Once known primarily as a prolific producer of both stage and screen, Rudin is perhaps now better remembered for his bullying behavior and toxic treatment of direct reports, which at one point got so bad that it inspired an entire anti-Rudin march on Broadway. Rudin’s propensity to scream obscenities and hurl things at people who dared to disagree with him—an open secret in entertainment circles—went wide after a 2021 exposé about his actions in The Hollywood Reporter. He’s laid low in Long Island ever since, but now, Rudin is plotting his return.
In a new interview with The New York Times, Rudin shared that he has over a dozen Broadway shows currently in development, many of them starring Laurie Metcalf and directed by Joe Mantello. (“I think Laurie is the greatest actress in America,” Rudin told NYT.) First up is Little Bear Bridge Road, which will star Metcalf and be helmed by Mantello, set to premiere in New York this fall. Then the team will take on Montauk in the spring and Death Of A Salesman, co-starring Nathan Lane, next year. Other productions in the hopper include Cottonfield, directed by Robert O’Hara, and Wallace Shawn’s What We Did Before Our Moth Days, directed by Shawn’s My Dinner With André co-star, André Gregory.
Rudin does seem to be saying all the right things. The producer’s time on Long Island has included “a decent amount of therapy,” he told the outlet, as well as multiple apologies. “I was just too rough on people,” he reflected, calling his behavior towards subordinates “bone-headed” and “narcissistic.” He also acknowledged that he had both yelled at assistants (“Yes, of course,” he said) and that he had occasionally thrown things at people (“Very, very rarely”). Rudin apparently has “a lot more self-control than I had four years ago,” and the break helped him learn that “I don’t matter that much, and I think that’s very healthy.”
As for why he’s sticking with Broadway for now, the producer answered: “I want to see what it feels like. I want, frankly, to make sure I’m still good at it, and I want to make sure that I’m not going to be killed by a sniper’s bullet on 45th Street.”
