NEW YORK — Gerald Schoenfeld, the longtime head of the powerful Shubert Organization who helped bring numerous works to Broadway, including “A Chorus Line” “Cats” and “Amadeus,” has died. He was 84.
Schoenfeld died early Tuesday of a heart attack at his Manhattan home, said Sam Rudy, a Shubert spokesman.
As chairman of Broadway’s biggest landlord since 1972, Schoenfeld ushered many productions to the Broadway stage and beyond. The Shubert Organization owns or operates 17 Broadway theaters, one off-Broadway playhouse and theaters in Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
Schoenfeld, a jovial, outgoing man and a familiar figure at Broadway opening nights, had never been to the theater before going to work for the law firm that handled business for the Shuberts — the quixotic, combative dynasty that controlled much of Broadway’s real estate in the 20th century.
For more than 35 years, it was Schoenfeld’s job to fill the theaters, which range from the cozy Booth to the splendidly opulent Winter Garden. It was a juggling act that required skill and shrewdness, not to mention luck and an appreciation for the stages he was booking.
Luck was what Schoenfeld needed in 1972 when he and another lawyer, Bernard B. Jacobs, assumed control of the Shubert empire, a time when Broadway was in decline and more than a few Shubert houses sat empty.
“Cats,” the long-running Andrew Lloyd Webber musical that held forth at the Winter Garden for nearly 18 years, was followed by another big hit, which is still running there, “Mamma Mia!”
