David Merrick

David Merrick 1912-2000, American theatrical producer, b. St. Louis, Mo., as David Margulois. Merrick began his remarkably successful series of theatrical productions in 1954 with Fanny, his first Broadway musical. Thereafter he presented more than 80 plays and musicals, including Gypsy (1959), Becket (1960), Carnival (1961), Hello, Dolly! (1964), Marat/Sade (1965), Play It Again, Sam (1969), Travesties (1975), 42nd Street (1980), Oh, Kay! (1990), and State Fair (1996).

Bibliography: See B. L. Horn, David Merrick: A Bio-Bibliography (1992).

Merrick, David [né Margulois] (1911–2000), producer. One of Broadway's busiest, most successful, and most controversial showmen, he was born in St. Louis where he studied then practiced law. He served under Herman Shumlin before producing his first success, Fanny (1954), followed by many and varied successes: The Matchmaker (1955), Look Back in Anger (1957), The Entertainer (1958), The World of Susie Wong (1958), La Plume de Ma Tante (1958), Gypsy (1959), Take Me Along (1959), A Taste of Honey (1960), Becket (1960), Irma La Douce (1960), Carnival (1961), Stop the World!—I Want To Get Off (1962), Oliver! (1963), Hello, Dolly! (1964), Cactus Flower (1965), Marat/Sade (1965), Promises, Promises (1968), Play It Again, Sam (1969), and 42nd Street (1981). In all he produced more than seventy plays, many of them importations of foreign hits. His methods of publicizing his plays often made front‐page news. During the run of Look Back in Anger, he paid a woman to climb on stage and slap an actor. For an advertisement of one of his musicals to which the critics had been lukewarm, he found a group of men with the same names as the leading Broadway theatre critics and printed the nonprofessionals' more favorable remarks with their names subscribed. Merrick remained a colorful figure to the end, still making headlines with his last failed ventures Oh Kay! (1990) and State Fair (1996). Biography: Howard Kissell, David Merrick: The Abominable Showman, 1993.