Jay Harnick, Advocate Of Theater For Children, 78

[DGH]

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Jay Harnick, 78, Advocate of Theater for Children, Dies

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON

Jay Harnick, the founder of Theaterworks/USA, the nation's largest
touring children's theater company, died on Tuesday [February 27,
2007] in Manhattan [New York]. He was 78.

He died at the Isabella House nursing home after a long illness, said
his daughter, Jane Harnick.

Since Mr. Harnick helped start Theaterworks/USA in 1961, the company
has toured shows in 49 states and Canada, playing to millions of
children every year, and assembled a repertory of 117 musicals and
plays.

Mr. Harnick, who was artistic director from the company's founding
until he retired in 2000, attracted top talent, bringing in directors
like Jerry Zaks, songwriters like Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty,
and writers like Marta Kauffman and David Crane. The company also
helped start the careers of many actors, including F. Murray Abraham
and Henry Winkler.

The idea for Theaterworks came about as Mr. Harnick was directing a
musical for children called "The Young Abe Lincoln." The show, which
had been well received Off Broadway, quickly transferred to Broadway,
where, straining under the costs of a Broadway production, it ran for
only 27 performances.

About a year later, Mr. Harnick and a producing partner began taking
the show around to schools, and when that succeeded, they decided to
form a company to produce historical plays for children.

The plan was to expand children's theater beyond shows with "dancing
vegetables," Mr. Harnick said in a 1988 interview in The New York
Times. "We realize that it's a very weighty responsibility to
influence young minds," he said. "I believe that no show is more
important than the first one you see."

The company later began presenting shows in theaters rather than in
schools and sending multiple shows on tour simultaneously. The
repertory also expanded to include original issue-oriented plays and
adaptations of children's classics like "The Velveteen Rabbit."

Mr. Harnick continued working as a manager and a director for projects
outside children's theater, staging a 1966 production of Mozart's
"Abduction From the Seraglio" for the New York City Opera and a tour
of "Fiddler on the Roof," for which his brother Sheldon had written
the lyrics.

Jay Malcolm Harnick was born on June 8, 1928, in Chicago [Illinois],
to a dentist and a homemaker. After graduating from the University of
Illinois, he moved to New York and performed in the chorus and in
small roles in revues and several Broadway shows.

Besides his daughter, Jane, and his brother, Sheldon, Mr. Harnick's
survivors include his wife, the actress Barbara Barrie; his son,
Aaron; a sister, Gloria; and a granddaughter.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/obituaries/01harnick.html?ref=obituaries