Who

One-quarter of the blockbuster production team Richard Frankel Productions, Viertel has backed such Broadway hits as Hairspray and Angels in America. He's also the older brother of Jujamcyn creative director Jack Viertel.

Backstory

Viertel comes from a family well-versed in the theater biz—his grandfather built theaters like the Mark Hellinger (now the Times Square Church) and dabbled in show production, his father was a playwright, and his brother is Jack Viertel, the artistic director of Rocco Landesman's Jujamcyn Theaters. The Viertel family also knows a thing or two about real estate. Tom's great-grandfather founded a real estate management company in Westchester and subsequent generations of Viertels worked there full- or part-time, including Tom himself—he specialized in co-op conversions after briefly pursuing a career in TV news.

In 1985, after seeing Penn & Teller perform in LA, Viertel got together with his third cousin (and colleague at his real estate firm) Steven Baruch and cobbled together $175,000 to produce the magicians' Broadway run, teaming up with Richard Frankel, who owned the show's rights. The trio soon absorbed Marc Routh into their partnership, and they've since co-produced a long list of commercially viable (and occasionally critically hailed) shows.

Of note

RFP has had a hand in a slew of successes over the years, including Tony Kushner's Angels in America; Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Clair De Lune; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; the 1994 revival of Damn Yankees; long-running Smoky Joe's Café; Swing!; Little Shop of Horrors; The Producers with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick; Marc Shaiman's Hairspray; and the 2005 revival of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, as well as the more recent revival of Sondheim's Company at the Ethel Barry Theater. All in, Richard Frankel Productions has won 33 Tonys, 40 Drama Desk Awards, 20 Outer Critics Awards, four Grammys and two Pulitzer Prizes.

On the side

Viertel has continued to dabble in real estate; he's now the CFO of Presidential Realty Corporation. He's also the CEO of RFP side project Broadway Asia, which brings major shows to Chinese cities. (In 2006, the Chinese version of corny rom-com play I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change debuted in Shanghai.) He's also chairman of the non-profit Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Conn., an incubator for budding playwrights and composers.

Personal

Tom has two children from his marriage to his first wife, Joel Viertel and Jessica Swenson. He now lives on West 56th Street with his longtime companion Patricia Daily, who runs RFP's group sales division.