How the Broadway Producer Tom Kirdahy Spends His Sundays

New York Times

05-04-2025

Tom Kirdahy is busy, and about to get busier.
Mr. Kirdahy, a Tony and Olivier Award-winning producer, has a slate of Broadway shows that includes 'Gypsy' and 'Hadestown.' His latest production, 'Just in Time,' starring Jonathan Groff, opens this month.
Mr. Kirdahy, 61, lives alone in the Greenwich Village co-op apartment he shared with his late husband, the playwright Terrence McNally. In addition to his theater and film work — Mr. Kirdahy's company, Tom Kirdahy Productions, is behind a new film adaptation of 'Kiss of the Spider Woman,' starring Jennifer Lopez — he runs the Terrence McNally Foundation, which supports early-career playwrights and L.G.B.T.Q. causes.
His Sundays are reserved for friends and family, including Jon Richardson, a composer and performer he is dating. When the two are not in Manhattan, they're in Provincetown, Mass., where Mr. Richardson, 37, lives and Mr. Kirdahy has a weekend home.
NOT SO EARLY BIRD On a good Sunday morning I'll get up at 8:30, which is later than the rest of the week. That's my definition of sleeping in. The rest of the week I'm up before 7. If I wake up early, I force myself to go back to sleep.
FACING FACTS For several months now, I've been canceling my trainer at 9. I've discovered this is a pattern and I should just give up pretending. I hate to throw in the towel in print this way, but what this is telling me is that I need to get back to that routine. Spiritually, I go to the gym, but in actuality I lounge around.
MADMAN IN MANHATTAN One thing I do religiously is go to Madman Espresso for a triple skim cortado. It's three shots of espresso and some steamed milk. It's not nothing. Later in the day I'll get a double espresso macchiato. But that's only if I wake up in Manhattan. My home in Provincetown is my happy place. If I have 24 hours for myself on a weekend I'll drive down at 10 at night and get there at 3 in the morning, just to spend the day.
FAMILY FIRST. NOT LITERALLY. I do a little work on Sunday mornings, just to catch up. It's very specifically emailing, almost all of it tied to my productions. It can be weighing in on an advertising campaign or providing comments about a script or discussing fund-raising for a particular show. Then it's family time, which could mean just having brunch with friends or Jon and I taking a walk through the city. My 94-year-old mother is still alive, and I try to call her every Sunday. She's a snowbird — she's either in St. Petersburg, Fla., or in Stony Brook, on Long Island.
CIVILIAN BESTIES I remain very close to people I went to high school and college with. I graduated high school on Long Island in 1981, and there's a group of us that are still very tight. We text every day. None of them are in theater, but they love it and they come to every one of my openings. It's nice having civilian besties. If we're having brunch, I try to mix it up and not go to the same place all the time. I've lived in New York since 1981 and I'm still madly in love with it, with discovering new places.
TALKING POLITICS This sounds hokey, but the only thing I must have on Sundays is community. I need to see the people I love, and I like it when it's people outside the industry. I have a deep interest in politics. I've been a bit of an activist my whole life. Before I became a Broadway producer, I was providing free legal services to people living with H.I.V. and AIDS. Terrence and I were marriage equality warriors. I try to nourish the political side of my soul on Sundays by talking with friends or seeing people from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center on 13th Street. We have a shared language.
SOBRIETY, SUSTENANCE I also try to get to an A.A. meeting on Sundays. That's most often at the Center. They're all different times. It'll be 25 years in November that I've been sober. What I get out of meetings is the comfort of community. People share their wisdom. Hearing their stories sustains me and buoys me.
LIVING THE DREAM When 'Just in Time' opens, I'll have four shows running in New York. On Sundays, I might pop into a show and stand in the back of the theater and watch 'Hadestown' and then go say hello to the cast. Same with 'Gypsy' and 'Little Shop of Horrors.' I love watching an audience take in a show. And I love the energy after a performance. The actors work so hard — I think it's only fair that they see me with some frequency. I'm a cheerleader for both the industry and my own shows. I'm a kid from the suburbs who gets to go to work on Broadway. I take insane joy from that.
SET IN STONE On my building on Ninth Street there's a plaque commemorating the fact that Terrence lived in the building. It's a really great pleasure for me to watch people walk by and read about him. The doormen in my building just really loved him, and they love to report on stories of people reading it and looking at it. I often touch it when I walk in the building.
SHH… Late in the afternoon on my best Sundays I try to take a nap or at least create quiet time. I'll listen to Bach or some classical music just to kind of rejuvenate. It's not quite meditation, but it does involve a commitment to quiet. Bach reaches into my soul.
FRY AFICIONADO If Jon is in town he might cook, but I very often have dinner at the Knickerbocker, which is right nearby on University Place. The menu is pretty varied, but I often have steak and French fries. French fries are a key part of my life. If I had to choose the best ones, I might pick the Lambs Club on 44th Street. They're cooked perfectly and salted perfectly. They're what a French fry should be.
GOALS Every night before I go to bed I do at least an hour of work. On a Sunday night I'll draft a bunch of emails I'll send in the morning, because I don't like to bother my employees on a Sunday night. The emails are about goals for the week. Prepping them helps me go to sleep, I think, because I'll have done the work I've been obsessing about.