David Gersten obit

David Gersten Dies: Longtime Broadway & Off Broadway Publicist Was 67

 

He was not on the list.

David Gersten, whose career as a Broadway and Off Broadway press representative and marketing consultant spanned more than 30 years and included such clients as notable revivals of Jonathan Larson’s tick, tick… BOOM! and Stephen Sondheim’s Marry Me A Little as well as offbeat yet durable entertainments like Naked Boys Singing! and Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding, died today, April 6, after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 67.

The Vice-President of ATPAM (the Association of Theatrical Press Agents & Manager) and a member since 1997, Gersten became a board member of the organiation in 2001 and also served as Pension Fund Trustee and Off-Broadway Steward. His full-service boutique firm, David Gersten & Associates, provided publicity and marketing for a diverse range of clients since 2000.

Gersten worked with some of Broadway’s best and highest-profile producers, including both Alexander H. Cohen and David Merrick. He counted among his favorite Broadway productions the American premieres of Noel Coward’s Waiting in the Wings (starring Lauren Bacall and Rosemary Harris), the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Herbal Bed, and Taking Sides starring Ed Harris & Daniel Massey. He also named as special, among others, Linda Ronstadt in Canciones de Mi Padre and the gala 6,000th performance of A Chorus Line.

Among the performers he worked with were Len Cariou, Nancy Giles, Jackie Hoffman, Jackie Mason, Kate Mulgrew, Jean Stapleton, and Liliane Montevecchi. He publicized and promoted hundreds of shows Off Broadway, including Altar Boyz, Birds of Paradise by Winnie Holtzman, the New York premieres of Shear Madness, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the international hit Potted Potter – The Unauthorized Harry Experience – A Parody.

Numerous National Tours represented include The Music Man starring Patrick Cassidy & Shirley Jones, Saturday Night Fever, Man of La Mancha, and Sophisticated Ladies (first Russian-American co-production).

A champion for not-for-profit theater companies, he represented En Garde Arts, Ensemble Studio Theatre, INTAR, Keen Company, Mint Theater, NAATCO The National Asian American Theatre Co., Woodie King’s New Federal Theater and many others.

A founding member of the Manhattan Association of Clubs & Cabarets, he represented Windows on the World, Rainbow & Stars and the Rainbow Room, Michael’s Pub, Café Carlyle & Bemelmans Bar, the Oak Room at the Algonquin, Roseland and others. Performers repped at these various venues included Mel Tormé, Rosemary Clooney, Peggy Lee, Sid Caesar & Imogene Coca, Kaye Ballard, Laurie Beechman & Sam Harris, Ruth Brown, Betty Buckley, David Carroll, Nell Carter, Vic Damone, Tony Danza, Christine Ebersole, Marianne Faithful, Savion Glover, Lesley Gore, Ellen Greene, Rupert Holmes, Jack Jones, Larry Kert & Carol Lawrence, Darlene Love, Patti LuPone, Maureen McGovern, Lonette McKee, Mark Murphy, Anthony Newley, Anita O’Day, Helen Reddy, Joan Rivers, Mickey Rooney, Helen Schneider, Sylvia Syms, Tommy Tune & the Manhattan Rhythm Kings, Leslie Uggams, Margaret Whiting, Julie Wilson, and for over 20 years, Woody Allen with the Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band.

As a producer, Gersten was involved with the New York premieres of Tea at Five starring Kate Mulgrew as Katharine Hepburn, Shear Madness, My First Time, and the Broadway productions of 13 the Musical, David Mamet’s A Life in the Theatre, The Addams Family, Blithe Spirit, It’s Only a Play and Kinky Boots.

He was a longtime member of the Off-Broadway League and founding member/Vice-President of the Off-Broadway Alliance. Gersten recently became one of the owners of the newly renovated Ninth Avenue Saloon, a theater district mainstay serving the community for over 40 years and one of the oldest LGBTQ+ bars in New York City.

A native New Yorker, he was also a volunteer firefighter, holding the rank of lieutenant, on Fire Island, where he maintained a summer home. Donations will be greatly appreciated to any of the organizations he supported, including the Cherry Grove Fire Dept, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the Entertainment Community Fund, or not-for-profit theaters.

Information on survivors was not immediately available.