Gerald Schoenfeld, Longtime Head of Shubert Organiztion,
Dies
By Robert Simonson
November 25, 2008
Gerald Schoenfeld, the longtime leader of the theatre-owning powerhouse known
as the Shubert Organization and a man routinely referred to as the most powerful
man on Broadway, died Nov. 25. He was born in 1924 and was believed to be 84
years old.

The Shubert Organization is the owner and caretaker of 17
Broadway theatres — more than any other company in the theatre. Along with his
late partner, Bernard Jacobs, who died in 1996, Mr. Schoenfeld ruled over this
real-estate empire, as well as the adjoining Shubert Foundation. If you were a
producer and regularly presented on Broadway, you had no choice but to do
business with Gerry and Bernie. So closely were the two men associated with the
organization that they were regularly referred to as "The Shuberts," even though
they were no blood relation to the family of brothers who first founded the
dynasty.
Mr. Schoenfeld, a lawyer by trade, went into the Shubert fold in 1950, and
teamed with Jacobs a few years later to run the organization, after the last in
the Shubert blood line exited the concern. In addition to overseeing the
operation of the empire, the two men also produced many shows.
Mr. Schoenfeld was a familiar sight at every Broadway opening, endlessly
greeting theatre colleagues with a solemnity and magnanimity that more than a
few compared jokingly to the Pope handing out dispensations. Mid-sized, bald and
deceptively mild in manner, he was known to relish the theatre business, as well
as his exalted place in its hierarchy. The Shuberts were excessively secretive
about their business, and, even as Mr. Schoenfeld grew older, topics such as a
line of succession were rarely if ever discussed.
In 2004, the Shubert-owned Plymouth Theatre on 44th Street was renamed after
Mr. Schoenfeld.