Theater News

Producer Scott Rudin Says He Will "Resign" From Broadway League Following Workplace Harassment Claims

Rudin made the statement to the ”New York Times”.

Scott Rudin
Scott Rudin
(© David Gordon)

In a newly published article from the New York Times, producer Scott Rudin has said he is "resigning from the Broadway League," the trade association of New York theater owners and producers.

The move comes after multiple articles in various publications detailing decades of workplace harassment claims against him from past assistants and interns. The Times article comes a week after Rudin told the Washington Post that he would "step back from active participation" on his current and upcoming Broadway productions.

In the weeks since the initial Hollywood Reporter story ran, pressure had been mounting for artists associated with Rudin's shows to publicly repudiate his alleged actions, though word from the industry at large was relatively silent. Karen Olivo, the Tony-nominated star of Moulin Rouge!, a production that Rudin had not worked on, announced she would not be returning to her role, in protest of that wide-ranging silence. Novelist/screenwriter Michael Chabon profusely apologized for turning a blind eye to the situation while working with Rudin, while Tavi Gevinson, who starred in Rudin-produced revivals of This Is Our Youth and The Crucible also publicly repudiated the behavior. A march down Broadway was held earlier this week to protest Rudin, as well as inaction by Actors' Equity Association.

Prior to the shutdown, Rudin had three productions running on Broadway: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Book of Mormon, and West Side Story. The Music Man is currently scheduled to open at the Winter Garden Theatre this winter, while other shows in development included revivals of The Piano Lesson with Samuel L. Jackson, Our Town with Dustin Hoffman, and Death of a Salesman with Nathan Lane.