Richard Greenberg, the Tony award-winning playwright of Take Me Out, has died. He was 67.
Greenberg’s death was announced by friend and theater director Robert Falls. The two were working on an adaptation of Philip Barry’s Holiday. Details of his death were not immediately available.
“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,” Falls wrote on Truth Social. “For over 30 years, it’s been one of life’s great pleasures to know Rich and his writing. Dazzling, humane, wildly funny. … His kindness was real. His loss is enormous.”
Greenberg was born on February 22, 1958, in East Meadow, New York, and went on to attend Princeton University. After graduating with a bachelor of arts in English, he briefly attended Harvard for graduate school but opted to instead attend Yale University’s drama school where he enrolled in their playwriting program.
While at Yale, Greenberg notably won the George Oppenheimer Award in 1985 for his off-off-Broadway play The Bloodletters. He went on to have a flourishing career in theater, and won a Tony award in 2003 for Take Me Out, which centers around a MLB player who comes out as gay. Before making its Broadway debut in early 2003, the play premiered off-Broadway in 2002.
Take Me Out won the Tony for best play in 2003, plus two additional wins. Joe Mantello nabbed the win for best direction of a play while Denis O’Hare won best performance by a featured actor. The show’s 2022 revival additionally won two more Tonys, including best revival of a play and a win for best supporting actor that went to Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
After Greenberg’s death was announced Friday, O’Hare shared a tribute in his honor on Instagram. “Hard to believe the genius that was Richard Greenberg is no more. 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,” he wrote.
Greenberg’s additional Broadway credits include Eastern Standard, The Dance of Death, the 2009 revival of The American Plan, Our Mother’s Brief Affair and 2013’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, among others.
