Robert Whitehead (theatre producer)

Robert Whitehead (March 3, 1916 – June 15, 2002) was a Canadian theatre producer. His first production was Medea, starring Judith Anderson and John Gielgud, and he won the Outer Critics Circle Award five times.^[1] He was nominated for 19 Tony and Drama Desk Awards, winning 4 Tony Awards and 5 Drama Desk Awards.^[2][3][4]

Whitehead was born in Montreal on March 3, 1916. Whitehead's father owned textile mills, and his mother, Selena Mary LaBatt Whitehead, was an opera singer. Her family owned LaBatt brewery. The actor Hume Cronyn was Whitehead's cousin on the LaBatt side. The two shared a love of theatre as children.^[5]

After attending Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, he moved to New York and studied acting. In 1938, he began work at the Barter Theater in Abingdon, Virginia where he worked as an actor, stage manager and built scenery.^[5]

He spent the Second World War years as an ambulance driver in North Africa and Italy.^[5]

After the war, Whitehead became the producer of Medea, by Robinson Jeffers. The play opened on Broadway in 1947 and starred Judith Anderson and John Gielgud. Following that production, Whitehead produced a dramatization of Crime and Punishment, also on Broadway. The two productions cemented Whitehead's reputation as a producer of successful, critically-acclaimed Broadway productions.^[5]

Whitehead's work was marked by collaborations with artist whose own careers were enhanced by their association with him. Among the playwrights Whitehead worked with were Arthur Miller, Carson McCullers, William Inge, Terence Rattigan, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Tennessee Williams, Tom Stoppard and Terrence McNally.^[6] Among the well-known actors Whitehead cast in his productions were Lillian Gish, Julie Harris, Ethel Waters, Ralph Richardson, Kim Stanley, Helen Hayes, Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Katherine Hepburn, Paul Scofield, Jason Robards, and Dustin Hoffman.^[5]

In 1949, Whitehead collaborated with director Harold Clurman on the Broadway production of The Member of the Wedding. Over the years, they worked on successful productions of Bus Stop, Orpheus Descending, The Waltz of the Toreadors, A Touch of the Poet, The Time of the Cuckoo and Incident at Vichy.^[7]

Whitehead had a long-term association with fellow producer Roger L. Stevens. They formed The Producers Theatre.^[7] From 1960 to 1964, Whitehead was co-artistic director of the new Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center with Elia Kazan.^[7] Clurman was literary adviser.^[5]

In his New York Times obituary, Whitehead was referred to as "debonair and distinguished."^[5] The Guardian called him "dapper, urbane."^[6] Terrence McNally, in a 2002 New York Times piece, said he was "unarguably America's greatest living theatrical producer."^[8]

In 2002, Whitehead was given a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement Achievement in the Theater.^[3] Whitehead and Clurman were jointly honored by the Stella Adler Studio of Action in 2002 when two adjoining studios were named for them.^[7] The Broadway League's Commercial Theater Institute gives an annual award for "Outstanding Achievement in Commercial Theater Producing" which is named for Robert Whitehead.^[9]

Whitehead's first wife, Virginia, died in 1965. In 1968, Whitehead married Zoe Caldwell. They were introduced by Cronyn. She later starred in Whitehead's production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie among others. Whitehead had two sons, Sam, a theater critic, and Charlie, also in theater production.^[5] They lived in Manhattan and Pound Ridge, New York.

Reference:^[2]

• Obituary of Robert Whitehead The Independent
• "Robert Whitehead, Who Brought Top Playwrights to Broadway, Dies at 86" by Mel Gussow The New York Times June 17, 2002