Bob Fennell, Respected Broadway Publicist of Wicked and Spelling Bee, Dead at 48
A respected press agent and co-owner of the Manhattan firm The Publicity Office, Fennell was chief publicist for more than 100 Broadway, off-Broadway and touring productions during his career, including current shows Wicked and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Other notable productions include Angels in America, The Phantom of the Opera, A Raisin in the Sun, Skylight, The Diary of Anne Frank, Hamlet, Follies, Fortune's Fool, A Christmas Carol, Three Days of Rain, Stomp and The Vagina Monologues.
Fennell worked with many notable stage and screen performers including Sir Ian McKellan, Ralph Fiennes, Carol Burnett, Patrick Stewart, Frank Langella, Nigel Hawthorne, Christopher Walken, Alan Bates, Cherry Jones, Sean Combs and Julia Roberts.
Fennell was born Robert Arthur Fennell on November 7, 1958 in Yonkers, New York, and was a carpenter and actor prior to becoming a press agent. He attended Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, as well as Fordham University and Tisch School of the Arts. Prior to joining The Publicity Office, Fennell was an associate at the Broadway press office Boneau/Bryan-Brown. He was also an adjunct lecturer at Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, NY.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Robert A. Fennell Scholarship at Brooklyn College click "Other" button and type in "Robert A. Fennell Fund", which was established by the college in Fennell's name for a first-year management student in the college's MFA program.