Robert Whitehead, a legendary producer of serious dramas, died Sat., June 15, at his home in Pound Ridge, New York, just two weeks after receiving the 2002 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. Whitehead was 86 years old and had been battling cancer for some time.
Whitehead's career, which spanned over half a century, was marked by his commitment to works of artistic value and social relevance; his theatre aesthetics always took precedence over economic considerations. Nonetheless, Whitehead was a successful businessman.
With more than 70 credits to his name, his plays include the Tony Award-winning "Master Class," (starring his wife, actress Zoe Caldwell) and "Death of a Salesman" (the revival starring Dustin Hoffman). Whitehead was very much identified with the works of Arthur Miller. He also mounted plays by such theatre luminaries as Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, Friedrich Durrenmatt, Jean Anouilh, Carson McCullers, and Harold Pinter.
Among the actors who appeared in his productions were John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Paul Scofield, Julie Harris, Ethel Waters, Kim Stanley, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, and Jason Robards.
Whitehead was always a hands-on producer, involved in all aspects of production—from its inception to casting to advertising. And despite the rough-and-tumble world he found himself in, Whitehead was a study in elegance, both in dress and speech.
Watershed Moments
Whitehead was born in Montreal, the son of a businessman and an opera singer. As a youngster he played theatre games with his cousin, Hume Cronyn. Following a stint at the Trinity College School in Montreal, Whitehead came to New York and launched an acting career. He also worked as a stage manager and built scenery.
A watershed moment for Whitehead was in the early '40s while reading an essay by director-critic Harold Clurman that advocated a collaborative theatre movement that would engage its audience in a serious dialogue about social/political/cultural issues. Ten years later, Whitehead joined forces with Clurman and the two of them co-produced a host of major Broadway productions, such as "Member of the Wedding," "Bus Stop," "The Waltz of the Toreadors," "A Touch of the Poet," and "Incident at Vichy."
On May 13 of this year, Whitehead and the late Clurman were honored by the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, which named two new connecting studios after the legendary figures. Whitehead attended the festive event, marking one of his last public appearances.
Throughout his life, Whitehead was a champion of thought-provoking drama, and he was not happy with the state of theatre in recent years. He largely blamed economics. When Back Stage interviewed him a year and a half ago, he said that as early as the late '70s, producers were discovering that, with rare exceptions, the returns on straight plays simply did not equal the costs.
"Musicals—of a certain type—were and are the economic solution," Whitehead said. "Tickets are selling, but the quality of what's on stage has diminished." Whitehead pointed to the loss of a theatre of "anger and protest that reflected our lives and awakened something in us."
Although he believed the plays of the Depression were particularly interesting, he acknowledged that the socially-minded plays of the '60s had some value for him—"A show like 'Cats' tells us nothing about who we are, but it runs 14 years. I never had a play run for more than two years. I think theatre is healthier when there is turnover. Harold Clurman said the history of theatre is a history of flops. There should be 40 plays on Broadway each year, and 35 will be flops."
Whitehead was convinced that if there were a national mandate to underwrite and support the arts, quality plays that raise interesting questions would be forthcoming. These new plays, he maintained, would serve as career springboards for many actors who are mostly unemployed and surely unrecognized. "That's because there is a lack of material to show what they can do."
Whitehead had a special fondness for small realistic plays, adding that there is nothing quite like the intimacy of a live performance, "especially when one person on stage is really talking to another."
Looking back, Whitehead also lamented the demise of the independent producer. He attributed the loss to, once again, a changing economic landscape. "In the '60s and even into the '70s, there were seven or eight major producers, each with his own vision. The producer would surround himself with a handful of investors—many of whom were personal friends—who shared his vision.
"Each production team was a kind of family. But thanks to inflation and the cost of mounting a production, corporations got into the act," Whitehead continued. "Producers had to go to corporations to survive. Shows changed. Audiences changed."
Whitehead's most recent play was Terrence McNally's "Master Class," which brought both its lead (Zoe Caldwell) and featured actress (Audra McDonald) Tony awards. It ran 610 performances, making the play Whitehead's second longest-running hit. His production of "A Man For All Seasons," according to Playbill, had 638.
Whitehead is survived by his wife and two sons, Sam, a theatre critic, and Charles, who is in theatre production. Funeral services will be private.
