Gereld Schoenfeld
Theater royalty from Angela Lansbury to Helen Mirren to Andrew Lloyd Webber turned out Monday to remember Gerald Schoenfeld, head of the powerful Shubert Organization, Broadway’s biggest landlord.
“We called him ‘chairman,” simply ‘chairman,’” Hugh Jackman said in welcoming the celebrity-packed crowd that included Henry Kissinger and Barbara Walters to the memorial service at the Majestic Theatre, home of “The Phantom of the Opera,” one of Schoenfeld’s biggest hits.
Schoenfeld’s mantra was that if you really believed in something, then nothing and nobody should get in the way of you realizing and achieving your dream. This theme was echoed throughout the nearly two-hour service, which interspersed speeches with musical numbers from shows — both hits and misses — the Shubert Organization helped bring to Broadway.
Performances included Betty Buckley singing “Memory” from “Cats” and Priscilla Lopez warbling “What I Did for Love” from “A Chorus Line“
Speakers honoring Schoenfeld were Jeremy Irons, Whoopi Goldberg, Marvin Hamlisch, Tim Rice, Bjorn Ulvaeus and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.
And Schoenfeld got the last word. The afternoon event ended with a video of the producer singing “Jerry’s Turn,” a spoof of “Rose’s Turn,” the climactic number in “Gypsy” and considered one of musical theater’s great show stoppers. It stopped the show again at the Majestic.
(excerpts courtesy of Michael Kuchwara of the AP)
Filed under: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Broadway, Theater News | Tagged: Broadway, Betty Buckley, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Angela Lansbury, Jeremy Irons, Whoopi Goldberg, Marvin Hamlisch, Tim Rice, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Michael Bloomberg, Rose's Turn, Gypsy the Musical, Majestic Theatre, Priscilla Lopez, A Chorus Line, Hugh Jackman, Henry Kissinger, Barbara Walters, The Phantom of the Opera, Gerald Schoenfeld, Shubert Organization, Helen Mirren
