O'Neill Center chair to step down after 24 years
May 3—WATERFORD — Broadway producer Tom Viertel is stepping down from the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's board of trustees after almost 30 years, including 24 as chairman.
Viertel, who lives primarily in New York City but has a home in Noank, will end his time on the board in August, after the O'Neill's summer season.
He will remain a board member as a chairman emeritus after a new chair is named.
When O'Neill Center founder George White was getting ready to retire in 1999, he asked Viertel to succeed him as chair. That made Viertel only the second chair during the O'Neill's 60 years ago of existence.
Viertel, 82, said of his decision to leave the chairmanship, "It just felt like time. The organization has got a new administration and (he laughs) I'm an old man now. ... I've been so excited and thrilled at what we've done at the O'Neill over all these years. It just feels like the right time as much as anything."
He also became chairman of the 54 Below cabaret and restaurant in New York, which converted to not-for-profit status last year. Viertel felt that chairing two important cultural organizations at the same time "is not a great idea." No one said that to him, he noted, but his own theory on that did figure into how he was thinking about his O'Neill post.
Viertel will remain busy on all sorts of other projects, too. He's a producer on the musical version of "Back to the Future" that's on Broadway; it will also head on tour and is continuing its run in London. He's working on a new musical of "Silver Linings Playbook." And that's just some of what's going on or being planned.
Viertel first came to the O'Neill in 1993 when "Time and Again" — a musical for which his brother Jack wrote the book — was being developed at the center's National Music Theater Conference.
"I just fell in love with the place," Viertel said. "I thought, first of all, the process was amazing, as it continues to be. I think it's the most productive thing in America that you can do to move your show forward. And then being on the campus and the wonderful people who were there at that time. I just literally fell in love."
He said that he had no sense he would stay as long as he has.
"But it's been so fascinating and such fun, and the people continue to be amazing," Viertel said. He said that being the chairman has been "an honor and a truly unforgettable joy."
Viertel said that while there have been challenges, the O'Neill has prospered. During his tenure, the O'Neill expanded existing programs and established new ones, for example. More housing was built on the center's campus — eight dormitory buildings and one laundry building.
One of the most exciting aspects, too, has been the artistic output and the people who have had their first paying jobs at the O'Neill — like Lin-Manuel Miranda, who went on to do "Hamilton," and Robert and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who later created the songs for "Frozen."
"I'm particularly proud of how many people who have started at the O'Neill and have gone on to do great things — actors, writers, directors. ... I don't take much personal credit for that, for sure, but it's part of what makes the O'Neill as great as it is and the jewel that it is for this part of Connecticut. I've just been very grateful and proud to be associated with it all this time," he said.
A love for the O'Neill
Tiffani Gavin, the O'Neill's executive director, remembered coming to the O'Neill when she was offered the job in 2020, and Viertel gave her a tour of the campus.
"I thought, 'Oh, my gosh, this man knows so much. He could tell me every tree as well as every show.' I thought, 'He loves this place,' " she recalled.
Gavin started as executive director during the COVID-19 pandemic and said Viertel was a tremendous resource in those days when people were isolating and things were done via Zoom. And he has continued to be a tremendous resource.
"He's always there to pick up the phone for a question, to give advice. He's always checking in, and he is very on top of all of the things that are going on — which I think helps him be an advocate for the O'Neill," Gavin said. "He knows it so well that when he talks about it with other people, he can talk about it from a genuine understanding of how the place functions, a real sense of the history and with a love for the place that doesn't seem forced or faked at all. It's very genuine."
When Viertel decided to step down, he went into the O'Neill's offices to share the news with those at a department heads meeting, Gavin recalled.
"He wanted to tell everyone in person that we work with. I thought that was a very generous way to go about it, to want to call each of the (conference) artistic directors individually, to sit down with the staff and talk about how he came to the decision and how he's going to be continue to be involved with the organization," she said.
Gavin noted, too, that Viertel has a sense of duty and responsibility to ensure the transition to the new chair is smooth.
During his time
During Viertel's time on the O'Neill board, a wide array of shows have been developed at the center and gone on to great renown, including "Avenue Q" by the aforementioned Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx and Jeff Whittey; "Gem of the Ocean," the last of six plays that August Wilson developed at the O'Neill; and "In the Heights" by the previously referenced Lin-Manuel Miranda.
That era also saw the O'Neill receive the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater in 2010 and the Presidential Medal of Arts in September 2016.
In his producing work, Viertel and his partners have produced and managed a long list of shows over the years, including the original Broadway productions of "The Producers," "Hairspray" and "Angels in America."
The O'Neill will honor Viertel with its annual Monte Cristo Award on Nov. 18 in New York City.
The award is presented to someone whose career reflects playwright Eugene O'Neill's "pioneering spirit, unceasing artistic commitment, and excellence," and furthering the American theater. Previous winners include actors Meryl Streep and Michael Douglas (Douglas is also a member of the O'Neill Center board), playwrights August Wilson and Wendy Wasserstein, and directors Harold Prince and George C. Wolfe.