Stage Actor and Director Maurice Edwards Has Died at 97 Due to COVID-19

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that Maurice Edwards, opera and stage director and actor, has died at age 97 due to COVID-19.

Edwards directed many operas and stage plays, and acted in Broadway and Off Broadway productions.

Edwards made his Broadway debut in 1950 in "Happy as Larry." In 1954, he appeared in the musical "The Golden Apple." He also played Nachum in the original Broadway production of "Fiddler on the Roof" in 1964.

His many off-Broadway credits include The Threepenny Opera and The Fantasticks.

In addition to his work as an actor, Edwards directed dozens of plays for the Classic Theater, the Cubiculo and other groups. He also directed several operas, many of which were at the Brooklyn Academy of Music presented by the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

In 1974, Edwards was a founder of off-off-Broadway theatre troupe, the Classic Theater. Edwards directed The Country Gentleman for the troupe in 1978.

Edwards served as artistic director of the Classic Theater from 1974 to 1989, before he became artistic director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, which he had been involved with for decades.

In 2006 he told the ensemble's story in the book "How Music Grew in Brooklyn: A Biography of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra." He also released a memoir of his own story in 2011, titled "Revelatory Letters to Nina Cassian."