Tony Nominated Director Nicholas Martin Passes Away at Age 75

BroadwayWorld is sad to report that according to multiple sources, Tony Award-nominated director Nicholas Martin passed away yesterday, April 30th at the age of seventy-five.

Most recently, Martin directed the critically acclaimed Christopher Durang play, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which opened on Broadway last March. For this production, Martin was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Director and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Director. Martin also directed the Off-Broadway production of the play in 2012.

Martin left behind a plethora of impressive theatre credits, both as a director and as a performer. He made his Broadway debut in 1966 in The School for Scandal, a revival of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's classic eighteenth century comedy. Martin played the role of the always-gossiping Sir Benjamin Backbite. For the next couple of years, Martin served as alternates in a variety of plays, namely the 1966 revival of Right You Are If You Think You Are, the 1967 revival of The Wild Duck (in which he played the role of Molvik as well as the alternate for Graaberg), and the 1967 revival of You Can't Take It With You. Martin first performed in an original Broadway piece in 1967. He played the role of the Poet in Michel de Ghelderode's original comedy Pantagleize. He reprised this role in 1968 for a nine performance return engagement of the play.

Martin's other performing credits include The Man Who Came to Dinner (Professor Metz, Westcott) and Alice in Wonderland (various roles). He adapted the book of the 1985 production of The Loves of Anatol alongside late director and writer Ellis Rabb. He finally made his directing debut in the 1996 revival of The Rehearsal, a French play by Jean Anouilh. It played on Broadway for 55 performances and was nominated for three Drama Desk Awards.

Martin was the former artistic director of both Williamstown Theatre Festival and Boston's Huntington Theatre. His first credited work with the Huntington Theatre is as the artistic director of King Hedley II, an original drama written by August Wilson. The play debuted on Broadway in May of 2001, and under Martin's direction, the Huntington Theatre put on a subsequent production. Martin served as artistic director of the Huntington from 2000 through 2008. Some of his directing credits there include Bus Stop, The Corn Is Green, She Loves Me, Present Laughter, Persephone, The Cherry Orchard, Love's Labour's Lost, The Sisters Rosensweig (for which he won an IRNE Award for Best Director), and Sonia Flew (which won the IRNE Award for Best Play as well as Martin's second IRNE award for Best Director).

The Broadway productions of Hedda Gabler (2001), Butley (2006), Mauritius (2007),The 39 Steps (2008) were all produced in association with the Huntington Theatre Company under Martin's artistic direction. Additionally, Martin served as the director for the productions of Hedda Gabler and Butley. His other recent Broadway credits include Match (2004) and Present Laughter (2010).

Martin's Off-Broadway credits include Why Torture is Wrong, and The People Who Love Them (The Public Theater); Saturn Returns, The New Century, Observe the Sons of Ulster . . . (Drama Desk Award nomination), The Time of the Cuckoo, and Chaucer in Rome (Lincoln Center Theater); Fully Committed (Vineyard Theatre and Cherry Lane Theatre); Full Gallop (Manhattan Theatre Club and West Side Arts); You Never Can Tell (Roundabout Theatre Company); Betty's Summer Vacation (OBIE Award, Drama Desk Award nomination) and Sophistry (Playwrights Horizons); and Bosoms and Neglect (Signature Theatre).