Gerald Freedman, Veteran Director of Hair, The Robber Bridegroom & More, Dies at 92

Gerald Freedman, a prolific director of Broadway, off-Broadway and regional theater, died on March 17 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, according to The New York Times. The cause of death was kidney failure. He was 92.

Freedman's theater career in New York began as assistant to many distinguished directors, making his Broadway debut as second hand to Jerome Robbins on the original production of Bells Are Ringing (1956). He also assisted Robbins on the Broadway premiere of West Side Story (1957), later collaborating with him on three revivals of the musical (1960, 1964 and 1980). Freedman joined Robbins again on the original production of Gypsy (1959).

Freedman's rich career is also highlighted by serving as director on the first production of the rock musical Hair (1967), which inaugurated the current downtown space of off-Broadway's Public Theater. Freedman found his artistic home with the Public years prior, as artistic director of Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival (NYSF), winning an Obie Award for a production of Macbeth.

While Freedman was replaced by Tom O'Horgan for Hair's Broadway transfer, he continued directing many more productions with the Public, including a celebrated staging of Love's Labour's Lost (1989) as part of NYSF. Freedman also directed 11 productions at the Public's outdoor Delacorte Theater in Central Park, serving as adaptor and lyricist on a mounting of Peer Gynt (1969).

Freedman directed numerous productions with the touring repertory troupe The Acting Company, which he co-founded in 1972, working with original members including Patti LuPone and Kevin Kline. Throughout his career, Freedman also directed opera and theater regionally. For 21 years, he served as dean of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Freedman's other directorial work on Broadway includes A Time for Singing (1966)—for which he also penned the book and lyrics—The Incomparable Max (1971), The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972) and the original production of The Robber Bridegroom (1975)—starring Kline and LuPone—which he first helmed with The Acting Company; Freedman repeated his work for a Broadway remount of the musical a year later, earning Drama Desk Award nominations for both stagings.

Freedman's later directorial work on the Great White Way includes The Grand Tour (1979) and The School for Scandal (1995), which marked his final Broadway credit. Freedman has no immediate survivors.