BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that Richard Foreman, playwright and founder of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, passed away in Manhattan on Saturday, January 4 at the age of 87. The cause of death was complications of pneumonia, Target Margin Theater Artistic Director and co-executor of Foreman’s literary estate David Herskovits confirmed to the New York Times.
Foreman began the Ontological-Hysteric Theater in 1968. His vast body of work includes plays Total Recall (1970), Dream Tantras for Western Massachusetts (1971), Vertical Mobility (1974), My Head Was a Sledgehammer (1979), Permanent Brain Damage (1996), Bad Boy Nietzche! (2000), King Cowboy Rufus Rules the Universe (2004), and Old-Fashioned Prostitutes (A True Romance) (2013) at The Public Theater. His latest play Suppose Beautiful Madeline Harvey was produced in December 2024 by Object Collection at La MaMa.
He received seven Obie Awards throughout his career, his first in 1970 for Elephant Steps, which he shared with composer Stanley Silverman. His other Obie Awards include wins for the Ontological-Hysteric Theater in 1973, his plays Rhoda in Potatoland in 1976, and The Cure and Film is Evil, Radio is Good in 1987. Additional awards include a MacArthur “Genius Grant” in 1995 at the age of 58 for his “original vision and commitment to developing new theatrical vocabularies,” and the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Master American Playwright Award in 2001.
As a director, his credits included Die Fledermaus at the Paris Opera, Don Giovanni at Opéra de Lille, Molière’s Don Juan at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, and Joseph Papp’s 1976 production of The Threepenny Opera at Lincoln Center, starring Raul Julia and Ellen Green.
He is survived by his wife, artist and actress Kate Manheim.
