Richard Greenberg


Richard Greenberg was an American playwright and television writer known for his subversively humorous depictions of middle-class American life. He had more than 25 plays premiere on Broadway, off-Broadway, and off-off-Broadway in New York City and eight at the South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa, California, including The Violet Hour, Everett Beekin, and Hurrah at Last. Greenberg is perhaps best known for his 2002 play ''Take Me Out.''

Early life and education

Greenberg was born on February 22, 1958, in East Meadow, New York, on Long Island. The younger of two children, his father, Leon Greenberg, was an executive for New York's Century Theaters movie chain, and his mother Shirley was a homemaker. Greenberg graduated from East Meadow High School in 1976 and went on to attend Princeton University, where he graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. in English. As part of his degree, Greenberg completed a 438-page senior thesis titled "A Romantic Career – A Novel". At Princeton, Greenberg studied creative writing under Joyce Carol Oates and roomed with future Harvard economics professor Greg Mankiw. Later, he attended Harvard for graduate work in English and American literature, but dropped out of the program when he was accepted to the Yale School of Drama's playwriting program in 1985.

Career

Greenberg received the George Oppenheimer Award presented by Newsday in 1985 for The Bloodletters, produced off-off-Broadway while he was at Yale. In 1998, he was the first winner of the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award for a playwright in mid-career.
Greenberg's play Take Me Out, about the conflicts that arise after a Major League Baseball player nonchalantly announces to the media that he is gay, premiered in 2002. The play premiered in London and ran in New York as the first collaboration between England's Donmar Warehouse and New York's Public Theater. After it transferred to Broadway in early 2003, Take Me Out won widespread critical acclaim for Greenberg and many prestigious awards including the Tony Award for Best Play.
Along with Take Me Out, Greenberg's plays include The Dazzle, The American Plan, Life Under Water, and The Author's Voice. His adaptation of August Strindberg's Dance of Death (Strindberg play)|Dance of Death] ran on Broadway in 2002, starring Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren, and David Strathairn.
In 2013, Greenberg worked on three shows: on Broadway, The Assembled Parties and an adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the book for the musical Far From Heaven, which opened in June 2013 at Playwrights Horizons.
His play Our Mother's Brief Affair premiered at the South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa in April 2009. Directed by Pam MacKinnon, the cast featured Jenny O'Hara, Matthew Arkin, Arye Gross and Marin Hinkle. This was a commission from the SCRT. The play opened on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club, on December 28, 2015, and officially on January 20, 2016, starring Linda Lavin.
His play The Babylon Line premiered off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater on November 10, 2016, in previews, and officially on December 5. Directed by Terry Kinney, the cast features Josh Radnor as a writing teacher and Elizabeth Reaser as his student. The play was first performed at New York Stage and Film & Vassar College's Powerhouse Theater in June and July 2014, starring Radnor.

Style

The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary American Playwrights describes Greenberg's "most prominent" interest as history "and the past". He has a strong "tendency to draw on historical characters or events——the Lost Generation, the Collyer Brothers, the New York Yankees" as sources for his material. He is said to have a "witty use of language."

Personal life and death

Greenberg lived in Chelsea, Manhattan.
Greenberg died from cancer at a nursing home in Manhattan, on July 4, 2025, at the age of 67; he previously had Hodgkin lymphoma when he was in his thirties. Actor Denis O'Hare paid tribute to him on Instagram, saying "He gave me the greatest gift ever – a beautiful character to inhabit in a beautiful play. He also gave me 2 of my best friends – Lisa Peterson and Linda Emond. We all met and worked on Rich's one act – The Author's Voice at Remains Theatre in 1987 in a festival of one acts called 'Sneaky Feelings.' I have a sneaky feeling of grief mixed with gratitude for this man." Actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson also paid tribute, writing "Rest in peace Richard, you gave the world so much." Theater director Robert Falls wrote "For over 30 years, it's been one of life's great pleasures to know Rich and his writing. Dazzling, humane, wildly funny.... He was also one of the smartest people I've ever met. But he wore that brilliance lightly—often cloaked in hilarity, or tossed off in the driest, most devastating line at dinner. His kindness was real. His loss is enormous."

Works

Theatre