Jack Viertel facts for kids
Jack Viertel is an American theatrical producer and writer. This means he helps create and put on plays and musicals, and he also writes books. He was born in Stamford, Connecticut.
For 34 years, from 1987 to 2021, he worked at a company called Jujamcyn Theaters. There, he held important jobs like Creative Director and Senior Vice President. He came up with the idea for Smokey Joe's Cafe, which became the longest-running musical show on Broadway! He also thought of the idea for After Midnight and helped develop the story for Hairspray. The popular musical and movie The Prom also started from his original idea.
Contents
Bringing Musicals to Life
Working with Encores!
From 2000 to 2020, Jack Viertel was a producer for the Encores! series. This series puts on special, often shorter, versions of classic musicals. While he was in charge, several of these Encores! shows became so popular that they moved to the big Broadway stages. Some of these included After Midnight, The Apple Tree, Finian's Rainbow, and Gypsy.
Sharing His Knowledge
Teaching and Writing a Book
In 2003, Jack Viertel started teaching at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts, a famous university for arts students. He taught a course about musical theater. He later turned the lessons and ideas from this course into a book called The Secret Life of the American Musical. This book was published in 2016. People who read the book really liked it, and The New York Times newspaper said it was "revelatory and entertaining," meaning it was full of interesting new ideas and fun to read.
His Book
- The Secret Life of the American Musical, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016. ISBN 978-0-374-53689-3
