Martin Gottfried (October 9, 1933 – March 6, 2014) was an American

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or gover ...

columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the form of a short essay ...

and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. He was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Biography

Early career

Gottfried was a 1959 graduate of Columbia College in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and attended Columbia Law School for three semesters, next spending one year with U.S. Army Military Intelligence. Gottfried began his writing career as the

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" al ...

critic for ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

'', doubling as an

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

reviewer for ''

Women's Wear Daily ''Women's Wear Daily'' (also known as ''WWD'') is a fashion-industry trade journal often referred to as the "Bible of fashion". Horyn, Cathy"Breaking Fashion News With a Provocative Edge" ''The New York Times''. (August 20, 1999). It provides inf ...

'', a position that made him the youngest member of the New York Drama Critics Circle in the organization's history.Nathan Award winners
arts.cornell.edu, retrieved January 26, 2010 In 1968,

Little, Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...

published his first book, ''A Theater Divided'', a study of post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

American

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

. The book won the highest honor in dramatic criticism, the

George Jean Nathan George Jean Nathan (February 14, 1882 – April 8, 1958) was an American drama critic and magazine editor. He worked closely with H. L. Mencken, bringing the literary magazine ''The Smart Set'' to prominence as an editor, and co-founding and ...

Award. In 1970 Putnam published ''Opening Nights'', a collection of his essays. By then, he had become a regular contributor to the Arts and Leisure section of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

Sunday edition.

Drama critic and educator

In 1974, he became the drama critic for the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

''. Four years later, he "Americanized" the West End

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwo ...

Bar Mitzvah Boy "Bar Mitzvah Boy" is the first episode of seventh season of the British BBC anthology TV series ''Play for Today''. The television play was originally broadcast on 14 September 1976. It was written by Jack Rosenthal, directed by Michael Tuchner ...

'' for an

production. In 1979, Gottfried began writing for the '' Saturday Review'', the same year Harry N. Abrams, Inc. published his ''Broadway Musicals''. In 1991, it was joined by a sequel, ''More Broadway Musicals''. and "In Person," a tribute to performing artists. Until recently the drama critic for the '' New York Law Journal'', Gottfried has conducted a series of "Conversations" at the

92nd Street Y 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a cultural and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the corner of East 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Founded in 1874 as the Young Men's Hebrew Association, the ...

as well as at the

New School of Social Research The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

and the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. Participants have included

Stephen Sondheim Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March 22, 1930November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. One of the most important figures in twentieth-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having "reinvented the American musical" with sho ...

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musical ...

Harold Prince Harold Smith Prince (born Harold Smith; January 30, 1928 – July 31, 2019), commonly known as Hal Prince, was an American theatre director and producer known for his work in musical theatre. One of the foremost figures in 20th century America ...

, Jane Alexander,

Christopher Walken Christopher Walken (born Ronald Walken; March 31, 1943) is an American actor. Prolific in film, television and on stage, Walken is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Awa ...

and

Richard Dreyfuss Richard Stephen Dreyfuss (; born Dreyfus; October 29, 1947) is an American actor. He is known for starring in popular films during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, including '' American Graffiti'' (1973), ''Jaws'' (1975), '' Close Encounters of the ...

. Gottfried also has been a contributor to ''

The New York Times Sunday Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...

'', ''

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'', the Yale Drama Review and ''

Condé Nast Traveler ''Condé Nast Traveler'' is a luxury and lifestyle travel magazine published by Condé Nast. The magazine has won 25 National Magazine Awards. The Condé Nast unit of Advance Publications purchased ''Signature'', a magazine for Diners Club mem ...

''. He also writes regular articles on the performing arts for ''Stagebill'', the program distributed in theaters and concert halls across America. He has been a guest professor of theater at the

Columbia University School of the Arts The Columbia University School of the Arts, (also known as School of the Arts or SoA) is the fine arts graduate school of Columbia University in Morningside Heights, New York. It offers Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees in Film, Visual Arts, T ...

, Carnegie-Mellon University,

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

and the Colorado College, as well as a Visiting Artist/Professor at the College of Santa Fe. He died of complications of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

at the age of 80 on March 6, 2014, in Manhattan. He was married to

Jane Lahr Jane Lahr (born 1943) is an American author, editor, and literary agent, the daughter of actor Bert Lahr, and sister of ''The New Yorker'' drama critic John Lahr. After studying art at The Slade School of Fine Art at University College Londo ...

, daughter of Bert Lahr and sister of John Lahr.

Author

Gottfried's writings include biographies of Sondheim, Arthur Miller, Jed Harris, Bob Fosse,

Danny Kaye Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; yi, דוד־דניאל קאַמינסקי; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, singer and dancer. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and ...

, George Burns, and

Angela Lansbury Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury (October 16, 1925 – October 11, 2022) was an Irish-British and American film, stage, and television actress. Her career spanned eight decades, much of it in the United States, and her work received a great deal ...

. His latest book, co-written with

Bill Condon William Condon (born October 22, 1955) is an American director and screenwriter. Condon is known for writing and/or directing numerous successful and acclaimed films including '' Gods and Monsters'', '' Chicago'', '' Kinsey'', ''Dreamgirls'', ...

and Cheo Coker, is '' Dreamgirls The Movie Musical'', published in April 2007. A review of ''Arthur Miller: His Life and Work'' called the book a "thorough and revealing biography".Evans, Everet
"The life of a playwright"
chron.com, January 2, 2004

References

External links

*

prenhall.com
Gottfried Biography
faber.co.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Gottfried, Martin American columnists American biographers American male biographers American male journalists American music critics American theater critics Columbia Law School alumni 2014 deaths 1933 births People from Brooklyn Journalists from New York City Historians from New York (state) Columbia College (New York) alumni Lahr family