Jim Barry, Longtime Usher at Broadway's St. James Theatre, Dies at 69

Jim Barry, a longtime usher at the St. James Theatre and a familiar face to many in the Broadway community, died on August 18. He was 69.

Tributes have poured in on social media. “The king,” wrote scenic designer David Zinn, who worked on the shows Frozen and Into the Woods at the St. James. “He always made a walk down 44th street feel like home, and always made me and, clearly, so many others feel welcome. Seeing him back outside the St. James after the shutdown was one of the happiest, most grounded moments of that unsteady reopening. A model for how to greet the world.”

“He was the best!” wrote actor Jimmy Smagula. “All of us @spamalotbway will miss him.”

Barry was born in Brooklyn on July 17, 1955. He began his career in banking, starting as a teller and eventually becoming a bank officer. In 2001, with the help of a customer who worked at Jujamcyn Theaters, he found a second job as an usher at the St. James. His first shift was during a dress rehearsal for The Producers. He left the bank in 2016.

Affectionately referring to his post—a door to the St. James on West 44th Street—as his “stoop,” Barry stood in as a symbol of Broadway’s resilience and hospitality in a New York Times article about the industry’s return after the pandemic. “No matter what happens, nothing can make me feel bad, because I’m back at my house, and the Boss is at my house,” he said in the article, referring to Springsteen on Broadway. “It’s where I want to be.”

“There’s that old adage—when you love what you do, you never work a day in your life,” Barry was also quoted as saying. “I am so lucky—I love to make people feel good about coming to our house.”

Barry is survived by his wife Maryann, sons James John Barry III and Jason Barry, sister Rosemary, and grandchildren Ava, Natalie and James.

"Jim had a unique way of making everyone at the St. James feel valued and appreciated," said Katie Nascenti, herself an usher at the St. James and the organizer of a GoFundMe page for the Barry family. "His positive energy and bright personality were contagious and he will be so deeply missed by everyone who knew him."