Paul Libin, a forceful presence on and off-Broadway, dies at 94

Boston Globe

11-07-2025

Rocco Landesman, former president and owner of Jujamcyn, said Mr. Libin had a wall-penetrating voice, a forceful presence and enormous energy.
'I depended on Paul entirely,' Landesman said in an interview. 'Someone had to run the company. But I wouldn't describe his role as corporate. He was as likely to be climbing into the air-conditioning ducts at the St. James Theater as he was to be sitting at his desk. He came in every day with enthusiasm.'
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That enthusiasm dated to Mr. Libin's early days as an assistant to Jo Mielziner, a Tony-winning scenic designer and producer. When Mielziner produced the Broadway musical 'Happy Hunting,' which opened in late 1956, he promoted Mr. Libin to stage manager.
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In 1958, on his way to a dentist appointment, Mr. Libin passed the Hotel Martinique, on West 32nd Street near Broadway, and saw a sign advertising the ballroom's availability. He thought of it as a space that he and director Word Baker could turn into a theater-in-the-round for a production of 'The Crucible,' a 1953 Tony-winning Broadway play about the Salem witch trials and an allegory of the McCarthy-era Red Scare.
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'I talked to the manager of the hotel,' Mr. Libin said in an interview with The New York Times in 2013. 'A really tough character. Used to carry a snub-nosed .38.'
The hotel manager was not enthused about Mr. Libin's idea. But being overly confident, the 27-year-old Mr. Libin telephoned Miller's agent to say, 'We have the theater.'
The agent told him that Miller would have to see it.
When Miller showed up at the hotel with his wife, Marilyn Monroe, the hotel manager didn't initially see her standing off to the side.
'I said, 'I'd like you to meet his wife,'' Mr. Libin recalled telling the hotel manager. 'When the guy turned, I thought he was going to melt right there. He could hardly speak.'
The hotel manager, gobsmacked, quickly agreed to a deal with Mr. Libin.
The Martinique Theater's production of 'The Crucible' was a big success; it closed after 571 performances, nearly three times the 197 the play had on Broadway.
Paul Libin was born Dec. 12, 1930, in Chicago. His parents, Ely and Chaika (Belatzkin) Libin, were Russian immigrants who ran a grocery store.
In 1949, when he was about 19, he was studying international relations at the University of Illinois Chicago when he attended a production of Miller's 'Death of a Salesman.' After he saw Thomas Mitchell, who was playing Willy Loman, leave the theater, he recalled saying, 'Oh, my God, Willy Loman is alive!' -- as if to convey the magic of Mitchell's performance and theater itself.
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That performance made him want to become an actor. He transferred to Columbia University's School of the Arts in 1951 and acted in summer stock before being drafted into the Army in 1953.
At Fort Hood, in Texas, he told his commanding officer that he had producing experience -- he did not -- and formed a theater group, turning a movie theater on the base into a stage. After he was discharged in 1955, he completed his education at Columbia, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree the next year. One of his professors recommended him to Mielziner.
After the success of 'The Crucible,' Mr. Libin produced more shows at the Martinique and at other theaters in the New York area, including children's shows performed by his Peppermint Players repertory company.
His connection to Circle in the Square was forged in 1963, when Mann asked him about staging Luigi Pirandello's 'Six Characters in Search of an Author' at the Martinique Theater, which Mr. Libin was leasing.
'I said, 'Why don't we do it together?' And we did,' Mr. Libin told Playbill in 2005.
Mr. Libin joined Circle in the Square that year as Mann's co-producer and the company's managing director at its theater in Greenwich Village (he would later hold the titles of producing director and president), and then at its larger venue on Broadway in 1972.
Their many shows included works by William Shakespeare, Eugene O'Neill, George Bernard Shaw, Noël Coward, Molière, Anton Chekhov and Tennessee Williams. In 1976, the theater received a special Tony Award for its first 25 years of quality productions.
'He was one of the old-timers who thought a producer had to do everything and anything to get the show on,' Susan Frankel, CEO of Circle in the Square, said in an interview. 'He was extremely hands-on -- and a handy man.'
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Mr. Libin was also involved with various industry organizations, and was president of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS for 24 years.
In addition to his son, Mr. Libin is survived by his wife, Florence (Rowe) Libin; his daughters, Claire and Andrea Libin; and three grandchildren.
In 1974, Mr. Libin had another encounter with Miller, shortly before a revival of 'Death of a Salesman' was to open at Circle in the Square, with George C. Scott directing and playing Willy Loman. Scott proposed that Willy's neighbors be Black, but Miller told Mr. Libin, 'That's not what I wrote.'
'I said, 'Arthur, the world is changing; it's a powerful component,'' Mr. Libin told the Times. Miller again balked, and Scott threatened to drop out of the play unless he relented.
'Ted Mann worked on George, and I worked on Arthur,' Mr. Libin recalled -- and Miller gave in.
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