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The news hardly came as a surprise, considering how Azenberg has influenced New York theater over the past few decades. Since 1966, when he launched his producing career with the Broadway play “The Lion in Winter,” the Bronx native has produced 65 shows, receiving 25 Tony Award nominations and winning eight awards.
“When you look at the criteria for the Lifetime Achievement Tony Award, you’ll see that it reads ‘Manny Azenberg,’” said Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of The Broadway League, and Heather Hitchens, executive director of the American Theatre Wing, in a statement. “It is our absolute honor to pay tribute to the man that exemplifies the gold standard of Broadway.”
Azenberg is perhaps best known for his work with playwright Neil Simon. The pair has collaborated on more than 20 shows, winning the Tony Award for Best Play twice, in 1985 for “Biloxi Blues” and in 1991 for “Lost in Yonkers.” Their most recent collaboration, 2009’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” was less successful. It closed after just one week due to poor ticket sales.
In the 1990s, disillusioned with the modern theater scene, Azenberg openly toyed with the idea of retirement. But instead, he surprised everyone by producing two shows, “Side Show” and Simon’s “Proposals,” which opened just a few weeks apart in 1997.
“I had planned on fading out,” Azenberg told “The New York Times” that year, in between the two shows’ opening nights. “Then these two shows happened. What else can I do? It’s too late to become a doctor.”
When Azenberg accepts his Tony for Lifetime Achievement at the Beacon Theatre on June 10, he will join a long list of those who have influenced and shaped the theater world. And just two years short of 80, he shows no signs of stopping.
