All stories by Bruce Weber on BroadwayStars

Monday, September 29, 2014

Sheldon Patinkin, Force in Chicago Theater, Dies at 79 by Bruce Weber

As a director at Second City and Steppenwolf and a department chairman at Columbia College, Mr. Patinkin helped to develop Chicago’s robust theatrical scene.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:07PM
Sunday, July 27, 2014

Karen Walter Goodwin, Producer of Broadway Hits, Dies at 66 by Bruce Weber

Ms. Goodwin became a theater producer at a time when few women were associated with finding sources of capital.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 08:40PM
Thursday, July 24, 2014

Martin Tahse, TV and Broadway Producer, Dies at 84 by Bruce Weber

Shows Mr. Tahse produced included a revival of “Kukla, Fran and Ollie” for syndication.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:51PM
Thursday, July 17, 2014

Elaine Stritch, tart-tongued Broadway legend, dead at 89 by Robert Berkvist and Bruce Weber, The New York Times, National Post Wire Services

Elaine Stritch, the brassy, tart-tongued Broadway actress and singer who became a living emblem of show business durability and perhaps the leading interpreter of Stephen Sondheim's wryly ac…

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 02:16PM

Elaine Stritch, Tart-Tongued Broadway Actress and Singer, Is Dead at 89 by Robert Berkvist and Bruce Weber

Ms. Stritch became a living emblem of show business durability and perhaps the leading interpreter of Stephen Sondheim’s wryly acrid musings on aging.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:55PM
Friday, June 27, 2014

Mary Rodgers, Author and Composer in a Musical Family, Dies at 83 by Bruce Weber

Ms. Rodgers, born into American musical theater royalty, wrote the music for “Once Upon a Mattress” and the novel “Freaky Friday.”

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:42AM
Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Stuart Vaughan, Director and Shakespeare Expert, Dies at 88 by Bruce Weber

Mr. Vaughan, who got his start directing the first productions of the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1956, professed a loyalty to the text and an aversion to “revisionist approaches.”

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:40PM
Thursday, June 12, 2014

Ruby Dee, Actress and Civil Rights Activist, Dies at 91 by Bruce Weber

Ms. Dee, whose most famous performance was a supporting role in “A Raisin in the Sun,” was a leading advocate for civil rights, along with her husband, Ossie Davis.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:52PM
Friday, May 16, 2014

David Balding, Producer Who Adopted an Elephant, Dies at 75 by Bruce Weber

Mr. Balding staged Broadway and Off Broadway plays but may have been best known for Circus Flora, which starred an orphaned baby African elephant.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:53PM
Sunday, May 11, 2014

Charles Marowitz, Director and Playwright, Dies at 82 by Bruce Weber

Irrepressible and fiercely opinionated, Mr. Marowitz led an unusual theatrical life in both England and the United States as a director, playwright, teacher and critic.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 08:20PM
Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Phillip Hayes Dean, the Playwright of Divisive ‘Paul Robeson,’ Dies at 83 by Bruce Weber

“Paul Robeson,” which starred James Earl Jones and opened on Broadway in 1978, was considered by black intellectuals to be insufficiently complex and eventually derailed the writer’s c…

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:06PM
Monday, April 14, 2014

Phyllis Frelich, Deaf Activist and Actress, Dies at 70 by Bruce Weber

Ms. Frelich won the Tony for best actress in a play for her groundbreaking Broadway star turn in 1980 in “Children of a Lesser God.”

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 08:26PM
Saturday, March 22, 2014

Gene Feist, Founder of the Roundabout Theater Company, Is Dead at 91 by Bruce Weber

Mr. Feist was a playwright and director who worked as a public-school teacher when he started the nonprofit organization.    

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 08:00PM
Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Leslie Lee, Playwright of Black Life, Dies at 83 by Bruce Weber

Mr. Lee wrote more than a dozen stage works, but his best-known play was “The First Breeze of Summer,” which was nominated for a Tony Award.    

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:59PM
Monday, January 6, 2014

Anna E. Crouse, Who Championed Discount Tickets for Broadway, Dies at 97 by Bruce Weber

Ms. Crouse, a force behind the creation of the 40-year-old TKTS booth, also helped revitalize the struggling Lincoln Center Theater.    

