Claire Joseph Nichtern (1920-1994) was an American producer of Broadway and Off-Broadway plays and musicals in the second half of the twentieth century. Nichtern was born in New York City to Fred Joseph and Rebecca Brumer Joseph. The family moved to New Jersey when Nichtern was a child and she returned to New York City shortly after her graduation from Union High School in 1936. Nichtern held various administrative positions before marrying Sol Nichtern, with whom she had two children, David and Judith. In addition to her role as a mother, Nichtern assisted her husband in the management of his pediatrician practice.
In 1954, Nichtern attended New York University where she took an aptitude test that revealed she was ideally suited to work in theater. Buoyed by these results, Nichtern left school to work as a switchboard operator at the Phoenix Theater. She sat in on castings and rehearsals, and was soon promoted to casting director, a position she held until 1958, when she left the Phoenix to assist the general manager at the Playwrights Company. The following year she returned to the Phoenix as production coordinator. In 1961, Nichtern began producing her own plays, under Claire Nichtern Productions. Her first production was the musical The Banker's Daughter . Though the production was not a financial success, it was well received and cemented Nichtern's love of theater production. The next year, she produced a double bill of one-act plays from emerging playwright Murray Schisgal, The Typists and The Tiger, starring Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson. This billing was both a critical and financial success, and began her longstanding professional working relationships with Schisgal, Jackson, and Wallach. Throughout her career, Nichtern would option and produce three more Schisgal plays including Jimmy Shine (1968-1969), Luv (1964-1967), and Twice Around the Park (1982-1983). Luv, directed by Mike Nicols, and starring Wallach, Jackson, and Alan Arkin, ran for three years and garnered a 1965 Tony Award nomination for Best Play and Tony Award for Best Producer of a Play.
Throughout the 1970s, Nichtern worked in various capacities for theatrical companies and organizations around New York City. She was a producer in residence and director of admissions at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts from 1970 to 1973, associate director at Circle-in-the-Square in 1973, a production consultant for the ETC Theatre Company in 1974, director of creative affairs at both Warner/Regency and the William Morris Agency from 1978 to 1979, before landing the position of president of Warner Theatre Productions, a position she held until her retirement in 1985. While at Warner Theatre Productions, she produced over thirty plays include Fifth of July, Pump Boys and Dinettes, and Crimes of the Heart, which won a Pulizer Prize for playwright Beth Henley.
Nichtern had divorced Sol Nichtern in 1966, and was for a short time was married to Herbert Kallem. In addition to her Tony Award, Nichtern recieved six other Tony nominations, four Drama Desk nominations, and was a three-time recipient of Antoinette Perry awards for production. Nichtern died in New York City in 1987.
From the guide to the Claire Nichtern papers, 1959-1987, (The New York Public Library. Billy Rose Theatre Division.)
