Theodore S. Chapin Chair of the Board
2017 - / Chair 2019 -
Ted Chapin was chosen by the Rodgers and Hammerstein families to run their office. He expanded it into the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, which is responsible for management of the copyrights created by Richard Rodgers and/or Oscar Hammerstein II. On his watch, there have been new major productions of their musicals on Broadway (eight Tony Awards for Best Revival so far – On Your Toes, Show Boat, Annie Get Your Gun, Carousel, South Pacific, The King And I – twice! – and last season’s Oklahoma!), in London, and around the world. In addition, he brought in the representation of other extraordinary musical artists including Irving Berlin. In addition to revivals, he has encouraged new Broadway productions, among them “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” “Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” “State Fair,” “A Grand Night for Singing,” and “Holiday Inn” as well as major television productions “The Sound of Music Live!” on NBC and the multi-racial “Cinderella” with Whitney Houston on ABC.
Ted was the co-founder of the Encores! series at City Center and was for two seasons the producer of the 92nd Street Y’s Lyrics and Lyricists series with programs saluting Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Irving Berlin, among others. He hosted three seasons of NJTV’s series American Songbook at NJPAC with artists ranging from Marilyn Maye to Rebecca Luker to Bill Charlap. He has moderated many Working in the Theater and Careers in the Theater videos for the Wing. In 2003 his book Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical “Follies,” based on his experience as the production assistant on the original Broadway production of the Sondheim/Prince musical, was published by Knopf. It won both an ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award and a Special Jury Prize for Distinguished Achievement by the Theatre Library Association.
In addition to his chairmanship of the Kurt Weill Foundation, Ted serves on several other boards including the American Theater Wing where he is co-chairman, New York City Center, and Goodspeed Musicals. He is an Emeritus Trustee of Connecticut College. He has been on panels of the National Endowment for the Arts, served as a judge for the Lotte Lenya Competition, was a speaker at the initial Kent Presents, and has been a guest lecturer at many universities including Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Duke, Pace, Belmont, Lawrence. University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point and NYU. He has been honored with the UJA Excellence in Theater Award, the Leonard Harris Award from City Center, and has received awards from TDF, the Fred and Adele Astaire Awards, Career Bridges, and the Astoria Performing Arts Center. He was set to receive awards from Bard College and the Jerome Robbins Foundation when the pandemic hit.
His career began as production assistant for the Broadway productions of Follies, The Rothschilds, and The Unknown Soldier and His Wife, and associate to director Alan Arkin on the original Broadway production of Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys and the CBS-TV production of Twigs with Carol Burnett.
