In the age of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Summer Heights High, there are few household names on Broadway, usable by the wizards at Hasbro for questions for the newest edition of Trivial Pursuit. Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick... (gulp)... Sean "Diddy" Combs. So don't be embarrassed if you can't identify the producer with the aforementioned accolades. But if you've spent anytime near the theater department's lair where the theater people roam free, you might've caught a glimpse of him.
The elusive figure is Emanuel Azenberg. Adjunct Professor of the Practice Emanuel Azenberg. Or Manny, as most of his students and just about everyone who is anyone in the realm of Broadway know him.
For almost 25 years Azenberg has been a professor at Duke. Why is someone who has spent 50 years on Broadway, becoming a legendary producer, at the University?
"There was something just pleasant about it," Azenberg said, recalling visiting his daughter Lisa, Trinity '85, here in the early '80s. "I don't want to teach in a school that's solely about the theater. These kids are engineers, lawyers. I'm doing plays up in New York that transcend generations, and this gives me some insight to what's going on with the young people today. And you get attached to it, it becomes familiar. There's something absolutely uncomplicated about it."
Growing up in the Bronx, Azenberg wasn't involved in theater as a participant. Sure, everyone went to the theater-after all, it was the "Queen of the Arts." But he was more interested in neighborhood games of stickball. Stickball evolved into baseball, which, in turn, evolved into theater.
When Azenberg was manning shortstop, he shared second base with a stage actor named Robert Redford. (Ever wonder how Redford's role in The Natural seemed so... natural? There's your answer. He actually played, regularly.) It was 1959 and Azenberg was converting double plays with good ol' Roy Hobbs. Three years of baseball and the occasional stage managing gig passed by when Azenberg received a call from Redford, now starring on Broadway in Barefoot in the Park, asking for him to grab his glove and bat.
Of course Azenberg obliged, a decision that would be one of the most significant of his up-and-coming career. That season he met third baseman, and playwright, Neil Simon, who wrote Barefoot in the Park, someone with whom he'd share more than the 90 feet between second and third base. Becoming good teammates and better friends, Azenberg earned Simon's trust and was asked to produce The Sunshine Boys in 1972 and subsequently every Simon play since.
When asked in 1985 to commute from New York City to teach at Duke, Azenberg had few qualms. He had already become comfortable with teaching at little-known schools such as Yale and New York universities. And Duke had one thing that neither New Haven or Manhattan could offer: beautiful Gothic architecture in the midst of trees. Large trees with leaves that actually change colors in the autumn.
"When you look at this campus you're going, 'Hey, this is paradise,'" Azenberg said.
That year, while commuting to and from the city and maintaining his impressive rate of productions, Azenberg decided to collaborate with Simon again and began Theater Previews at Duke, producing Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night starring Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey and Peter Gallagher. Following that star-studded debut were such hits as Simon's Broadway Bound as well as Artist Descending a Staircase by Tom Stoppard, both initiated at Duke. At Duke.
"The motivation was: this was good, this was fine, it was uncomplicated," Azenberg said. "I know it's a tough world looking for fundamental motivations that have no ulterior motives. But I was comfortable here."
Nearly 25 years later, he seems to be just as comfortable. Relaxing on the couches just outside Griffith Theater, Azenberg begins impromptu conversations with just about everyone who passes.
"I like these kids, they're good kids," he said.
Despite his repertoire of productions and awards, Azenberg feels his career as a producer is secondary.
"My five best productions are my children," he said. "When I was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame, they were all there. Sharing that with them was one of those life justification moments."
He has also had the help of an adventurous wife, Lani: "If there was something interesting to do, she said, 'Let's do it!'"
From the looks of it, he's doing just that. Most recently, Azenberg successfully produced a revival of The Odd Couple starring Lane and Broderick and a revival of Macbeth. And with two plays, Simon's Broadway Bound and Brighton Beach Memoirs, in production for next season, he isn't slowing down.
More than 50 years later, Azenberg said he has learned to balance his life, finding an equilibrium between stage, classroom and family. But he admitted he has never completely left the Bronx behind for the bright lights of Broadway.
"I've done a lot of nutty things," he said. "This is the civilized part of my life. I'm still a hoodlum from the Bronx."
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