Tony-Winning Producer Bernard Gersten Passes Away at 97

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that theatre producer Bernard Gersten passed away this morning in his sleep. He was 97 years old.

Beginning in the 1960s through the early 2000s, Gersten played a major role in shaping American drama and musical theatre. From 1960 to 1978, Gersten worked with Joseph Papp as associate producer at the New York Shakespeare Festival. After leaving the NYSF, he served as executive producer of Lincoln Center Theater from 1986 until he retired in 2013, where (with Gregory Mosher, then with Andre Bishop) he oversaw over 150 productions.

In addition to receiving the Tony for Lifetime Achievement in 2013, Gersten has been the recipient of fifteen Tony Awards for his productions.

In 1960, Joseph Papp invited Gersten to work with him at the New York Shakespeare Festival. The job as associate producer became a full-time job in 1964. This began a long partnership during which Papp and Gersten established the New York Shakespeare Festival (NYSF) at the old Astor Library downtown while presenting a series of significant productions. During his tenure at the NYSF, it would become the preeminent non-profit theater in the United States.

Perhaps Gersten's most significant contribution to the American theater was his realization that a non-profit theater could produce commercially. In what he has described as a 'eureka moment' he found a way to free the New York Shakespeare Festival and later the Lincoln Center Theater from dependency on commercial producers when moving a show to Broadway.

Gersten produced over 150 productions at LCT, including a revival of John Guare's House of Blue Leaves and premiere of Six Degrees of Separation, Wendy Wasserstein's Sisters Rosenzweig, Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance, Ngema's Sarafina, David Mamet's Speed the Plow, Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia and a revival of South Pacific. Under Gersten, the Lincoln Center Theater championed the work of Spalding Gray, John Guare, Edward Albee, Tom Stoppard and Wendy Wasserstein among the dozens of playwrights, composers, and directors who worked there, including Gerald Gutierrez, Jerry Zaks, Susan Stroman, Daniel Sullivan, Bartlett Sher and Graciele Daniele.

Prior to retirement from LCT, Gersten helped implement the fundraising, design, and construction of the new Claire Tow Theater atop the Vivian Beaumont.