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:24PM
Saturday, December 7, 2013

Delbert Tibbs, Who Left Death Row and Fought Against It, Dies at 74 by Bruce Weber

Mr. Tibbs, sentenced to death in 1974 for a murder and rape in Florida, was one of six people whose stories of wrongful conviction and near execution were told in the play “The Exonerated.…

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:08PM
Friday, October 18, 2013

Ralph Cook, a Pioneer of Off Off Broadway, Dies at 85 by Bruce Weber

Mr. Cook had a conversation with a co-worker named Sam Shepard at a West Village club in 1964, and a theater career was born.    

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:23PM
Monday, October 14, 2013

Paul Rogers, Wide-Ranging Stage Actor, Dies at 96 by Bruce Weber

Mr. Rogers came to fame as a versatile Shakespearean in his native England and later won a Tony award for his performance in Harold Pinter’s harrowing family drama “The Homecoming.”&nb…

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:26PM
Saturday, August 24, 2013

Julie Harris, Celebrated Actress of Range and Intensity, Dies at 87 by Bruce Weber

Ms. Harris had a lengthy résumé as an actress, with dozens of movie and television credits, including the 1955 film adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel of brotherly rivalry, “East of …

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:39PM
Sunday, June 30, 2013

Donald Bevan, 93, Sardi’s Artist and ‘Stalag 17’ Writer, Dies by Bruce Weber

Mr. Bevan, who was a longtime caricaturist for the Broadway bistro, and Edmund Trzcinski were inspired by their incarceration in a Nazi camp to write a play about the search for a spy. …

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:44PM
Monday, June 17, 2013

Bernard Sahlins, Patriarch of Sketch Comedy, Dies at 90 by Bruce Weber

Mr. Sahlins was the last survivor of the three founders of Second City, the Chicago nightclub that nurtured generations of comedians.    

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:04PM
Thursday, June 13, 2013

Harold J. Cromer, Stumpy of Vaudeville Duo Stump and Stumpy, Dies by Bruce Weber

Mr. Cromer, a hoofer and comedian who was always coy about his age, was part of a team that played the black theater and nightclub circuit from the 1930s into the ’50s, including the Apoll…

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:30PM
Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Bob Sickinger, 86, Father of Chicago’s Theater Scene by Bruce Weber

Mr. Sickinger was a director who nurtured a network of troupes and theaters that is the city’s equivalent of Off and Off Off Broadway.    

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:53PM
Friday, March 29, 2013

Richard Griffiths, Falstaffian ‘History Boys’ Star, Dies at 65 by Bruce Weber

Mr. Griffiths, who played Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter movies, reached a career peak as a schoolteacher in “The History Boys” on Broadway and the West End.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:04PM
Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Dolores Prida, Columnist on Hispanic Matters, Dies at 69 by Bruce Weber

Ms. Prida was a longtime writer for The Daily News and El Diario/La Prensa in New York.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:02AM
Monday, December 17, 2012

Jeni LeGon, Singer and Solo Tap-Dancer, Dies at 96 by Bruce Weber

Ms. LeGon’s career in movies was frustrated by Hollywood racism that relegated her to maids’ roles.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:03AM
Thursday, December 6, 2012

Frederick Neumann, Actor and Director, Dies at 86 by Bruce Weber

Mr. Neumann forged the New York experimental troupe Mabou Mines which, by 1990, had produced eight works of his friend Samuel Beckett.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:12PM
Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Martin Richards, Producer of Broadway Hits, Dies at 80 by Bruce Weber

Mr. Richards won an Oscar for the film adaptation of the musical “Chicago” 27 years after he helped bring it to Broadway.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:58AM
Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Henry Denker, Author in Many Genres, Dies at 99 by Bruce Weber

Mr. Denker’s large output ranged from novels and movies to TV and Broadway plays.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:29AM
Tuesday, April 3, 2012

John Arden, British Playwright, Dies at 81 by Bruce Weber

Mr. Arden, a major British playwright of the 1950s and 1960s, produced work that was politically engaged, theatrically inventive and conscience-provoking.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:30AM
Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Ulu Grosbard, Broadway and Film Director, Dies at 83 by Bruce Weber

Mr. Grosbard’s work was divided evenly between the theater and the movies, and though his career stretched across nearly half a century, he was highly selective in his projects.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:52PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards