Daryl Roth Producing With a Purpose

It WAS THE TABLE OF TONYS THAT CAUGHT MY EYE. I WAS SITTING IN DARYL ROTH’S OFFICE IN MIDTOWN Manhattan, a corner location with wrap-around glass windows and an enviable view of Central Park. There’s a small, gold-accented telescope in one corner. And next to Roth’s executive wood desk is a table with 12 Tony Awards lined up in neat symmetry. Not pictured: the seven Pulitzers gathered by plays after she produced them.

Given the accomplishments commemorated in that room, you might expect a towering, Miranda Priestly-like figure. But Roth is soft-spoken and genteel, the stark opposite of the manic high energy of playmakers à la The Producers. Her affability can almost make you forget that this is a person who has been called “one of the most powerful women in theatre” by no less than The New York Times, and who has an Off-Broadway theatre bearing her name (at which Gloria: A Life is playing through March 31). She’s so polite that she asked me if I needed anything to drink, though I was already holding a glass of water in my hand. And when I asked her how long we had to talk, she said, “As long as you need.”

But don’t let the pleasant demeanor fool you. Roth is acutely aware of a few stark realities: that she’s one of the few female producers on Broadway, that the work she chooses (by women, LGBT folks, and people of color) is not