Broadway producer Roy Miller passed away suddenly early Sunday morning, April 28, 2013 following a brief illness at the young age of 52.
Roy produced "The Drowsy Chaperone" and "A Christmas Story: The Musical" on Broadway. His other producing credits include "West Side Story," "Ragtime," [title of show], and "The Pee-Wee Herman Show." Roy served as Producing Artistic Director of Surflight Theatre from 2010 to 2012 and Associate Producer of the Paper Mill Playhouse from 1991 to 2004.
Information regarding the funeral and memorial services will be forthcoming.
Roy's family and friends request that donations in his memory be made to The Actors Fund, 729 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY, 1009 (www.actorsfund.org). The Actors Fund will memorialize his life in the theatre.
Miller discovered The Drowsy Chaperone in Toronto, and introduced it to American audiences in 2005 at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles where it won five Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Awards and five Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards. The show opened on Broadway in 2006 and went on to win five Tony Awards (out of a near-record thirteen nominations), seven Drama Desk Awards (including Best Musical), the NY Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical, four Outer Critics' Circle Awards, and a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Show Album. He also produced the national tour and London production (five Olivier Award nominations).
During his fourteen-year tenure as Associate Producer at the acclaimed Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey (1991-2004), Mr. Miller produced over eighty musicals and plays including Crazy For You (broadcast nationwide on PBS' "Great Performances" series and Emmy nominated); Follies starring legendary performer Ann Miller (recorded on TVT records and is considered the definitive Follies recording); Gypsy starring Betty Buckley and Deborah Gibson; Animal Crackers starring Kristin Chenoweth; and Stephen Schwartz's Children of Eden (recorded on RCA Records).
Miller served as a panelist for the ASCAP Foundation Musical Theatre Workshop and guest lecturer for the Commercial Theatre Institute and Broadway Speakers' Bureau. He was also a member of the Broadway League, the national trade association for the Broadway industry.