Producer Scott Rudin, who stepped back from the film and theater industry in 2021 after workplace abuse allegations, is planning his Broadway return.
The New York Times reported Friday that Rudin is developing a handful of Broadway productions. They include “Little Bear Ridge Road,” a play by Samuel D. Hunter that will star Laurie Metcalf from director Joe Mantello, for this fall; “Montauk,” a new play by David Hare also with Metcalf and Mantello, for next spring; and a revival of “Death of a Salesman” with Nathan Lane, Metcalf and Mantello for the following season.
Rudin was shunned from the industry after THR reported that Rudin threw items at employees, including a stapler and baked potato, berated staffers and threatened them with career retribution if they left his employment, and smashed a computer monitor on the hand of an assistant, sending him to the emergency room. The allegations came after the #MeToo movement rocked Hollywood and many people spoke up after abusive workplace conditions were re-evaluated and condemned. With The New York Times, Rudin owned up to his bad behavior that ousted him for the last four years.
“I have a lot more self-control than I had four years ago. I learned I don’t matter that much, and I think that’s very healthy. I don’t want to let anybody down. Not just myself. My husband, my family and collaborators,” Rudin said. “What happened in ’21 was in some basic way inevitable. Very little was said that hadn’t been said many times. So I always, frankly, felt that once the culture started to change, one day it was going to change for me.”
Rudin has produced Broadway hits like “The Book of Mormon,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” films like best picture winner “No Country for Old Men,” “The Social Network” and many more. He is one of the few EGOT winners (people who have received an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony). After the workplace abuse allegations came to light, A24 ended its business partnership with Rudin.
“A lot of what was said was true. Some of what was said wasn’t true. But I didn’t feel there was any point in responding to all of it because what’s the point of parsing bad behavior? It was bad behavior. I own it,” Rudin said. “I don’t think I was ever really in the dark about why I was rough on people. I knew why I was rough on people. For a long time, it seemed like a price I could live with. I wasn’t really thinking about what price other people could live with, because producing at the level of volume that I was requires a level of narcissism. If you don’t inherently believe you’re doing better than other people, why are you doing it? There are better ways to make a living.”
Several Broadway stars, like “Moulin Rouge’s” Karen Olivo and “Music Man’s” Sutton Foster, demanded their productions cut ties with Rudin after the allegations came out. Aaron Sorkin’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” play also canceled its reopening.
At the time, Rudin apologized in a public statement, saying “I am profoundly sorry for the pain my behavior has caused and I take this step with a commitment to grow and change.”
With the New York Times, he added, “I’m going to try to come back and make some more good work, and people will feel how they feel. And if some people are really angry about it, they’ll have the right to be angry about it. I own what I did. I feel proud of the work overall, and badly about the cost of it to some people who worked on it.”