Stuart Thompson, Tony -winning Broadway producer – produced by Flinders University's drama centre, Adelaide
Stuart Thompson's production skills were behind hits such as The Book of Mormon on Broadway in New York.
Stuart Thompson, an Adelaide-raised graduate of Flinders University’s drama course, went on to became Tony Award-winning producer and manager of New York’s Broadway shows including hits such as the musical The Book of Mormon.
“Stuart Thompson was the most dignified, generous man in the business. He elevated me,” according to actress/singer Patti LuPone, a friend of Thompson’s who worked with him on productions of Master Class and The Old Neighborhood.
Born in Sydney in 1955, Thompson grew up in Adelaide and, graduated from Flinders University’s drama course before he earned a master’s degree in arts administration from New York University. He worked at the Kennedy Center with the American National Theater 1984-86. The producers Robert Whitehead and Lewis Allen were his mentors.
Thompson’s first Broadway assignment was as general manager of Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men at the Music Box Theater in 1989. He formed Stuart Thompson Productions in 1993 and began his producing career on Broadway with David Mamet’s The Old Neighborhood and went on to help produce Not About Nightingales, The Play What I Wrote, The Retreat From Moscow and On Golden Pond.
Thompson’s productions were nominated for 20 Tony Awards and won six. Among the winners were his stagings of Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage (best play, 2009) and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, with Philip Seymour Hoffman (best revival of a play, 2012). Thompson produced the three longest-running plays on Broadway of the previous 25 years: Charles Busch’s The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, David Auburn’s Proof and Simon Stephens’ The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. He also produced Waiting for Godot and No Man’s Land for New York repertory.
In 2010, the Commercial Theater Institute honoured Thompson for outstanding achievement in commercial theatre producing. Thompson was executive producer for the American companies of The Book of Mormon musical and producer of the West End and Australian productions. He was the American representative for several Australian theatres, including the State Theatre Company of South Australia.
