Robert Ahrens

Last updated

Robert Ahrens
Born1970 (age 53–54)
Education Cornell University
Occupation(s) Theatrical producer, film producer
Known forProducer of the Tony-nominated musical Xanadu and Little Shop of Horrors

Robert Ahrens (born 1970) [1] is a film and theatrical producer based in New York City.

Contents

Early life and education

Ahrens grew up in Long Island, New York. [2] He graduated from Cornell University, where he was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. [3] He began his career at the Chase Manhattan Bank.

Career

Ahrens is best known as a producer of the Broadway musical Xanadu , [3] which was nominated for Best Musical at the 2008 Tony Awards. [4] Ahrens began acquiring the stage rights to the Xanadu musical in 2002 [2] after seeing an unauthorized 2001 stage production of the film. Working as an assistant to an executive at Paramount Pictures at the time, he pursued the rights to Xanadu and its soundtrack by the Electric Light Orchestra and swiftly began courting writer Douglas Carter Beane to write the book. [1]

He produced three films, Bumping Heads, Book of Love , and WTC View . He also produced Evita on Broadway and executive produced Finding Neverland for Harvey Weinstein. He has presented Kathy Griffin Wants a Tony, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and The Temptations and The Four Tops on Broadway.

He produced the long-running hit revival of Little Shop of Horrors at the Westside Theatre in Manhattan starring Jonathan Groff and Christian Borle and directed by Michael Mayer. The revival received universal critical acclaim and won all of the major 2020 Best Musical Revival Awards given that year from the Drama Desk , the Drama League, and the Outer Critics Circle .

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Laurents</span> American playwright, theatre director and screenwriter (1917–2011)

Arthur Laurents was an American playwright, theatre director, film producer and screenwriter. With a career spanning seven decades he received numerous accolades including two Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and a Golden Globe Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Awards</span> Annual awards for Broadway theatre

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in Manhattan. The ceremony is usually held in June.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathan Lane</span> American actor (born 1956)

Nathan Lane is an American actor. Since 1975, he has been on stage and screen in both comedic and dramatic roles. His awards include three Tony Awards, seven Drama Desk Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, three Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Lane received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2010, The New York Times hailed Lane as being "the greatest stage entertainer of the decade".

Stephen Flaherty is an American composer of musical theatre and film. He works most often in collaboration with the lyricist/book writer Lynn Ahrens. They are best known for writing the Broadway musicals Ragtime, which was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, and won the Tony for Best Original Score; Once on This Island, which won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, the Olivier Award for London's Best Musical, and was nominated for a Grammy Award and eight Tony Awards; and Seussical, which was nominated for the Grammy Award. Flaherty was also nominated for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for his songs and song score for the animated film musical Anastasia.

Lynn Ahrens is an American writer and lyricist for the musical theatre, television and film. She has collaborated with Stephen Flaherty for many years. She won the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for the Broadway musical Ragtime. Together with Flaherty, she has written many musicals, including Lucky Stiff, My Favorite Year, Ragtime, Seussical, A Man of No Importance, Dessa Rose, The Glorious Ones, Rocky, Little Dancer and, recently on Broadway, Anastasia and Once on This Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LaChanze</span> American actress, singer, and dancer (born 1961)

LaChanze Sapp-Gooding, known professionally as LaChanze, is an American actress, singer, and dancer. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical in 2006 for her role as Celie Harris Johnson in The Color Purple. In 2023, LaChanze received two more Tony Awards, this time as a producer. She served as co-producer on Kimberly Akimbo, which won the Tony for Best New Musical and Topdog/Underdog, which won for Best Revival of a Play.

Douglas Carter Beane is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has been nominated for five Tony Awards and won two Drama Desk Awards. His plays are essentially works with sophisticated, "drawing room" humor but just as often farce, particularly his work in musical theater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Davenport</span>

Ken Davenport is a two-time Tony Award-winning theatre producer, blogger, and writer. He is best known for his production work on Broadway.

Alexander H. Cohen was an American theatrical producer who mounted more than one hundred productions on both sides of the Atlantic. He was the only American producer to maintain offices in the West End as well as on Broadway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rob Ashford</span> American stage director and choreographer

Rob Ashford is an American stage director and choreographer. He is a Tony Award, Olivier Award, Emmy Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award winner.

<i>Xanadu</i> (musical) American musical comedy

Xanadu is a musical comedy with a book by Douglas Carter Beane and music and lyrics by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar, based on the 1980 film of the same name, which was, in turn, inspired by the 1947 Rita Hayworth film Down to Earth. The title refers to Xanadu, the site of the Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan's summer palace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stewart F. Lane</span> Broadway producer, director, playwright and former actor

Stewart F. Lane is a Broadway producer, director, playwright and former actor. He has also written books, including Let's Put on a Show! and Jews of Broadway. He has also produced in Dublin. In addition to publishing two plays, he has directed across the country, working with Stephen Baldwin, Shannen Doherty, Chazz Palminteri, and more. He is co-owner of the Palace Theatre (Broadway) with the Nederlander Organization and a partner in the Tribeca Grill with Robert De Niro, Sean Penn and Mikhail Baryshnikov. He has written three books: Let's Put on a Show!, Jews on Broadway: An Historical Survey of Performers, Playwrights, Composers, Lyricists and Producers, and Black Broadway: African Americans on the Great White Way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Sanders (producer)</span> American TV, film and theatre producer

Scott Sanders is an American television producer, film producer and theatre producer. His theatrical musical version of Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple, for which he was a lead producer alongside co-producers Oprah Winfrey and Quincy Jones, premiered on Broadway in 2005, garnering 11 Tony Award Nominations including Best Musical.

Brian Swibel, often credited as B. Swibel, is an American writer, producer, director and activist. Working in theater, film, and television, he has garnered five Tony Award nominations, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and a Kodak Emerging Filmmaker honor at the Cannes Film Festival.

The John Gore Organization (JGO), formerly known as Key Brand Entertainment (KBE), is a producer and distributor of live theater in North America, as well as an e-commerce company, focused on theater. KBE was founded in the UK in 2004 by 14-time Tony Award-winning Producer John Gore who is the company's Chairman, CEO and Owner.

Christopher Ashley is an American stage director. Since 2007, he has been the artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Grimaldi</span>

Dennis Grimaldi is an American theatrical producer, director, and choreographer who has worked on Broadway, Off Broadway, television, and on London's West End.

Douglas Besterman is an American orchestrator, musical arranger and music producer. He is the recipient of three Tony Awards out of six total nominations and two Drama Desk Awards out of six total nominations, and was a 2009 Grammy Award nominee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernard Gersten</span> American theatre producer (1923–2020)

Bernard Gersten was an American theatrical producer. Beginning in the 1960s through the early 2000s, Gersten played a major role in shaping American drama and musical theatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Kirdahy</span>

Thomas Joseph Kirdahy is an American Tony and Olivier Award-winning theatrical producer, film producer, lawyer, and activist.

References

  1. 1 2 David, Cara Joy (July 7, 2007). "Old Movie, New Musical, First-Time Producers". New York Times. Retrieved July 20, 2012.
  2. 1 2 Stasio, Marilyn (April 22, 2008). "Rob Ahrens Up Next: Broadway's Brightest". Variety . Retrieved July 20, 2012.
  3. 1 2 "Who's Who – Robert Ahrens: Xanadu Opening Night: July 10, 2007". Playbill Vault. Retrieved July 20, 2012.
  4. ↑ Robertson, Campbell (May 14, 2008). "This Year's Tony List Is Filled With Unusual Suspects". New York Times . Retrieved July 20, 2012.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.