David Merrick

David Merrick (November 27, 1911 - April 25, 2000) was an American producer and director, associated with both musicals and dramas, brilliant successes and embarrassing flops. Called The Indomitable Showman, a biography, The Abominable Showman was less flatteringly titled.

Born David Lee Margulois in St. Louis, Missouri, he graduated from Washington University then studied law. In 1940 he left his legal career behind in St. Louis to produce theatre.

He married Lenore Beck. He married Jeanne Gibson in 1963. He married Etan Aronson in 1969. In 1980, director Gower Champion died just before the opening of 42nd Street, and Merrick kept his death secret so he could announce it himself at the final opening-night curtain. He married Karen Prunczik in 1982. He married Etan Aronson (again) in 1983. He suffered a stroke in 1983 which confined him to a wheelchair. He established the David Merrick Arts Foundation in 1998 to support the development of American musicals. He married Natalie Lloyd in 1999. He died in London.

Productions

• The Willow and I - 1942
• Bright Boy - 1944
• Clutterbuck - 1949
• Fanny - 1954
• The Matchmaker - 1955
• Look Back in Anger - 1957
• Romanoff and Juliet - 1957
• Jamaica - 1957
• The Entertainer - 1958
• The World of Suzie Wong - 1958
• Epitaph for George Dillon - 1958
• Maria Golovin - 1958
• La Plume de Ma Tante - 1958
• Destry Rides Again - 1959
• Gypsy - 1959
• Take Me Along - 1959
• The Good Soup - 1960
• Vintage '60 - 1960
• Irma La Douce - 1960
• A Taste of Honey - 1960
• Becket - 1960 (Tony Award)
• Do Re Mi - 1960
• Carnival - 1961
• Sunday in New York - 1961
• Ross - 1961
• Subways Are for Sleeping - 1961
• I Can Get It for You Wholesale - 1962
• Stop the World - I Want to Get Off - 1962
• Tchin-Tchin - 1962
• Oliver - 1963
• Rattle of a Simple Man - 1963
• The Rehearsal - 1963
• ''Luther - 1963 (Tony Award)
• 110 in the Shade - 1963
• Arturo Ui - 1963
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - 1963
• The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore - 1964
• Hello, Dolly - 1964 (Tony Award) - musical version of The Matchmaker
• Foxy - 1964
• Oh! What a Lovely War - 1964
• A Severed Head - 1964
• I was Dancing - 1964
• The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd - 1965
• Oliver - 1965 (revival)
• Pickwick = 1965
• Inadmissable Evidence - 1965
• Cactus Flower - 1965
• Marat/Sade (The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade) - 1965
• Philadelphia, Here I Come - 1966
• The Loves of Cass McGuire - 1966
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle - 1966
• Don't Drink the Water - 1966
• I Do! I Do - 1966
• Breakfast at Tiffany's - 1966
• The Astrakhan Coat - 1967
• Keep It In the Family - 1967
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - 1967 (Tony Award)
• How Now, Dow Jones - 1967
• The Happy Time - 1968
• The Seven Descents of Myrtle - 1968
• Rockefeller and the Red Indians - 1968
• Promise, Promises - 1968
• Forty Carats - 1968
• Play It Again, Sam - 1969
• A Patriot for Me - 1969
• The Penny Wars - 1969
• Private Lives - 1969
• Child's Play - 1970
• Four on a Garden - 1971
• The Philanthopist - 1971
• There's One in Every Marriage - 1972
• Vivat! Vivat Regina - 1972
• Moon Children - 1972
• Sugar - 1972 - musical version of Some Like It Hot
• Mack & Mabel - 1974
• Dreyfus in Rehearsal - 1974
• The Misanthrope - 1975
• Travesties - 1975 (Tony Award)
• Very Good Eddie - 1975
• 42nd Street - 1980 (Tony Award)
• I Won't Dance - 1981
• Loot - 1986
• Oh, Kay - 1990
• State Fair - 1996