Deaths (Obituaries)

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      in Theater

      Paul Libin, a Forceful Presence On and Off Broadway, Dies at 94

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      He staged a revival of “The Crucible” in a Manhattan hotel ballroom in 1958, helped run Circle in the Square and oversaw the operations of Jujamcyn Theaters.Paul Libin, a prolific producer and respected Broadway theater executive whose first major endeavor was an Off Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible” that he staged in the ballroom of a Manhattan hotel in 1958, died on June 27 in Manhattan. He was 94.His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by his son, Charles.In his nearly 70-year career, Mr. Libin ran Circle in the Square Theater with Theodore Mann, one of its founders, and together they produced more than 100 shows. Later, Mr. Libin was in charge of operations at Jujamcyn Theaters, the owner of several Broadway houses.Rocco Landesman, the former president and owner of Jujamcyn, said Mr. Libin had a wall-penetrating voice, a forceful presence and enormous energy.“I depended on Paul entirely,” Mr. Landesman said in an interview. “Someone had to run the company. But I wouldn’t describe his role as corporate. He was as likely to be climbing into the air-conditioning ducts at the St. James Theater as he was to be sitting at his desk. He came in every day with enthusiasm.”That enthusiasm dated to Mr. Libin’s early days as an assistant to Jo Mielziner, a Tony-winning scenic designer and producer. When Mr. Mielziner produced the Broadway musical “Happy Hunting,” which opened in late 1956, he promoted Mr. Libin to stage manager.In 1958, on his way to a dentist appointment, Mr. Libin passed the Hotel Martinique, on West 32nd Street near Broadway, and saw a sign advertising the ballroom’s availability. He thought of it as a space that he and the director Word Baker could turn into a theater-in-the-round for a production of “The Crucible,” the 1953 Tony-winning Broadway play about the Salem witch trials and an allegory of the McCarthy-era Red Scare.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Theater

      Ronald Ribman, 92, Dies; His Plays Mined the Absurdity of Existence

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      He set his frequently neurotic characters in bleak, morally ambiguous situations where laughter, as he put it, “is a measure of the sickness of society.”Two men are on the rooftop garden of a hospital in Manhattan. One is an Armenian grocer. He has cancer and a big mouth. The other is an art dealer, a self-loathing Holocaust survivor who also has cancer and is tired of his own voice. In between medical procedures, they bicker about the quagmire of the past.“You came out a big winner,” the grocer says.“Because I survived?” the art dealer says. “It doesn’t feel like a triumph.”“That’s because nothing we ever do feels like a triumph, because the mind’s a piece of garbage,” the grocer replies. “It’s never happy with what we do for it. I once took my mind down to Barbados for two weeks, and you know what it said to me? ‘You should have taken us to Jamaica!’”The verbal jousting took place in “Cold Storage,” a 1977 play staged at the Lyceum Theater on Broadway and written by Ronald Ribman, a mordantly funny playwright whose frequently surreal works grappled with God’s impatience, the past’s invasion of the present and, as he once put it, “a person’s right to fail as a human being.”Mr. Ribman’s “Cold Storage,” staged on Broadway in 1977, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. PlaybillIn “Harry, Noon and Night,” a 1965 Off Broadway production set in postwar Munich, Dustin Hoffman played a gay Nazi with a hunchback who quarrels with his roommate, a disturbed American painter who believes a caterpillar gave him syphilis. “The Journey of the Fifth Horse” (1966), also Off Broadway, was based in part on Ivan Turgenev’s short story “The Diary of a Superfluous Man,” and starred Mr. Hoffman as an editor at a publishing house who rejects a posthumous memoir by a 19th-century landowner who died friendless and broke. In “The Poison Tree” (1973), inmates and guards battle over the moral high ground in prison.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      Michael Madsen, Actor Known for ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill,’ Dies at 67

