Bernard Gersten, Beloved Tony-Winning Leader of Lincoln Center Theater, Dies at 97

Bernard Gersten, the longstanding executive producer of Lincoln Center Theater, has died at the age of 97. Gersten led the illustrious institution from its re-establishment in 1985 to his retirement in 2013. He led LCT in partnership with Gregory Mosher through 1991 and with André Bishop, the current artistic director, from 1991 forward. 

Gersten was born on January 30, 1923 in Newark, New Jersey. In 1945, he got his first taste of Broadway as the assistant stage manager for Hamlet, starring Maurice Evans. He went on to stage manage shows including All You Need Is One Good Break, Tovarich, Sandhog, Guys and Dolls, South Pacific, Finian's Rainbow, Mr. Wonderful, Brigadoon, Edwin Booth, The Legend of Lizzie, Roman Candle, Do Re Mi and Arturo Ui.

After connecting with Joseph Papp at the Actor's Lab in Los Angeles in 1948, Gersten worked with Papp from 1960 to 1978 as the associate producer of the New York Shakespeare Festival. He championed works such as A Chorus Line, Two Gentlemen of Verona, For Colored Girls..., That Championship Season, Streamers, Threepenny Opera and Hair.  In addition to his LCT role, Gersten served as the executive vice president of Zoetrope Studios, executive producer of Francis Ford Coppola's One From the Heart and co-producer of the live-orchestra presentations throughout the world of Abel Gance's Napoleon. He also served as the vice president of Radio City Music Hall.

Gersten received a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2013. Throughout his career, he also garnered 14 Tony Awards for his productions throughout the years, including Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Clybourne Park, War Horse, the 2008 revival of South Pacific, The Coast of Utopia, the 2006 revival of Awake and Sing!, the 2004 revival of Henry IV, Contact, the 1996 revival of A Delicate Balance, the 1995 revival of The Heiress, Passion, the 1994 revival of Carousel, the 1989 revival of Our Town and the 1988 revival of Anything Goes.

Gersten also lent his talents to aspiring theater makers as an adjunct professor of Theater Administration at New York University, Yale School of Drama and Columbia University School of the Arts. He is survived by his wife Cora and daughters Jenny and Jilian.