Producer Jeffrey Richards '69 Keeps Broadway Buzzing

In Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, the character of Emily is given the chance to relive a single day of her life, leading to a heartbreaking realization: Life’s beauty is lost on the living. “Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it ... every, every minute?” 

For audiences attending the most recent Broadway revival of Our Town, which closed in January, a souvenir program revealed the moments many of the show’s cast and creative team would hope to relive. Alongside reflections from stars like Jim Parsons, Zoey Deutch, and Katie Holmes, one particularly striking entry belonged to the show’s producer, Jeffrey Richards ’69. “It was the end of March, my senior year at Wesleyan. Snowing. 2:00 a.m.,” Richards wrote. “I wanted to see the campus for the last time blanketed in snow.” 

It’s a moving reflection from a producer who has spent his career bringing stories of profound human connection to the stage. From his days as a theater critic for Wesleyan University’s student newspaper, The Wesleyan Argus, to becoming one of Broadway’s leading producers, Richards has created an enduring mark on American theater. “Not since the heyday of the legendary David Merrick has a single producer had such an influence on Broadway,” The Los Angeles Times once noted of Richards. 

For Richards, Broadway isn’t just a career—it’s his family’s business. His mother, Helen Stern Richards, was a Broadway press representative, company manager, and general manager. She handled publicity for the original production of West Side Story, was the company manager for Purlie Victorious during its 1961 Broadway premiere, and later, was the general manager of a Broadway revival of The Pajama Game starring Cab Calloway. 

More than six decades later, Richards produced the acclaimed 2023 revival of Purlie Victorious, working with director Kenny Leon. Poignantly, his revival of Our Town—also directed by Leon—holds another connection to his mother. One of her final jobs as a company manager was on a production of Our Town starring Henry Fonda. These revivals not only honored his mother’s legacy but also reaffirmed Richards’s lifelong commitment to bringing essential stories to new generations. 

Richards’s journey as a producer has been defined by his instinct for identifying emotionally compelling narratives and his ability to build lasting relationships with artists. His latest project, Maybe Happy Ending, had been on his radar since 2016. “I got a correspondence from somebody who had worked in my office . . . inviting me to see a reading of a musical called What I Learned from People,” he recalled. “They described it as a romantic comedy set in the late 21st century that imagines the magical and bittersweet reawakening to the things that make us human.” 

Richards was immediately excited by the show’s potential but bringing it to Broadway was complicated by COVID-19 shutdowns and evolving creative direction. Securing a theater was difficult due to post-pandemic scheduling following an out-of-town run in Atlanta, but “when Darren Criss came aboard, it was essential,” Richards admitted. Producing an original musical on Broadway is riskier than adapting a recognizable story or brand, making the involvement of Criss, who starred in the hit television show Glee, that much more important, according to Richards. Ultimately, the musical love story about two retired androids, now re-titled Maybe Happy Ending, found its way to Broadway and earned critical acclaim. The New York Times has called it “astonishing . . . a joyful, heartbreaking, cutting-edge production.” 

While Maybe Happy Ending represents an innovative future for Broadway, Richards’s revival of Our Town pays tribute to its past. Once again collaborating with Leon, they worked to bring an inclusive vision to the storied play. 

“I wanted to do this play because it has grown with me over the years,” Richards explained. “Kenny’s vision was to bring diversity to Our Town . . . we have a Native American. We have a deaf actor. We have a Black family playing the Gibbs.” The vision worked—The New York Times described the revival as “an Our Town for all of us.” 

As a former Broadway publicist, Richards still knows what makes a great media pitch. Case in point: Our Town’s first rehearsal. Instead of gathering in a Times Square studio, Richards arranged for two buses to take the entire company to Peterborough, New Hampshire, where Wilder finished writing the play. 

The trip was not just a great publicity moment—it garnered coverage from The New Yorker and NPR—but also a way to immerse the cast in the world of Our Town. “When you drive from Manhattan to New Hampshire and leave at 7:45 in the morning, and when you come back at 1:30 in the morning, it’s a great bonding experience for everybody involved with the production,” Richards said. 

Producing in today’s Broadway landscape is not without its challenges. Richards, like many in the industry, has had to navigate post-pandemic uncertainty, shifting audience expectations, and economic pressures. But that hasn’t slowed him down. “The six most dangerous letters in the English language,” he joked, “are R-E-T-I-R-E.” Instead, he remains busier than ever. 

He’s currently working on a revival of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross starring Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, and Bill Burr, which opened in March. “David calls me his producer at the theater, and he’s been very loyal to me,” Richards says. Over the years, he has worked on many Mamet productions, including Speed-the-Plow, American Buffalo, and November, the latter of which Mamet dedicated to him. He is also looking ahead to upcoming Broadway productions of The Diary of Anne Frank, Bug by Tracy Letts, and Data by new playwright Matthew Libby. 

Whether exploring new facets of a classic like Our Town or championing a bold new work like Maybe Happy Ending, Richards continues to shape the theatrical landscape with a care for what moves audiences and celebrates artists. “When I have an idea to either revive a play or when I’m sent a script of a new play, and I’m riveted or taken with it, it’s inspiring.”