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      He had the air of a timeless Hollywood bad guy who seemed to have stepped out of a 1940s film noir. “I’m a bit of a throwback to the days of black-and-white movies,” he said.Michael Madsen, a sledgehammer of an actor who became one of Hollywood’s reigning bare-knuckled heavies thanks to indelible performances in Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” and “Kill Bill” series, as well as in the critically acclaimed mob film “Donnie Brasco,” died on Thursday at his home in Malibu, Calif. He was 67.The cause was cardiac arrest, said his manager, Ron Smith.Mr. Madsen never achieved true leading-man status like his soul mates Charles Bronson and James Gandolfini — but perhaps, measured by volume, he did. A tough guy’s tough guy, he seemed ubiquitous in his 1990s heyday, one of those guy-who-was-in-everything actors, like Don Cheadle and Luis Guzmán.His Internet Movie Database entry cites 346 acting credits. By comparison, Mr. Bronson, a longtime marquee-topper known for star vehicles like the “Death Wish” series, had 164 when he died in 2003 at 81.With a whiff of Mickey Rourke, a hint of Sylvester Stallone and a linebacker’s physique, Mr. Madsen had the air of a timeless Hollywood bad guy who seemed to have stepped out of a 1940s film noir.This point was abundantly clear to the actor himself.“Maybe I was just born in the wrong era, man,” he said in a 2004 interview with The Guardian. “I’m a bit of a throwback to the days of black-and-white movies. Those guys back then, they had a certain kind of directness about them. A lot of the screenplays, the plots were very simplistic — they gave rise to a type of antihero that maybe I suit better.”If the role called for a sprinkle of sadism, Mr. Madsen was your man, as showcased in “Reservoir Dogs” (1992), Mr. Tarantino’s breakout thriller about a crew of slick-suited thieves bungling a diamond heist in the bloodiest possible fashion. He was part of an ensemble cast that also included Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn and Steve Buscemi.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Theater

      Mark Brokaw, Theater Director Known for Slight-of-Set Magic, Dies at 66

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      On and off Broadway, he worked with rising talents like Kenneth Lonergan and Paula Vogel, combining complex storytelling with the simplest possible productions.Mark Brokaw, a director of Broadway, Off Broadway and regional productions, who shepherded the work of rising playwrights like Kenneth Lonergan, Lisa Kron, Paula Vogel and Nicky Silver beginning in the early 1990s, died on June 29 at his home in Manhattan. He was 66.His husband, Andrew Farber, said the cause was prostate cancer.Mr. Brokaw was comfortable with the classics. He directed productions of Molière’s “Tartuffe,” W. Somerset Maugham’s “The Constant Wife” and the musical “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” — albeit a Cinderella with a fresh, feminist gloss.Sienna Miller and Jonny Lee Miller in Mr. Brokaw’s 2009 production of “After Miss Julie.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesMark Ruffalo and Missy Yager in Mr. Brokaw’s 1998 production of “This Is Our Youth.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesBut he was a specialist in new plays, including Patrick Marber’s “After Miss Julie,” which he directed in 2009; Mr. Lonergan’s “This Is Our Youth,” which he directed in 1996 and again in 1998; and Ms. Kron’s “2.5 Minute Ride,” in 1999. And he had something of a subspecialty in the nonlinear storytelling seen in works like Douglas Carter Beane’s “As Bees in Honey Drown” and Ms. Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “How I Learned to Drive”; he directed both in 1997.“Mark was especially good with plays that jump around in time, and you had multiple people playing multiple parts,” said the actor Cynthia Nixon, who worked with Mr. Brokaw on “As Bees in Honey Drown” and Lisa Loomer’s “Distracted” in 2009.Cynthia Nixon in the 2009 production of Lisa Loomer’s “Distracted.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      Dave Scott, Hip-Hop Choreographer, Is Dead at 52

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      A former basketball standout with no formal dance training, he came to provide moves for rappers like Bow Wow and dance-battle films like “You Got Served.”Dave Scott, who steered off a college basketball track to become, without formal training, a prominent hip-hop choreographer, mapping the moves for adrenaline-charged street dancing films like “You Got Served” and reality shows like “So You Think You Can Dance,” died on June 16 in Las Vegas. He was 52.His son Neko said he died in a hospital of organ failure after a long illness.Mr. Scott, who was raised in Compton, Calif., was attending Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, on a basketball scholarship when he went dancing one night. Little did he know that a manager of the rapper Rob Base was there, and was impressed enough by Mr. Scott’s gyrations that he invited him to replace a dancer who had dropped out of the rapper’s tour.Mr. Scott was anything but a professional. He learned much of what he knew by decoding the moves from Michael Jackson videos and early hip-hop films like “Breakin’” (1984). It didn’t matter.“I learned the choreography in two days,” he was quoted as saying in a 2013 article in The New York Post. “I left school and finished the tour.”So much for hoops; Mr. Scott’s direction was set.He went on to work as a choreographer for more than 20 films and television shows. His breakout effort was “You Got Served” (2004), which follows the dance-battle odyssey of a crew of Black teenagers from Los Angeles.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Television

