I know, I know. We lost Sofia yesterday, she went to the great Shady Pines in the sky, and that was very sad. But we also lost Gladys Nederlander (nee Rackmil) at age 83, one of Broadway’s most legendary producettes. Born Gladys Lenore Blum in 1925, she rose beyond her first-generation Jewish immigrant status and married not once but thrice, each time further ascending up the entertainment biz ranks—first a songwriter (gateway drug), then the head of Decca Records (getting there), and finally, her boss, the theater owner and producer Mr. Nederlander himself (charm!).
She went on to produce nine Broadway shows between 1976 and 1993, including the first revival of “West Side Story” in 1980 (it will be done again—in Spanglish—in 2009, by Arthur Laurents, who is outliving all these people and will probably be 140 at some point). Let us tip our hats to a real New York City woman, shall we?
