Arnold Mittelman Hopes to Bring The Rothschilds to Broadway

By Kenneth Jones
17 Dec 2009

Arnold Mittelman, the producing artistic director on whose watch the Coconut Grove Playhouse shuttered due to debt in 2006, wants a second act — on Broadway.

The Miami Herald reported that Mittelman is working on bringing a production of the musical The Rothschilds, by composer Jerry Bock, lyricist Sheldon Harnick and book writer Sherman Yellen, to Broadway. The 1970 musical starred Hal Linden as Mayer Rothschild, who, with his sons, builds a financial empire in Europe at a time when Jews were marginalized. In the show, set between 1772 and 1818, the Rothschilds rise from the Jewish ghetto of Frankfort to vast power and wealth.

Mittelman, who produced the show at Miami's Coconut Grove Playhouse in April 1995, plans to hire that version's director, Jeffrey B. Moss. A New York City target of 2010 or 2011 is being eyed, following an out-of-town tryout. The capitalization for the commercial Broadway run of The Rothschilds is $5-8 million.

Mittelman told Playbill.com on Dec. 17 that The Rothschilds has never played London, and part of his producing plan will include examining the possibility of a London life before or after New York City.

He's also seeking partner interest from regional theatres and/or performing arts centers for a pre-Broadway life.

The production will be a 15-person version in which there is a certain amount of double casting. Broadway production values will surround the troupe. Mittelman said, "We're attempting to capture the heart and soul of the story with simplicity [while] adding to it production values that give us a Broadway style and presence."

Mittelman ran Coconut Grove Playhouse from 1985 to 2006, when the theatre finally buckled under $4 million of debt.

He is currently producing artistic director of two companies: the Florida-based National Jewish Theater, a presenting organization that "celebrates creative genius and preserves Jewish culture in the performing arts," and American Theater Festival, which "extends the life of extraordinary regional theatre by identifying exceptional work and matching it with other venues and audiences across America that will give these deserving shows the continued life they deserve." Visit arnoldmittelman.com.

Fans of The Rothschilds know that it was the final score for the Pulitzer Prize-winning (and Tony Award-winning) team of Bock & Harnick, who had written Tenderloin, Fiorello!, Fiddler on the Roof and The Apple Tree. A Broadway cast album survives. Hal Linden and Keene Curtis won Tony Awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor in a Musical, respectively.

A 1990 Off-Broadway production, directed by Lonny Price, got solid reviews and trimmed the large production down to a more intimate level.