      Lalo Schifrin, 93, Dies; Composer of ‘Mission: Impossible’ and Much More

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      Lalo Schifrin, the Grammy-winning Argentine-born composer who evoked the ticking, ominous suspense of espionage with his indelible theme to the television series “Mission: Impossible” as well as scored movies like “Cool Hand Luke,” “Bullitt” and “Dirty Harry,” died on Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 93.His wife, Donna, said the cause of his death, in a hospital, was complications of pneumonia.Mr. Schifrin had a startlingly diverse career as a composer, arranger and conductor in a wide range of genres — from classical to jazz to Latin to folk to rock to hip-hop to electronic to the ancient music of the Aztecs.He conducted symphony orchestras in London and Vienna, and philharmonic orchestras in Tel Aviv, Paris and Los Angeles. He arranged music for the Three Tenors. He provided what The Washington Post called the music of “rebellious cool” for Paul Newman, Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood.When Mr. Schifrin won an honorary Academy Award in 2018, it was given to him by Clint Eastwood, a frequent collaborator.Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesBut the prolific Mr. Schifrin, who wrote more than 100 film and television scores, was best known for “Mission: Impossible.” Interpretations of his propulsive theme have also been featured in the eight movies in the “Mission: Impossible” series, starring Tom Cruise, which began in 1996.Like John Williams, whose many compositions for film include the theme from “Jaws,” Mr. Schifrin was a master of creating jittery unease and peril. Both composers worked with a recognizable style and a distinct purpose.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Theater

      Diana Oh, Passionate Voice for Queer Liberation in Theater, Dies at 38

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      Mx. Oh’s politically provocative and often playful works, including the Off Broadway production “{my lingerie play},” asserted the right to be oneself while having fun.Diana Oh, a glitter-dusted experimental artist-activist whose theater works intertwined political provocation with profound compassion in rituals of communion with audiences, died on June 17 at their home in Brooklyn. Mx. Oh, who used the pronouns they and them, was 38.The death was confirmed by Mx. Oh’s brother Han Bin Oh, who said the cause was suicide.A playwright, actor, singer-songwriter and musician, Mx. Oh created art that didn’t fit neatly into categories. Mx. Oh was best known for the outraged yet disarmingly gentle Off Broadway show “{my lingerie play},” a music-filled protest against male sexual violence; it was performed in a series of 10 installations around New York City.A concert-like play — with Mx. Oh singing at its center — “{my lingerie play}” percolated with an angry awareness of the ways restrictive gender norms and society’s policing of sexual desire can leave whole groups vulnerable. It was an emphatic and loving assertion of the right to be oneself without worrying about abuse.“I was born a woman, to immigrant parents,” Mx. Oh said in the show. “That’s when my body became political. That’s when I became an artist.”Mx. Oh’s Infinite Love Party, which the Bushwick Starr theater in Brooklyn produced in 2019, was not a show but rather a structured celebration with a sleepover option. It was a handmade experience, including music and aerial silks, designed to welcome queer people, people of color and their allies.Mx. Oh in The Infinite Love Party, which was not a show but rather a structured celebration with music.Nina Westervelt for The New York TimesMx. Oh in 2019 during The Infinite Love Party, which had a sleepover option.Nina Westervelt for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Music

      Jack Kleinsinger, Impresario Behind a Marathon Jazz Series, Dies at 88

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      A lawyer by day, he created Highlights in Jazz, bringing together artists both famous and unknown in more than 300 concerts over 50 years.Jack Kleinsinger, a lawyer by day who in his evening hours indulged his passion for music by creating and running Highlights in Jazz, one of New York’s longest-running concert series, for which he arranged and hosted more than 300 shows over a 50-year run, died on June 11 at his home in Manhattan. He was 88.His cousin, Elizabeth Elliot, said the cause was complications of a fall.Mr. Kleinsinger spent 30 years as a government lawyer, first for New York City and then, from 1970 to 1991, as an assistant attorney general for the State of New York.But his real life began after he punched out every afternoon. Seven times a year, he presented Highlights in Jazz, a roaming concert series that featured some of the country’s best musicians playing alongside a host of promising young artists.Beginning in 1973, at a time when interest in jazz was at its ebb and nightclubs were shutting down, Mr. Kleinsinger nonetheless drew packed crowds. His shows often sold out; any tickets he didn’t sell, he donated to performing-arts high schools around the city.Mr. Kleinsinger’s first shows, in 1973, were such a hit that he immediately began planning. He ended up presenting concerts in various venues around Manhattan.Tribeca Performing Arts CenterHe could count on a core audience of about 350, many of whom took pride in attending virtually every one of his shows. He built on that base with a mailing list of 5,000, which he curated by hand.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More