UTA Elevates Patrick Herold And Rachel Viola To Co-Heads Of Its Theater Practice

Dade Hayes
·3 min read

EXCLUSIVE: Following a Tony season in which it collected 28 nominations and a number of notable wins, UTA has upped Patrick Herold and Rachel Viola to co-heads of its theater practice.

Based in the agency’s New York office, the pair will oversee day-to-day operations of the department and report to Jay Gassner, partner and co-head of talent; and Allan Haldeman, partner and co-head of TV lit.

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Herold joined UTA in 2022 after nearly 20 years at ICM, where he was a partner and head of theater. His previous roles in the industry have included owning literary agency Helen Merrill Ltd. and holding the posts of associate general manager of Lincoln Center Theater, director of development at New York Theatre Workshop and trustee of Dramatists Play Service.

Herold’s clients include the estates of Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill, Sam Shepard, Horton Foote, Moss Hart, Tina Howe, Christopher Durang, and Wendy Wasserstein. He also reps major figures in theater like Athol Fugard, John Guare and Marshall Brickman; and playwrights including Tracy Letts and Adam Rapp. Composers and lyricists such as Rufus Wainwright, Cyndi Lauper, Scott Frankel, Michael Korie, Rickie Lee Jones, Rosanne Cash, and Stephen Trask are on his roster, as are a range of acclaimed directors and designers.

The Outsiders, which features a book by Rapp, captured Best Musical at the Tonys in June and is one of Herold’s recent career highlights. Others include Broadway breakout Hell’s Kitchen, directed by longtime client Michael Greif, and West End revivals of Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill and A View From The Bridge.

Viola has spent nearly 15 years at UTA, advancing from an assistant in the theater department to coordinator to agent, with a focus on writers, directors and designers. She previously worked in the literary department of Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Bay Area Playwrights Foundation, and has served as a board member of the Bushwick Starr. Her clients include writers Annie Baker, Jocelyn Bioh, Sanaz Toossi, Jen Silverman, Max Wolf Friedlich, Alice Birch, Clare Barron, Itamar Moses, Heidi Schreck, Marco Ramirez and Dave Harris; notable writer/performers Eric Bogosian, Cole Escola and Sarah Silverman; directors Lila Neugebauer, Saheem Ali, Lee Sunday Evans; composers Heather Christian, Michael Thurber and Clyde & Gracie Lawrence.

Recent projects connected to Viola include the Broadway transfers of Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary!, Job by Max Wolf Friedlich, the upcoming The Roommate by Jen Silverman, and Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize-winning English. Two Viola clients also earned Tony nominations: Jocelyn Bioh (Best New Play, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding) and Lila Neugebauer (Best Director, Appropriate).

“Patrick and Rachel’s proven track record of success, passion for the arts and creative vision will bring our theatre department to new heights as we build on our continued success and growth in this area,” Gassner and Haldeman said in a joint statement.

UTA’s roster of playwrights, composers, directors, choreographers, music directors, and designers and onstage talent, received 28 Tony nominations. Wins at the June ceremony included one for Brian MacDevitt for Best Lighting Design of a Musical (The Outsiders). Jane Cox won in the same category for play for Appropriate. Jaja’s African Hair Braiding also saw wins for Dede Ayite won Best Costume Design of a Play and Nikiya Mathis, who got a Special Tony Award for Hair and Wig Design for her work on the production.

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