2024 Alumni Award | Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin | Spring 2024

2024 ALUMNI AWARD

THOMAS M. VIERTEL ’59

At School Meeting on April 9, Thomas M. Viertel ’59 received the 2024 Choate Rosemary Hall Alumni Award. This is the highest recognition the School bestows upon a graduate. The Award recognizes alumni whose outstanding professional achievements have brought prestige to the School.

Tom is a gifted and prolific theatrical producer who has produced more than 70 plays and musicals on and off Broadway, in London, and on tour. He and his partners have had a hand in some of the most iconic shows over the past 35 years, including the original Broadway productions of The Producers, Hairspray, Young Frankenstein, Smokey Joe’s Café, Angels in America, Penn & Teller; revivals of Gypsy, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Damn Yankees; and the first-ever Broadway revivals of The Sound of Music and Little Shop of Horrors — just to name a few. Tom’s shows have received numerous awards, including two

Pulitzer Prizes, four Grammy Awards, and two Olivier Awards for Best Musical. Tom’s eight Tony Awards include wins in all four “Best” categories — play, musical, revival of a play, and revival of a musical.

From 2012 to 2021, Tom served as Executive Director of the Commercial Theater Institute, the nation’s only formal program that professionally trains commercial theater producers. In this role, he has helped to inspire and prepare the next generation of producers.

A graduate of Harvard, Tom served as a member of the Choate Rosemary Hall Board of Trustees from 2004 to 2014. He is a member of the Executive Committee and the Board of Governors of the Broadway League and Chairman of the Board of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, the preeminent development center for new theatrical work, located in Waterford, Conn. He and his producing partners also own and operate Feinstein’s/54 Below.