Michael Frazier, Producer, Is Dead at 72
By Robert Simonson
27 Oct 2009
Michael Frazier, a theatrical producer, who presented Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music on Broadway, died of complications of Parkinson's disease on Oct. 23, in Great Barrington, Mass. He was 72.
Lena Horne, a concert presentation that brought the 1940s film and recording star new-found fame when it bowed on Broadway in 1981, was Mr. Frazier's most notable success. It ran more than a year and won Horne a special Tony Award. The show subsequently toured the country, played London and was presented as a television special.
Otherwise, Mr. Frazier's Broadway producing career was marked by some very notable, even historical, flops. He produced Hide and Seek, a 1980 thriller that ran all of 8 performances; ushered in End of the World, the 1984, Harold Prince-directed play that was author Arthur Kopit's last, brief gasp as a Broadway playwright; was one of the backers of another famous Prince misfire, the burlesque house-set musical Grind, which ran a couple months in 1985; and produced Mail, the little-seen 1988 musical by and starring actor Michael Rupert. His final Broadway credit was 3 From Brooklyn in 1992. Like Mail, it starred one of its creators, Sal Richards; and, like Mail, it didn't last long.
He first became a Broadway producer in 1973 when he joined several others to present a revival of Clare Booth Luce's The Women starring Kim Hunter, Myrna Loy and Alexis Smith.
Mr. Frazier also producer Off-Broadway, including the 1990 musical Further Mo' at the Village Gate, and, 1991, Brad Fraser's Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love at the Orpheum, which received a lot of attention for its gory subject matter but did not catch on with audiences.
In 1989, Mr. Frazier cast his lot in Chicago, initiating a non-profit enterprise at the Halsted Theatre Centre. "I want to do a series of four new American plays in the small space, each running about 6 to 10 weeks," he said at the time.
Contact Us | Advertise | Privacy Policy
Send questions and comments to the Webmaster
Copyright © 2009 Playbill, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|