Actor's Fund to Memorialize Broadway Producer Roy Miller; Visitation Set for 5/5

Beloved Broadway producer Roy Miller passed away suddenly early Sunday morning, April 28, 2013 following a brief illness. Roy produced the multiple Tony Award nominated Broadway productions of The Drowsy Chaperone and this season's A Christmas Story: The Musical. His other Broadway producing credits include West Side Story, Ragtime, [title of show] and The Pee-Wee Herman Show among others. He recently served as Producing Artistic Director of Surflight Theatre from 2010 to 2012 and also served as Associate Producer of Paper Mill Playhouse from 1991 to 2004.

While still in high school, where he was a student actor in his hometown of Irvington, NJ, Mr. Miller was offered an apprenticeship at Surflight Theatre, the not-for-profit summer company in Beach Haven, NJ. That first introduction to summer theatre at the Jersey Shore in 1975 was followed by two subsequent seasons as an apprentice and, eventually, as a member of The Acting Company in 1978. Later, Mr. Miller served as a member of Surflight's board of trustees and as a generous contributor to various fundraising initiatives, including the construction of the cast house in 2007 and the 60th anniversary gala in 2009. In 2010, Mr. Miller became the theatre's new producer.

Miller booked the first national tour of They're Playing Our Song when he was only 19 years old after graduating from Hanover Park High School. Following an education on the stage as a performer he transitioned to working at the acclaimed Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey for seventeen years, where he produced the tours of A Chorus Line andJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat starring Deborah Gibson and Patrick Cassidy and productions including Follies starring Ann Miller, Gypsy starring Betty Buckley,Crazy for You, Animal Crackers starring Kristin Chenoweth, Children of Eden, Anything Goes starring Chita Rivera and Chess directed and choreographed by Rob Marshall.

Roy began a successful career producing Broadway shows beginning with the revival of I'm Not Rappaport in 2002 starring Judd Hirsch and Ben Vereen, the award winning hit musical The Drowsy Chaperone, the acclaimed Broadway revivals of Ragtime and West Side Story, [title of show], Is He Dead?, High Fidelity, The Pee-Wee Herman Show and this seasons Tony Award nominated production of A Christmas Story The Musical.

Roy Miller married actress Heather Hawkins in 2005 on the stage of The Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in front of a standing ovation audience during the pre Broadway engagement of The Drowsy Chaperone in a service officiated by newly ordained Universal Live minister and Drowsy Chaperone star Bob Martin. They were divorced in 2009.

Miller is survived by his parents Roy and Helen Miller, sister Anna Hand, brother Glenn Miller and nephew John Vitcusky.

Visitation will be held Sunday, May 5 from 2:00-6:00pm at Stephen J. Priola Parsippany Funeral Home (60 North Beverwyck Road, Lake Hiawatha, NJ, 07034).

His funeral mass service will be held Monday, May 6 at 11:00am at St. Peter the Apostle Roman Catholic Church (179 Baldwin Road, Parsippany, NJ 07054), followed by a burial service at Evergreen Cemetery (65 Martin Luther King Ave, Morristown, NJ 07960).

In lieu of flowers, Roy Miller's family and friends request that donations in his memory be made to The Actors Fund (729 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY, 10019, www.actorsfund.org).

The Actors Fund will announce plans for a special gathering to memorialize Roy Miller's life in the theatre.

Pictured: Roy Miller and Heather Hawkins