Scott Rudin was nominated for two Tony Awards Tuesday, in a big showing for his return to the industry after being exiled roughly five years ago.
Rudin received nominations as the lead producer on the revival of Death of A Salesman, which received nine nominations total, including for leads Laurie Metcalf, Nathan Lane and Christopher Abbott, as well as direction by Joe Mantello. The well-reviewed play is currently running at the Winter Garden Theatre and has been selling well. He also received a nomination for Little Bear Ridge Road, which ran this fall, also starring Metcalf, and was critically acclaimed, but struggled to sell tickets.
He returns to the industry after a 2021 Hollywood Reporter exposé detailed multiple claims from Rudin’s former employees of bullying and behavior that included verbal abuse as well as throwing objects at staff. After the article, as well as a subsequent march on Broadway, Rudin resigned from the Broadway League and effectively stepped away from producing for several years.
Leading up to that moment, Rudin had been a major Broadway producer with showy musical revivals, such as The Music Man, starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster, and Hello, Dolly!, starring Bette Midler, in addition to backing smaller, less commercial plays such as Taylor Mac’s Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus and more. He was also a Hollywood powerhouse behind such films as No Country For Old Men, Lady Bird, Uncut Gems, The Social Network and more.
After testing the waters by helping his friend, Barry Diller, with programming for Little Island, Rudin returned to Broadway producing this fall, with Little Bear Ridge Road, starring Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock, and Death of A Salesman, this spring, starring Metcalf and Nathan Lane. Both were directed by Joe Mantello.
Rudin also produced the off-Broadway production of Wallace Shawn’s What We Did Before Our Moth Days this spring, directed by Andre Gregory. Before coming back, Rudin told The New York Times he had apologized to the relevant parties and had “more self-control” now. However, he noted at the time that his return may not be entirely welcome.
“I’m going to try to come back and make some more good work, and people will feel how they feel,” Rudin said at the time. “And if some people are really angry about it, they’ll have the right to be angry about it.”
Since then, there’s been little outward pushback on Rudin’s return to the industry and both Broadway productions received very positive reviews. However, in a recent interview with The New Yorker, Metcalf, who had worked with Rudin previously and has been a large part of his comeback, detailed the complicated situation of his return. The Chicago-based Steppenwolf Theatre Company had originally commissioned Little Bear Ridge Road, but refused to work with Rudin to bring it to Broadway. In turn, Metcalf, a founding ensemble member of Steppenwolf, had to threaten to quit the theater company in order to get them to release the rights to Rudin. Mantello has since done his own interview on the topic, telling Variety that the situation with Steppenwolf was more nuanced, and saying he believes Rudin has taken accountability, and “I believe in second chances. I know other people don’t share that belief, and that’s their right.”
Asked how she felt about Rudin coming back to Broadway, Metcalf said it was “touchy,” according to The New Yorker, before reading from her notes.
“He talked about his therapy; he apologized; he owned what he said; he reflected on it,” she told The New Yorker. “He was in the process of rehabilitation. So I just think that, unless we think there is no possibility of real rehabilitation, then we shouldn’t ask people to try and do it.”
