74 | AUGUST 25 • 2022 

ARTS&LIFE
THEATER

T

here’s a Michigan con-
nection to the upcom-
ing Broadway run of 
Tom Stoppard’s latest play, 
Leopoldstadt, this title taken 
from the historical name of a 
Jewish section of 
Vienna and in con-
sideration of the 
playwright’s family 
history tied to the 
story.
Roy Furman, 
married to 
University of Michigan faculty 
member Marjorie Fisher in 
2015 and spending part of the 
year in Detroit’s Birmingham 
suburb, is a stage producer who 
offered to join British producer 
Sonia Friedman in bringing the 
play to New York. 
The drama, which received 
the Olivier Award (British 
Tony) in 2020, starts running 
Sept. 14 and officially opens 

Oct. 2 at the Longacre Theatre. 
It is not a Holocaust play, but 
the Holocaust enters into the 
telling of the Merz family. 
Stoppard’s 19th play on 
Broadway is by the author of 
four Best Play Tony Awards, 
the largest number given to one 
playwright.
“It’s a forever story that needs 
to be told, and it’s told beautiful-
ly by a master storyteller,
” said 
Furman, a Harvard Law School 
graduate who practiced law, 
moved into finance and then 
entered theater production. “It’s 
simply a great play, and I’m very 
excited about it. 
“I saw it in London just 
before COVID, and I went at 
once to meet with the London 
producer. After some discus-
sions, we agreed that I would 
partner with her. As our third 
producer, we added Lorne 
Michaels, creator and executive 

producer of Saturday Night 
Live.”
The play, which begins at 
the end of the 19th century 
and ends in the middle of the 
20th century, moves from the 
pogroms of Eastern Europe 
through successes in Vienna, 
where there is a rise and fall of 
the Jewish population.
“
Although there will not 
be performances on Rosh 
Hashanah, we think the time 
of the High Holidays will be a 
good time to reveal this story,
” 
said Furman, who attends ser-
vices at the Central Synagogue 
in New York City, where he 

has an apartment in addition 
to Florida and Michigan resi-
dences. 
“This is an ensemble piece, 
and the star is really writer Tom 
Stoppard. It has a cast of 38 
people including youngsters. 
My hope is that it becomes a 
fixture in New York, and I’m 
positive this will go on many 
months.
”

A LOVE OF THEATER
Furman worked his way up in 
production, which he defines at 
three levels he has fulfilled — 
investors, investors with limited 
production responsibilities and 

Michigan producer Roy Furman 
brings Leopoldstadt to the 
New York stage this September.

Roy 
Furman

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Some of the Leopoldstadt cast 
visited the Neue Galerie to immerse 
and educate themselves on early 
20th-century German and Austrian 
art and design as they prepare for 
this deeply moving play.

CARRINGTON SPIRES