Jack W. Batman, a Tony-winning Broadway producer from New Jersey, has died.
Batman, whose recent hit productions include George Clooney’s “Good Night and Good Luck” and “John Proctor is the Villain,” starring Sadie Sink, was 81.
Batman’s husband, director and actor Sidney J. Burgoyne, shared in an obituary he wrote for Playbill that Batman died of pancreatic cancer at the Actors Fund Home in Englewood Aug. 1.
“It’s a great season for theatre,” Batman posted on Instagram in May, sharing a list of shows he produced that received Tony nominations.
Besides “Good Night and Good Luck” and “John Proctor is the Villain,” another recent Tony-nominated play Batman produced was “The Roommate,” starring Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone.
Burgoyne writes that Batman, who was born in Camden, grew up with his mother, Kay, taking him to see local performances, like operettas at Camden Catholic High School.
Batman later became a stage performer himself and moved to New York in 1969.
George Clooney with the cast of “Good Night and Good Luck” on the play’s opening night in April.
He was hired as an agent at the William Morris Agency after working his way up the ladder from the company mailroom.
In his long career in theater, he would hold the jobs actor, director, writer, manager and producer.
Batman and Burgoyne would’ve been married 12 years on Wednesday and were together for almost 50 years, having been a couple since 1976.
Batman was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this year, Burgoyne says.
“All of my life, in business and in my personal life, if a door opened, I walked through,” Batman said after receiving the health news. “This is just one more door I’m walking through.”
He was working until shortly before his death in hospice care.
Batman, whose shows spanned Broadway, off Broadway, Los Angeles, London and beyond, collaborated for more than two decades with his producing partner, Bruce Robert Harris.
Together, they produced “Good Night and Good Luck,” “John Proctor is the Villain” and “The Roommate.”
Batman and Harris won the Tony for best revival of a musical in 2013 for “Pippin.”
Sadie Sink on the opening night of “John Proctor is the Villain” in April.
The win arrived just a year after another Broadway victory for a show Batman and Harris produced.
In 2012, “Clybourne Park” won the Tony for best play. Playwright Bruce Norris also won the Pulitzer Prize for the play.
Other Tony-nominated shows Batman produced include “New York, New York” (2023); “Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus” (2019); “Carousel” (2018); “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812″ (2017); “Present Laughter” (2017); “On the Town” (2015); “You Can’t Take it With You” (2015); “Nice Work if You Can Get It” (2012); and “The Scottsboro Boys” (2011).
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