Broadway producer Roy Miller died suddenly on April 28 2013, following a brief illness. He was 52.
Mr. Miller came into his own as a Broadway producer over the past decade. His initial outing was a revival of I'm Not Rappaport in 2002, a production that was first seen at the Paper Mill Playhouse.
Subsequent Broadway outings were The Drowsy Chaperone, which he shepherded from its creation to a celebrated, award-winning run on Broadway, High Fidelity, the Mark Twain play Is He Dead?, the scrappy Off-Broadway transfer [title of show], revivals of the musicals West Side Story and Ragtime, The Pee-Wee Herman Show and the recent holiday musical A Christmas Story. He was nominated for Tony Awards for The Drowsy Chaperone, West Side Story and Ragtime.
From 1991-2004, Mr. Miller, a New Jersey native, was associate producer with the Paper Mill Playhouse, a major regional theatre in that state. There he produced such shows such as Crazy for You, Follies starring legendary performer Ann Miller, Gypsy with Betty Buckley, Chess directed and choreographed by Rob Marshall, The Wizard of Oz and Stephen Schwartz's Children Of Eden. Mr. Miller produced the tours of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in 2000 and A Chorus Line in 2002.
While still in high school, where he was a student actor in his hometown of Irvington, NJ, Mr. Miller was offered an apprenticeship at Surflight Theatre, the not-for-profit summer company in Beach Haven, NJ. That first introduction to summer theatre at the Jersey Shore in 1975 was followed by two subsequent seasons as an apprentice and, eventually, as a member of the acting company in 1978. Later, Mr. Miller served as a member of Surflight's board of trustees and as a generous contributor to various fundraising initiatives, including the construction of the cast house in 2007 and the 60th anniversary gala in 2009. In 2010, Mr. Miller became the theatre's new producer.
Mr. Miller is survived by his parents, a brother and a sister. The family has requested that donations in his memory be made to The Actors Fund, 729 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY, 10019.
