James B. Freydberg
JAMES B. FREYDBERG Over his many years producing for the theatre, Mr. Freydberg has been producing and developing mostly new, original works for the New York stage. He has produced over fifty productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in regional theatres combined. His Broadway productions have received over forty-five Tony award nominations and in 1999 the smash hit Fool Moon starring David Shiner, Bill Irwin and The Red Clay Ramblers, in its' third Broadway turn, won a Special Tony Award. He also produced Fool Moon in Los Angeles, San Francisco, The Kennedy Center, Seattle Vienna, Munich, and Frankfurt. Other Broadway productions include: Ring of Fire the Johnny Cash musical Paul Rudnick's I Hate Hamlet; Lanford Wilson's Burn This starring John Malkovich (Also, produced the box office record breaking London production); Bill Irwin and Friends in Largely New York; Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song & Dance starring Bernadette Peters; Athol Fugard's Blood Knot and 'Master Harold' ...And The Boys, which received the New York and Outer Critic's Circle Award for Best Play; Julia Sweeney's God Said, "Ha!"; the Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire musicals Baby and Big; Hugh Leonard's critically acclaimed play A Life. Off-Broadway, he produced Athol Fugard's New York Drama Critics Circle and Helen Hayes Award-winning Outstanding Production at the Kennedy Center, The Road To Mecca and was Executive Producer of the Off-Broadway hit comedy Kathy & Mo: Parallel Lives, starring Kathy Najimy & Mo Gaffney. He also co-produced the Outer Critics Circle award and Obie award-winning musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch and produced the musical Three Guys Naked From The Waist Down. Other Off-Broadway productions include: Claudia Shear's award winning play Blown Sideways Through Life (Off-Broadway and Los Angeles), the Obie award-winning play The Tricky Part by Martin Moran, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil songbook musical They Wrote That? Wrong Turn At Lungfish written by Garry Marshall and Lowell Ganz, starring George C. Scott, Tony Danza and Jami Gertz, directed by Garry Marshall; Chesapeake by Lee Blessing, Athol Fugard's My Children, My Africa; Reno In Rage And Rehab; the Maltby & Shire musical Starting Here, Starting Now; David Rabe's Those The River Keeps; The Day Room by Don Delillo, among others. Other productions include: the box office record-breaking Los Angeles production of The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler, which ran for nearly two years; Fully Committed by Becky Mode (Los Angeles); Other People's Money (Chicago); the Tony award-winning play ART by Yasmina Reza (Chicago); Asparagus Valley Cultural Society with Penn Jillette, Teller and Weir Chrisimer, which played over 900 performances at the Phoenix Theatre in San Francisco, as well as Philadelphia. In 2008, Mr. Freydberg co-produced with Pasadena Playhouse world premiere development production of the musical MASK with music and lyrics by Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, book by Anna Hamilton Phelan and directed by Richard Maltby, Jr. In addition to theatre, he also produced the award-winning film Zooman written by Pulitzer Prize-winner writer Charles Fuller for Showtime, starring Academy Award winner Lou Gossett, Jr., as well as the award-winning film The Trial of Bernhard Goetz for PBS American Playhouse, and was the co-creator and producer of NBC Theater, which commissioned playwrights to write dramatic films for television. Mr. Freydberg was a partner of Pachyderm Entertainment, a film, television and theater development company. Pachyderm Entertainment produced the film, Dr. Bigscreen for Sony's IMAX theatre and in 1997 opened Madhattan at Las Vegas' New York Hotel. He has served as an advisor to the National Endowment's Opera-Musical Theatre Development Program, created the American Playwrights' Project with Jujamcyn Theatres, which commissioned new works for the American theatre. He also serves as President of Fremont Associates, Inc., a theatrical general management firm. Mr. Freydberg is a member of The Broadway League and served on the League's Board of Governors, The Theatre Development Fund's 50 Cent Fund Committee, and was also a member of The Tony Awards Administration Committee. In past years, he has served on the Broadway League's Labor Board of negotiations with ATPAM, SSD&C and AEA. He teaches courses in commercial producing at Columbia University Graduate School. He currently has two musicals and two plays in development. in addition to theater Mr. Freydberg recently formed a documentary film development company which primarily deals with world issues. Two new projects are currently in development. Bio as of March, 2011. American Theatre Wing programs, interviews and/or credits include: Working in the Theatre (video) Production: Fool Moon - April, 1993 - Watch now. Production: Burn This - September, 1987 - Watch now. Internet Broadway Database Listing (IBDB.com)