Producer Richards ’69 is Busy on Broadway

Jeffrey Richards ’69 continues to bring challenging and entertaining work to Broadway, having been a co-producer recently of the Tony Award-winning shows Spring Awakening, August: Osage County and Hair.

This winter, he is one of the producers of Race by David Mamet (Speed-the-Plow, Oleanna), which opened on Broadway on December 6 at the Ethel Barrymore Theater. In this drama, a firm made up of three lawyers, two black and one white, is offered the chance to defend a white man charged with a crime against a young black woman. The cast includes James Spader (Boston Legal), Kerry Washington (Ray), David Alan Grier and Richard Thomas under the direction of the playwright.

In his review of the play on Bloomberg.com, John Simon wrote: “We get a high-voltage melodrama that is unafraid to raise painful questions while dispensing prickly ideas and provocative dialogue amid steady suspense.”

Richards is also co-producing two other shows coming to Broadway, All About Me and Enron. All About Me is a comic entertainment with music combining the talents of American songbook expert and singer Michael Feinstein and Dame Edna (a.k.a Australian performer, Barry Humphries). Tony-winning director Jerry Zaks will stage the production, written by playwright Christopher Durang. The show begins previews at the Henry Miller’s Theater on February 19, 2010 and opens on March 18.

Enron, written by Lucy Prebble and directed by Rupert Goold, was inspired by the real-life financial scandal of Enron in 2001. Making use of music, dance and video, this political satire deals inventively with the company’s upheaval and casts a fresh light on the financial turmoil of the present. The show won acclaim when it opened earlier this year at London’s Royal Court Theater and is transferring to the city’s West End in January 2010.

Previews on Broadway will begin at the Broadhurst Theater April 8, 2010, prior to an opening on April 27.