Max Reinhardt

Max Reinhardt 1873-1943, Austrian theatrical producer and director, originally named Max Goldmann. After acting under Otto Brahm at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, he managed (1902-5) his own theater, where he produced more than 50 plays. He was director of the Deutsches Theater after 1905 and of the smaller Kammerspiele, which he built in 1906. Reinhardt often used the entire auditorium for a production, seeking to bridge the gap between actor and audience by placing the spectator within the action. He staged gigantic productions, full of pageantry and color, and was especially noted for his direction of mob scenes. His settings, which incorporated the ideas of Appia and Craig, were masterfully executed. Among his world-famous productions were The Lower Depths, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Faust, Oedipus Rex, and The Miracle. He was also one of the first to stage the plays of the expressionists after World War I. In 1919 he opened an enormous arena theater, the Grosses Schauspielhaus ( "Theatre of the Five Thousand" ), and in 1920 he was among the founders of the Salzburg Festival , where he annually staged Everyman with the Austrian Alps as his backdrop. In 1933 he was forced by the Nazis to flee Germany. In the United States he directed a movie version of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) and a stage pageant with music by Kurt Weill , The Eternal Road (1934, produced 1937). He became a U.S. citizen in 1940.

Bibliography: See H. Carter, The Theatre of Max Reinhardt (1914, repr. 1964); J. L. Styan, Max Reinhardt (1982).

Reinhardt, Max [né Goldmann] (1873–1943), director and producer. The famed Austro‐German showman first came to the attention of most American playgoers in 1912 when Winthrop Ames imported his mounting of the Oriental pantomime Sumurun. In 1924 Reinhardt visited New York to re‐create his production of The Miracle, and then in 1927 brought over his German company for a season of repertory. Following the rise of the Nazis, he moved permanently to America where he staged his version of A Midsummer Night's Dream in Hollywood in 1934 and The Eternal Road in New York in 1937. Other Broadway directorial credits included Thornton Wilder's The Merchant of Yonkers (1938) and Irwin Shaw's Sons and Soldiers (1943). Reinhardt's version of Die Fledermaus was offered to Broadway as Rosalinda (1942) by his son Gottfried shortly before the elder's death.