Mr. Broadway, Memoir of the Late Gerald Schoenfeld, on Tap, With Foreword by Hugh Jackman

Theatergoers who pass the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on 45th Street will soon be able to read a memoir by the late Shubert Organization executive: Applause Books is set to publish Mr. Broadway: The Inside Story of the Shuberts, the Shows and the Stars in April 2012. Hugh Jackman has written a foreword for the book, which was completed a month before Schoenfeld’s death in 2008 at age 84.

Schoenfeld, who build the power and influence of the Shubert Organization alongside Bernard Jacobs (whose eponymous theater stands next to the one named for Schoenfeld) apparently pulls no punches in the memoir. According to a news release, the exec “recounts nightmarish tales of the Shuberts—the meanness of Lee, the madness of JJ, the turmoil surrounding John’s personal life and the drunken ineptitude of Lawrence Jr., the man who succeeded them and nearly brought the Shubert legacy to an ignominious end.”

Schoenfeld and Jacobs steered Broadway through times of economic hardship, helping to produce hits including A Chorus Line, Equus, Amadeus, Pippin, Les Misérables, Evita, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, Godspell, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Dreamgirls, Dancin’, Sunday in the Park with George, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Heidi Chronicles, The Gin Game, Miss Saigon and Chess.