Todd Haimes, the longtime artistic director and CEO of the Roundabout Theatre Company who helped elevate the once-struggling organization into a Tony-winning staple of the New York City stage scene, died Wednesday at age 66.
A representative confirmed Haimes died in New York of complications from cancer.
Haimes became the executive director of Roundabout in 1983, six years after the off-off-Broadway company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The nonprofit company now controls three Broadway venues — the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, Studio 54 theater and the American Airlines Theatre — along with two other Manhattan stages.
Roundabout won 34 Tony Awards under Haimes’ leadership and put out productions including “Cabaret,” “A Soldier’s Play” and “Anything Goes.” Kristin Chenoweth, Ewan McGregor, Sutton Foster, Liam Neeson, Jane Krakowski and Alan Cumming are among the big-name performers to star in Roundabout shows with Haimes in charge.
“Most of you won’t know him but a great man of the New York Theater passed today, Mr. Todd Haimes,” tweeted “Seinfeld” actor Jason Alexander. “Todd ran the Roundabout Theater in NY and has been a giant and an icon of the theater for decades. Kind and caring, a man of taste and passion.”
Six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald wrote Haimes would be “so sorely missed,” while Mark Ruffalo — an actor in Roundabout’s 2017 “The Price” revival — tweeted a similar sentiment.
“You were a wonderful and kind soul,” Ruffalo wrote. “Thank you for the chance to work at the Roundabout with you. You will be missed on Broadway, the theater world, and the world at large.”