing administration, and recordings into a single digital storefront, supported by owned-media channels (Breaking Character blog, The Scene Substack, mailing list).

Headquartered at 250 W. 57th Street in New York (the Concord Theatricals head office), the company employs 101-250 people. There are no disclosed AI/ML, proprietary technology, or patent assets in the input data; the technology surface is a standard e-commerce and rights-management platform. Pricing details and revenue figures are not publicly disclosed.

Name

Samuel French, Inc.

Legal name

Samuel French, Inc.

Website

https://samuelfrench.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1830

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Samuel French is a 1830-founded theatrical licensing and script publishing house, now operating as an imprint under Concord Theatricals, serving professional theatres, educational institutions, and concert performers with performance rights and play scripts.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Theatrical Licensing & Publishing

NAICS

Music Publishers (51223), Book Publishers (513130)

SIC

Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731)

akta.pro primary industry

Publishing Administration (Catalog Admin, Global Subpublishing) (MPAIABAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Global Rights Representation & Sub-Publishing/Reciprocal Collection Services (MPAIAKAI), Music Rights Administration & Royalty Processing (Admin, Accounting, Statements) (MPAIAKAD)

Keywords

• Theatrical licensing
• Play publishing
• Musical publishing
• Performance rights
• Cast recordings

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Others

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Samuel French, Inc. is a historic theatrical publishing house (founded 1830) that now operates as a branded collection/imprint under Concord Theatricals. It licenses theatrical performance rights and publishes play scripts and musical theatre catalogs—including the Lorraine Hansberry Collection, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Tams-Witmark, and Andrew Lloyd Webber collections—alongside broader Concord Theatricals services such as music publishing, cast recordings, and youth/teen editions for educational use.

Product overview

Samuel French, Inc. operates as an imprint and collection brand under Concord Theatricals, a comprehensive theatrical licensing platform. The offering consists of multiple branded collections (The Lorraine Hansberry Collection, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Tams-Witmark, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Richard Greenberg via Dramatists Play Service, and Playscripts) alongside broader Concord Theatricals services including theatrical licensing, music publishing, and cast recordings. Samuel French itself functions as a legacy publishing imprint for plays, now integrated into Concord's unified platform for licensing, purchasing scripts, and accessing recordings.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• The Lorraine Hansberry Collection (Samuel French)

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Music Theatre International: The largest theatrical licensing company in the US, licensing musicals to schools and professional theaters. Closest direct competitor to Samuel French/Concord Theatricals with overlapping catalogs and similar customer segments.
• Hal Leonard Corporation: Major script, sheet music, and educational theater publisher serving schools, churches, and community theaters. Comparable in serving the educational theater licensing segment with a broad script and music catalog.
• Broadway Licensing Global: Theatrical licensing house representing contemporary and classic plays and musicals for professional and amateur productions. Directly competes with Samuel French/Concord in licensing modern and classic theatrical titles.
• Josef Weinberger: UK-based theatrical publisher and licensing agent representing plays and musicals across European and international markets. Comparable in theatrical licensing focus, with stronger international (non-US) reach.
• Pioneer Drama Service: Theatrical publisher specializing in plays and musicals for educational and community theater markets. Comparable in its focus on school and amateur licensing with a script publishing model.
• Dramatists Play Service: Theatrical licensing agency for playwrights, representing contemporary play scripts for production. Now operating as a sibling imprint under Concord Theatricals, but historically a direct competitor to Samuel French in script licensing.

Broad incumbents

• Warner Chappell Music: One of the world's largest music publishers, representing songwriters across genres including theatrical and film. Overlaps with Samuel French in theatrical music publishing rights administration at greater scale.
• Universal Music Publishing Group: Global music publishing division representing major theatrical and commercial songwriters. Comparable as a music rights administrator at significantly larger scale than Samuel French's publishing arm.

Others

• Concord Music Publishing: Sibling entity under the Concord umbrella, handling broader music publishing rights. Related as a sister division within the parent organization, sharing back-office and rights infrastructure.
• Really Useful Group: Andrew Lloyd Webber's theatrical producing and licensing company, representing his musicals (Phantom, Cats, Evita, etc.). Comparable in its theatrical IP ownership and licensing role, and connected to Samuel French's licensing of the Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat2 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@concordtheatricals
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/samuel-french
• Xx.com/samuelfrenchnyc
• Facebookfacebook.com/samuelfrenchinc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Samuel French, Inc.