Ira Weitzman

Ira Weitzman, beginning in 1978, as the creator and first Director of the Musical Theater Program at Playwrights Horizons and from 1992 at Lincoln Center Theater, and later as Associate Producer of Musical Theater at both institutions, Ira Weitzman developed the original productions of William Finn and James Lapine’s FALSETTOS trilogy, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s LUCKY STIFF and ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, Tom Cone, Ellen Fitzhugh and Skip Kennon’s HERRINGBONE, George C. Wolfe’s New York theater debut, PARADISE!, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, INTO THE WOODS and PASSION, Sondheim and John Weidman’s ASSASSINS, Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley’s VIOLET, Kirsten Childs’ THE BUBBLY BLACK GIRL SHED HER CHAMELEON SKIN, James Valcq and Fred Alley’s THE SPITFIRE GRILL, Ricky Ian Gordon and Richard Nelson’s MY LIFE WITH ALBERTINE, Michael John LaChiusa’s HELLO AGAIN, MARIE CHRISTINE, and BERNARDA ALBA, the 1994 revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s CAROUSEL, Graciela Daniele, Jim Lewis, Michael John LaChiusa and Bob Telson’s CHRONICLE OF A DEATH FORETOLD, Finn and Lapine’s A NEW BRAIN, Susan Stroman and Weidman’s CONTACT, Ahrens, Flaherty and Terrence McNally’s A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE, Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown’s PARADE, Finn’s ELEGIES; A SONG CYCLE, Burt Shevelove, Nathan Lane and Sondheim’s THE FROGS, Martha Clarke and Charles Mee’s BELLE EPOQUE, Ahrens and Flaherty’s DESSA ROSE and THE GLORIOUS ONE, and Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas’s THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA.

From 2008 through the present as the Mindich Musical Theater Producer at LCT, Ira Weitzman oversaw the development and production of the Tony Award-winning revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s SOUTH PACIFIC as well as THE KING AND I, Lerner and Loewe’s MY FAIR LADY and the 2016 Broadway revival of Finn and Lapine’s FALSETTOS. During the same period, he developed new musicals including CLAY by Matt Sax and Eric Rosen which inaugurated LCT3 (an initiative devoted to the work of emerging artists), DOGFIGHT by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Peter Duchan, Davis Yazbek and Jeffrey Lane’s WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, HAPPINESS by Stroman, Weidman, Michael Korie and Scott Frankel, A MINISTER’S WIFE by Austin Pendleton, Joshua Schmidt and Jan Tranen, PRELUDES by Dave Malloy and Rachel Chavkin, FLYING OVER SUNSET by James Lapine, Tom Kitt and Michael Korie and THE GARDENS OF ANUNCIA by LaChiusa and Daniele.

In addition to productions at PH and LCT, he produced the acclaimed revival of Moss Hart and Irving Berlin’s AS THOUSANDS CHEER for Drama Dept, was line producer and dramaturg for the first post-Broadway revisal of Sondheim and Furth’s MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG directed by Lapine at the La Jolla Playhouse and was the production coordinator for the world premiere of INTO THE WOODS at the Old Globe.

As a concert producer, Weitzman was Artistic Director of the WBAI-FM radio’s Free Music Store, The Writers Cabaret at NY’s famed West Bank Café under the auspices of Playwrights Horizons, the first Artistic Director of City Center’s Encores! and the inaugural producer of Lincoln Center’s American Songbook concert series as well as producing hundreds of benefit performances for various institutions.

In 2009, Ira Weitzman received the Lucille Lortel Award for Sustained Excellence in Off-Broadway Theater.