Richard Greenberg, Tony-Winning Playwright of Take Me Out, Dies at 67

Richard Greenberg, the celebrated playwright best known for his 2003 Tony-winning play Take Me Out, has died. The cause of death has not been confirmed. He was 67. 

Theater director Robert Falls, who has been collaborating with Greenberg on his play Holiday, announced the news on social media, writing, "Heartbroken by the news of playwright Richard Greenberg’s death. For the past several years we’ve been deep in collaboration on his gorgeous adaptation of Holiday, Philip Barry’s great American play—premiering at the Goodman this February. A profound loss mid-process."

Born February 22, 1958 in East Meadow, New York, Greenberg graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a degree in English, later joining the Yale School of Drama's playwriting program. He made his Broadway debut with the play Eastern Standard in 1989, returning in 2001 with an adaptation of August Strindberg's Dance of Death, starring Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren and David Strathairn. 

Take Me Out, Greenberg's play about a Major League Baseball player who comes out as gay, premiered in London in 2002, opening soon after off-Broadway at the Public Theater and transferring to Broadway in 2003 where it earned the Tony Award for Best Play as well as a Pulitzer Prize nomination. The play also won Tony Awards for actors Denis O'Hare and Jesse Tyler Ferguson who both played the role of business manager Mason Marzac—O'Hare in the original production and Ferguson in the Tony-winning 2022 Second Stage revival. 

Other works of Greenberg's to appear on Broadway include The Violet Hour, A Naked Girl on the Appian Way, Three Days of Rain, The American Plan, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Assembled Parties (Tony nomination) and Our Mother's Brief Affair. He also penned a new book for the 2008 revival of the Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey. 

"Hard to believe the genius that was Richard Greenberg is no more," wrote O'Hare on Instagram. "I owe him more than I could possibly say. He gave me the greatest gift ever--a beautiful character to inhabit in a beautiful play." Actor Adam Scott also wrote a tribute to the playwright: "In 2000 Richard Greenberg gave me a shot in his incredible play Everett Beekin at @southcoastrep. He & his writing had an enormous effect on me—I learned to set a higher standard for myself…working with people who are excellent tends to do that. What a profoundly beautiful writer. A huge loss."