Tony-winning producer Scott Rudin is planning a return to the New York theatre world, according to a piece in The New York Times. Rudin has been largely absent from producing since reports emerged of his abusive behavior to subordinates behind the scenes.
Though such reports have been published periodically over his career, Rudin stepped away from his professional life following 2021 articles in The Hollywood Reporter and New York Magazine. Published in the wake of the #MeToo movement, both resulted in renewed calls for Rudin to be barred from the industry. Rudin ultimately announced that he would “step back” from Broadway productions and film projects and resign from The Broadway League, installing Kate Horton as executive producer of his then-developing Broadway revival of The Music Man. That revival would open at the Winter Garden Theatre in 2022 starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster.
It remains unclear if Rudin has re-joined The Broadway League, which did not return the New York Times' request for comment.
Among the projects Rudin has in the works, according to the Times, are a Broadway run of Samuel D. Hunter's Little Bear Ridge Road this fall, which would follow its world premiere at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company last year. The play would reportedly star Laurie Metcalf, a frequent Rudin collaborator, and be directed by Tony winner Joe Mantello (Here We Are, Wicked). In the spring, Rudin plans to bring a new play by David Hare, Montauk, to Broadway, also starring Metcalf and directed by Mantello. A revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, starring Nathan Lane and Metcalf, is planned for the 2026-2027 Broadway season, also directed by Mantello.
Metcalf and Mantello aside, Rudin also plans to bring Bruce Norris' Cottonfield to Broadway this fall with Robert O'Hara directing, and an Off-Broadway run of Wallace Shawn's What We Did Before Our Moth Days, to be directed by Shawn's My Dinner With André co-star, André Gregory.
Asked if he plans to return to film producing as well, Rudin told the Times that he's starting with these stage projects.
The piece also reports that Rudin has undergone "a decent amount of therapy," and has made apologies to many people, though he is aware that it is likely not everyone will be pleased with his return. “I’m going to try to come back and make some more good work, and people will feel how they feel,” Rudin told the outlet. “And if some people are really angry about it, they’ll have the right to be angry about it.”
Rudin's prolific Broadway producing career most recently included The Book of Mormon, To Kill a Mockingbird, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, West Side Story, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, Hillary and Clinton, King Lear, The Waverly Gallery, The Ferryman, The Boys in the Band, The Iceman Cometh, Carousel, and Three Tall Women.
