Theater News

MTC’s Biltmore Will Be Renamed Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on September 4

Manhattan Theatre Club will rename the Biltmore Theatre as the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in recognition of the pioneering Broadway publicist on Thursday, September 4. There will be a public lighting of the new marquee at 7:30pm following an invitation-only dedication. In addition, publicists Shirley Herz and Bob Ullman, two of Friedman’s associates, will also be honored with a lobby named for them.

MTC is the recipient of a gift from the Dr. Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman Foundation in memory of the late publicist, who died in 1974. Friedman began his career in 1937 at the Shubert Organization on the Cole Porter musical You Never Know. Among the artists he worked with were Gypsy Rose Lee, Montgomery Clift, Billy Rose, Josephine Baker, Mae West, Bette Davis, Lotte Lenya, Jerry Orbach, Shirley Booth, Peter Ustinov, Jackie Gleason, Roddy McDowall, Jon Voight, Tammy Grimes, Claire Bloom, Victor Borge, and Marcel Marceau.

The Friedman’s first tenant will be Nick Whitby’s To Be or Not to Be, directed by Casey Nicholaw, and with a cast headed by Craig Bierko and Jan Maxwell. The show begins previews on September 11, with an official opening on October 2.

For more information, visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.